The world is a dangerous place. This is nothing new in our history. We have seen tumultuous times before. The hot spots are numerous with the Ukraine, Iran, and various places in the Middle East grabbing our attention. Africa has its places of conflict as well.

It is only human to want immediate solutions and peace. Americans are particularly impatient in wanting answers and solutions. For the world community of nations it might be a time to look at things in a realistic way. It is time for all of us to recognize that we should have limited expectations.

There are those who seek war. But let us look for ways to solve our problems as best as we can. Russia for example has an ambitious and perhaps paranoid leader who seeks an expansion of their country through the overrunning of the Crimea and the Ukraine.

With Russia being a nuclear power the world is limited in what they can accomplish in meeting the challenges of Russia’s attempts to expand. We have limited options in dealing with the Russian threat to peace.

In the diplomatic tool bag that the world has in dealing with aggression economic sanctions are part of that tool bag. In efforts to reign in aggressive nations, sanctions lead the list. Sanctions hurt and they do hurt the lives of innocent civilians but there is little that one can do short of war to put a crimp into a rogue state’s ambitions for added territory and resources.

In Russia’s case the world glut of oil is making Putin’s aggression expensive. The cost of war are more than the cost of lives which are the most precious but it costs a country valuable resources, especially money. War is not an inexpensive enterprise.

There are those who would seek to have a war with Iran. Let’s give diplomacy a chance. Talk and negotiation are much preferred to the pain and agony of war. It is much easier to start a war than to stop one. It is to the world’s interest to see that Iran has a nuclear program designed for the peaceful purpose of having and using nuclear energy. The world is too dangerous to have more nations obtain nuclear capability for war usage. The more countries that you have with nuclear war capability the higher the mathematical chance is that you will have a leader of a country who will use nuclear weapons. The world would be the loser if the use of nuclear weapons took place.

Lately we have seen a resurgence of diplomacy as an option to be used to realistically end the prospect of war. The use of diplomacy is long overdue. War needs to be the final option not the first. Let us give peace a chance.

The Middle East is at the center of the world’s fears as the cauldron of hate, revenge and the prospect of a religious war exists. We as a world community face it’s greatest challenge to a world of peace in a region where violence has too frequently been a fact of life.

The world has limited options when a group of radicals refuses peace. ISIL chooses war and the use of barbarism in it’s efforts to establish a state.

Every religion and especially the Muslim faith needs to repudiate the acts of ISIL. A coordinated effort by countries of the region needs to take place to put an end to the crisis that is ISIS. Sometimes war is the only answer when your stated opponent only has the use of force in their arsenal. ISIS does not offer the world peace but rather it only offers us all a world of death and destruction. What is particularly onerous is the fact that civilians are the primary target of ISIS. Murder is what ISIS is about. We as a world community of nations must put an end to the criminal enterprises of ISIS before the winds of war spread further in the region and in the world.

The lesson in all of the dangers that exist today is that our options are realistically limited if we are to maintain and achieve peace. The horrors of war are what we face today and we all know that war only offers us death and suffering. Let us do what we can and not have our expectations be overly optimistic. We can only do what is possible.