I want a good war...

There is nothing like the threat of being shot in the head, for reassurance. And whether or not the threat of that has befallen you, and I hope not, on the world’s stage there seems to be something of a trend of conflict resolution and a supremacy of liberal ideals. The conflict in northern Ireland seems at an end, there is continued progress of the democracy in South Africa, and the death of Osama Bin Laden signally a deep-if-not-fatal blow to the war on the faceless enemy of terrorism. Yes, terrorism and not ‘terror’. Only Lynn Truss can be said to wage war on a verb.

A successful state visit of H.M. the Queen to Ireland seems a bit of an obvious thing now, or at least one that should attract little drama. However, thirty or even twenty years ago, when those claiming to be the IRA were still bombing parts of England, a state visit was unthinkable. However, successive governments have made a real effort to resolve the seemingly unresolvable conflict and so despite Oliver Cromwell’s manifest incompetence, the situation is measurably on the mend. With 20-20 hindsight it is not hard to see why – no one wants to feel they are in conflict, not really. It is too much effort and affords too much waste to be sustainable. There is every likelihood that such conflict is an adaptation to mitigate population growth, much good that has done up against our survival instincts.

The change in the democracy in South Africa is perhaps less easy to see. Certainly, in the recent political activity there politicians have been quoted saying that the focus should be on the issues. Impressive stuff for a country with a democracy less than twenty years old and one in a continent riddled with tribal conflict. Perhaps states in north Africa will also adopt this tack in the future, once their democracies are established.

The faceless war on terrorism is perhaps harder to measure, but the apparent focus by intelligence services on it and lack of activity in the western world since 2005 suggests that that this too is losing its sting. We cannot tell what sort of cover-up, if any, there is by Islamic or any other fundamentalists. However, if all the said extremists blow themselves up, there will not be any left to hurt us or the religion they claim to represent anyway.

This gives us a peculiar quiet though. Throughout my childhood there was endless conflict – middle east, former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, you name it. Of course not everywhere is stable and safe – it is not really safe until Margaret Beckett goes there on a caravanning holiday if you ask me – but at least for the minute we have relative calm. Let us enjoy it while we can.