Editorial: Mass killing, violence and destruction won’t lead us to lasting peace

Exhausted and broken, there was fleeting recognition that nothing was worth the suffering.

Out of the carnage came a consensus that peace is the only adequate war memorial.

But as Theodore Roosevelt said: “Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.” The grand designs were unable to keep out the darkness. As tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we would do well to recall the sacrifices of all who fought and died.

Omar N Bradley, the first chairman of the joint chief of staffs and veteran of World War II summed up the extreme danger of power without conscience, warning: “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”

The tragedy is that no amount of death and destruction appears to be enough to convince us of the futility of mass killing as a means to achieve peace.

In Gaza and Ukraine civilians are dying in the thousands. There is a nascent chance that an Israeli proposal to Hamas reflecting the positions stated by US president Joe Biden could bring a breakthrough.

Any such ceasefire would place Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads that could shape his legacy. The offer calls for a ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The deal has the potential to provide a roadmap for a permanent ceasefire. Mr Netanyahu’s biggest coalition partner is supportive of a prospective deal. “Our position is that there is nothing greater than the value of life and the commandment to redeem captives, because their lives face a real and present danger,” Yitzhak Goldknopf said. If Mr Netanyahu is at something of a crossroads, so too is president Biden.

With over 36,000 Palestinians believed dead, there is a massive onus on the world’s most powerful leader to stop the killing. If his appeals are once again rebuffed, he has no alternative but to stop supplying the US weapons on which Mr Netanyahu depends. His reticence to do so has already alienated key voting blocs vital to his re-election.

As former British prime minister David Lloyd George said: “The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon.”

Risks are also growing in Ukraine. Once recognised red lines around Western military support for Ukraine are fading. President Biden’s reversal in allowing Kyiv to use US weapons to strike targets just inside Russian territory – under tight restrictions – is the latest example. But the limits on escalation had to be lifted to protect Ukraine’s survival.

Tomorrow western leaders will gather In Normandy to commemorate the D-Day landings. As is so often repeated, and sadly just as soon forgotten, if we do not end war, war will end us.