John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said with great passion in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, “Enough is enough.” The context was Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on towns in northern Israel. I would add, enough – enough of war in so many places among the nations of the world: enough Iran and Hezbollah, Israel and Hamas; enough Sudan and Ukraine; enough Myanmar, Ethiopia, and Haiti; Enough Armenia – Azerbaijan.

The International Crisis Group reports “2024 (began) with wars burning … and peacemaking in crisis. Worldwide, diplomatic efforts to end fighting are failing. More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it.”

For example, in Gaza, videos circulating on social media and verified by The New York Times show gruesome scenes at a school compound in northern Gaza, after recently being bombed. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas operation in the school. Officials in Gaza said the strike had killed 15 people. People can be seen carrying body parts and badly injured children in some of the videos, while groups of all ages can be seen and heard weeping and screaming inside the compound.

Israel blames Hamas for using civilians as human shields. Israel defends the right to assure its security by eliminating Hamas. This description, by only changing the names of the warring parties, can easily be transplanted to the wars in Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Armenia – Azerbaijan.

However, in opposition to this epidemic of self-righteous wars, some leaders are resisting the temptation to forsake diplomatic discourse and replace it with unending military actions. For a few leaders, it is no longer a sign of strength to be complicit with the horrors and brutality of wars. For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and some colleagues have introduced a Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block the sale of more than $20 billion in offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel.

He stated on the Senate floor, “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged all-out war against the Palestinian people, killing more than 41,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 95,000 – 60 percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people… The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity.”

According to the International Crisis Group, “The problem … lies in global politics. In a moment of flux, constraints on the use of force – even for conquest and ethnic cleansing – are crumbling… In 2024, the risk that leaders move beyond quashing dissent at home or meddling abroad through proxies to actually invading neighbors is graver than it has been in years.”

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“Hope for the best, in other words, but peacemaking today is mostly about stopping the worst.”

In the early twentieth century the first World War was designated “the war to end all wars.” However, twenty-four years into the 21st Century, wars still breed more wars with no end in sight. Sen. Sanders, with his introduction of the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, is making an effort to stop the United States from being complicit in one of the worst of the current wars. However, it is unlikely that the resolution will pass, legislators being reluctant to withhold $20 billion worth of military aid to friend Israel.

What it may do, though, is plant one stepping stone in the quagmire of a world-wide culture of preference for violence. It may keep the conversation going until human beings are able to awaken their latent peacesense with the skill to solve disputes, instead of perpetuating wars that will ultimately lead to the end of humanity.

Another effort to awaken peacesense is the international Geneva Academy. “Today, (the Geneva Academy) monitors more than 110 armed conflicts and provides information about parties, the latest developments, and applicable international law.”

Olivier Chamard, writing for the academy, explains its efforts “to confront war and protect international humanitarian law and human rights in governments, NGOs, international organizations and academic institutions.” She continues, “Our scientific research focuses on strengthening human rights protection … and international human rights law. In these areas, the Geneva Academy makes a specific contribution to policy development and debate, in government and among scholars and practitioners… We actively participate in global discussions on International Humanitarian Law, human rights, international criminal law and transitional justice.”

Our hope for peace may depend upon organizations like the international Geneva Academy and the International Crisis Group. However, there is at least one way we all can contribute to ending failed attempts to use war to make peace. We must use our ability to imagine and accept the horror behind the numbers and statistics we hear each day. War is not like a game on a computer that one can reset and play again.

We must let it sink into our awareness that thousands of real people are killed, twice as many people injured. We must imagine viscerally the experience of families destroyed, real famine, epidemics, homelessness, children deprived of education, infrastructure destroyed. Letting in this intolerable awareness may be enough to spark the human spirit to demand to the leaders of the world, “enough.”