Tensions in the ongoing unpleasantnesses between India and Pakistan in Asia, and between Israel and Syria in the Middle East, have not lessened, despite a rash of news stories promising major breakthroughs. Indeed, the usual group of unnamed sources are now muttering darkly about an increase in violence. Israel is at peace with Egypt because Anwar Sadat lost the Yom Kippur War and decided to come to terms with Israel. Jordan, Egypt's ally, followed suit a generation later. In all these cases, as in hundreds of earlier ones, war produced a winner and a loser, and peace was imposed by the one on the other.
Inconclusive wars produce uneasy peace or no peace at all, as in Kosovo and Iraq.
Having failed to destroy the belligerent regimes in Belgrade and Baghdad, we're unable to get a satisfactory peace and the threat of further violence continues unabated. It is hard for peace-loving Americans to swallow this bitter pill, because we have very limited experience with vicious countries trying to destroy us. We have Mexicans and Canadians on our borders, not Syrians or Russians, and, with the exception of Pearl Harbor, we've been protected from foreign aggressors by two big oceans. Finally, we seem not to want to recognize that there are times when serious leaders see that peace is more dangerous than war. That is the real explanation for Assad's refusal to make peace with Israel.