by Ben Bova
Would all this have happened without Red Eagle? Would it have happened without Hazard or Cole Alexander's dogged hunt for Jabal Shamar? Yes, I believe it would have, sooner or later. Perhaps it would have taken another nuclear war. Perhaps hundreds of millions would have had to perish before the nations accepted the fact that war had to be stopped altogether. There are no inevitabilities to history. There are no indispensable men.
But it happened the way I have told it. The world's attention has shifted away from the problems of war, now that the Peacekeepers have proved that war can be stopped.
The irony is that the stronger the Peacekeepers become, the less likely they are to be needed.
The problems facing the world today are the ancient enemies of humanity: poverty, hunger and ignorance. And at least one fairly new one: narcotics. Alexander was right in the sense that the narcotics trade is a global problem that cannot be solved by individual nations. The Peacekeepers are helping to orchestrate a global solution—while naysayers point trembling fingers and warn that the IPF is turning into a world dictatorship.
But that's another story. Perhaps someday I will write it, too. For now, I must start the official history of the International Peacekeeping Force. It will be factual, enormously detailed, and quite dull. But once it is finished I can turn to the real stories of the men and women who work to make a reality of the prophecy of Isaiah, the motto of the International Peacekeeping Force:
Nation Shall Not Lift Up Sword Against Nation
