Peacekeepers (1988) (38 page)

"Ladies and gentlemen, I did not mean to intrude on your exercise, but I could not resist the temptation of joining you here, at this special place. You are the first class to be graduated from the Peacekeeping Academy. The future safety of the world and all its people will be in your young, strong hands—a heavy responsibility, I know. In my own lifetime I have carried a share of that responsibility. I gladly pass the burden on to you."

He glanced at their young faces, the variations in skin tone, in eye and hair color, in shape and bone structure. He saw the flags that each cadet wore on his or her shoulder.

"As Peacekeepers you have only one goal: to protect the peace. No matter what race or nationality you may be, no matter your religion or your politics, your task as a Peacekeeper is to do whatever must be done to preserve and protect world peace. Whatever must be done."

Red Eagle seemed to look past them for a brief moment, toward the crater. Was he seeing Alexander's face smiling sardonically at him?

He returned his attention to the young cadets grouped before him.

"You have come from many different nations, from many different parts of this globe. I ask you now, each and all of you, to stop thinking of yourselves as Koreans, or Brazilians, or Poles, or Ugandans. I ask you to think of yourselves as human beings, as members of the great family of humankind, as Peacekeepers dedicated to protecting our world and our people—all of them. Each of them."

"The age of nationalism has passed. Nations still exist, I know, as they will continue to exist for many generations to come. But the idea of nationalism is fading. Inside many nations, local ethnic or religious or geographic minorities want autonomy. And modem technology is erasing the very meaning of national borders. The world's economy is an integrated, global interrelationship. The vast funds once spent on armaments are beginning to help the less developed nations to feed and educate and house their poor. We are expanding into space, and bringing new treasures of knowledge and energy to Earth."

"We are a global family. We will grow and thrive—if we can remain at peace with one another. Yours is the task of preserving and protecting the peace. You must make certain that the devastation that took place on this mountaintop is never repeated—never—anywhere in the world."

Red Eagle raised both arms and gestured toward the barren crater. The cadets slowly turned and gazed at it with new eyes.

"Think of this lifeless devastation as the site of your home, your village or town or city. That is your responsibility: to make certain that such inhuman destruction will not take the lives of those you hold dearest."

I could feel the emotional response from the cadets. Red Eagle was electrifying them, like a shaman of old preparing his clan for battle.

"I ask you once again, therefore, to stop thinking of yourselves as representatives of a single nation and begin to look upon yourselves as members of the great and unified human race."

There was a long moment of utter silence. Not even the breeze made a sound. Then one of the women cadets reached up to the flag of her shoulder patch and tugged at one comer of it. It yielded slowly, reluctantly; it had been firmly sewn into place. But with determination that gritted her teeth, she ripped it free.

One by one, and then all of them together, the cadets removed the emblems of their nations until the entire class of them wore nothing but their identifications as Peacekeepers.

REFLECTIONS, —Year 12

THE last nuclear weapons on Earth were destroyed earlier this year. The Peacekeepers have established close ties with the world's scientific organizations and we keep particularly careful eyes on any work that might lead to weapons of mass destruction—nuclear, chemical, or biological. The system is far from foolproof, but it seems to be working.

The scourge of war is receding into history, like other diseases that have been conquered by advancing knowledge and social consciousness.

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