Sparks: Middle East war live: US, Iran warn ready for war as talks in limbo

The democratic republic, so proud of its popular will, now finds its immense power wielded by a single executive who professes a desire for peace while his institutions prepare for war.

Why do the millions who will bear the cost of this conflict continue to grant the authority for it to the very few who will not?

You are told to fear a distant power while your own government abandons the simple, human work of diplomacy for the costly theatre of arms.

From this desk, I draft warnings about the ruin that follows when men mistake the rattle of sabers for the voice of reason.

Another iron house is being sealed, and the sleepers inside are rehearsing the same ancient curses their grandfathers knew.

A nation's true character is revealed not in its proclamations of strength but in its patient, often invisible, cultivation of peace.

Between the infinite cost of war and the finite gain of a negotiation, the geometry of the wager is terrifyingly clear.

Holding a lit lamp to the faces of those who speak of 'readiness,' I find only the same old fear masquerading as courage.

To understand the true cost of these threats, one must walk not the halls of power but the dusty roads where refugees gather.

This feverish posture of nations is a sickness of imbalance, a rupture in the cosmic harmony that demands healing, not more fire.

Ain't I the one who has borne twelve children and seen them sold, yet these men talk of war as if children will not be its first orphans?

The axioms of power are being asserted without proof, while the demonstrable theorem of mutual destruction is ignored by the shouting factions.

An ounce of patient diplomacy is presently worth a pound of threatened cannon fire, a fact any tradesman could calculate.

From the Maghreb to the Indus, I have seen empires crumble when their caravans of dialogue are replaced by caravans of siege engines.

Hateful things: the sound of men discussing the elegance of war strategies while the ink on the peace accord is still wet.