Pope calls for peace. Not much hope of that

The Pope, past ones and the present one, always calls for peace at Easter. It's right and proper and expected. But no one ever listens. Just look around the world. Russia's war in Ukraine is carrying on regardless with thousands being killed every week, Israel and Palestinians are at it again, Iran is spoiling for war like never before, and China is carrying out provocative and hostile military exercises around Taiwan to remind the breakaway republic that the might of the PLA is just waiting to smash them all to smithereens. At least the ceasefire in Yemen is holding but for how much longer? Meanwhile, the dark side of the world where terrorists, Islamic insurgents/militia and generally hateful and hating groups lurk and kill - al-Qaeda, Isis, al-Shabaab to name just three - are still around despite every attempt by the United States to remove them from this Earth. There is peace in a Sussex meadow or a hilltop in Montana or in a hammock overlooking a bay in Thailand or under a beach umbrella in the Maldives but in so many parts of this globe there is fighting and death and suffering and malnutrition and thirst and misery. Sorry, Pope.