A hundred years ago this week, over 1,000 female peace activists gathered from around the world to call for an end to war. The extraordinary meeting, known as the International Congress of Women, took place as World War I raged across the globe and marked the formation of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. It was organised by Dutch suffragist Dr Aletta Jacobs. The event took place in the Netherlands because of its neutral position during World War I. Two future Nobel Peace Prize winners took part in the US delegation: Jane Addams, the cofounder of Hull House and the sociologist Emily Greene Balch. Another veteran, former US defence secretary Chuck Hagel, who served in Vietnam, said, 'It is interesting to me that many of those who want to rush this country into war and think it would be so quick and easy don't know anything about war,' he said. "They come at it from an intellectual perspective vs having sat in jungles or foxholes and watched their friends get their heads blown off.'

Politicians start wars. War is a distraction.

Ted Rudow III, MA Palo Alto, CA, USA