How do we achieve "peace"?

Okay, so it's one of those times of the year where I do a little thinking.  A rare occasion, so don't get used to it.  But I've had this "idea" rolling around in my head for a while and I want to get it out there for some comment.

I was raised in a world where "peace" meant, essentially, "aloha," "shalom."  It was used as a greeting or a farewell.  It was used as a term to tell another that they needed to "chill" or calm down.  But lately, I've begun to think of "peace" in more classic terms - an absence of hostilities.  So that is the context I'd like to couch my thoughts in - not love, or harmony, or anything along those lines.  Just simply, an absence of hostility.

So, in my black-and-white world, I see to avenues to peace - at any cost or by any means.

"At any cost" means that no action, no sacrifice, no loss is so great that hostility will be allow to happen.

"By any means" means that no action, no sacrifice, no loss is so great that hostility will be allowed to continue.

My concern is that we, as a nation, have fallen prey to those who would have us in the "at any cost" position.  Now, I'm not saying that we need to be the "world's policeman" nor the bully of the world, with the "by any means" position.  And maybe that's the thing that's causing me to be unsettled - we ARE involved in a lot of hostility that isn't our concern.  We are "policing" and/or "bullying" a lot of the world.  Or are we?  But I'm not going to get into that discussion here, today.  It'll be a good one for another day.  Possibly over coffee with someone, rather than here.  Who knows?

But, what I'm intending here is that I get some feedback - hopefully some different perspectives - on my premise of how "peace" is attained.

I grew up with (and still embrace, in many areas) the attitude of "Is it really worth fighting over?"  Generally, the answer is "No."  So, I let it slide.  But, in the past couple of decades, I've come to the mindset of "Well, maybe." on a number of issues.  And have an attitude that I do find some things worth defending, worth fighting for, worth dying for.  No, it's not the punk kid who scratched the paint on my truck or the jerk who cut me off in traffic.  Sometimes, I even think the people who hurt my family aren't worth fighting over.  Because sometimes, more often than not, there's a lesson to be learned that's more valuable than an offense to be "righted."