John F. Kennedy once said that "Mankind must end war before war ends mankind." These words were spoken years after two world wars had destroyed our precious planet and millions upon millions of human beings had lost their lives. Decades later, have we learned our lesson? No. In the 21st century, with the extremely valuable knowledge and hindsight we now possess, why is war still seen as a reasonable solution to divergent opinions and disagreements over religion, political viewpoints, and social norms? It seems clear to me that alternative solutions to war must be found and therefore I firmly believe that Britain should not be involved in foreign conflicts. First, Britain is simply not a major world power. Not only are we an island, and therefore by definition capable of being attacked from literally any angle, but we are a small island, and there are other countries much larger than ours, such as Russia and China, that should be encouraged to help out where we can't. Despite the fact that Britain spends the fourth largest amount of money in the world on military matters, every year the US spends 10 times the amount we do, and would be much more effective in helping to bring peace to the troubled area, if they entered foreign war zones. Secondly, Britain cannot afford another war. In the last two major conflicts in which Britain was involved, Iraq and Afghanistan, it is estimated that over £20 billion was spent. The thought of even a tenth of this already absurd amount of money being spent on another war is completely ridiculous, when it could be put to much better use by investing it in Britain itself and the British people. Too much has been spent on sending men to other countries with... half of paper... and by its nature quite risky and challenging: it would be extremely difficult to coordinate and organize such a mass arsenal without the risk of it getting out of control. Furthermore, if things don't go according to plan, even more conflicts could erupt in the streets and in the towns and cities, and then we could easily end up with a bigger mess to clean up than we started with. In conclusion, Britain should learn from the mistakes of the past and accept that getting involved in a foreign conflict is rarely the best solution to diplomatic problems. We are not a major world power, we have no money to spend, and we simply cannot afford to lose any more of our men in a conflict in the Middle East. If we do not stop engaging in wars and conflicts, the “end of humanity” that John F. Kennedy once spoke of may become more of a reality than we expected.