Keeper of Peace, Wager of War...

"Jedi do not fight for peace; that is a slogan and is misleading as slogans naturally are. Jedi fight for civilization, as civilization creates peace." - Mace Windu, Star Wars©: Shatterpoint™

In the Jedi as they stand today, the idea of martial training is a seldom-followed one. The drive of a person who is meant to keep the peace to learn to wage combat is a perplexing one. For that reason, I have gone against my nature, and posted a great quote from one of the Star Wars novels. In this line, it shows that one must know the opposite of peace, ie war, in order to know how to maintain peace.

Peace is a fickle thing, and a highly-subjective idea. What is peace to one, may just be a lull in aggressions to another. True peace is a destructive and damning idea for all things. With total peace comes complacency, and stagnation.

The Jedi are taught to know that combat is a part of life. There are many these days to that do not see it as such, but the truth is rarely an easily-accepted thing once it has been forgotten. The Jedi are made of predominantly Knights for a reason. Knights fight to preserve peace, honor, and the ideals they hold within themselves. For that, a Jedi must know how to do combat, in the interests of keeping the peace. Peace is not something that will ever be a permanent thing, which is why there are those who can and will strive to undo it... and among those people, some will succeed. Chaos is easy to destroy, where as peace and balace are that which are the hardest things to maintain for any length of time.

So, young Jedi. Train hard, and train often, for the war you wage is the path to the peace you bring.