While the Middle East tries to resolve conflict with rockets, Liepāja museum offers lessons from history

The Middle East is once again demonstrating how not to resolve disagreements, while in Liepāja we know that history is the best teacher. While Israel and Iran exchange rockets like Christmas greetings, people in our city head to the Liepāja Museum, where they can learn how conflicts ended through dialogue, not explosions in the sky.

It turns out that the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28th, and now everyone wonders why Iran responded with rockets. At the Liepāja Museum, history - which is actually interesting - tells us about similar cases where someone started a conflict and then wondered about the consequences. Local guide Aldis Krastiņš comments: "Look, young man, I've been telling stories about wars here for 20 years, and they all end the same way - at the negotiating table. They could start there right away."

While Beirut residents flee from air strikes, in Liepāja we're proud that our biggest explosion this year was when a water pipe burst on Grobiņa road. And even then nobody thought of throwing rockets - they just called the emergency service.

In the Middle East, nearly 300 people have already lost their lives in this conflict, but in Riga they're still debating whether trams are better than buses. In Liepāja we've long known the answer - the best transport is the one that runs, and the best conflict is the one that doesn't end with explosions.