I hate to be a pessimistic... but there always has been violence in this world. The cold war was a far worse time to live in (though there was not active wars, there was plenty of wars all over the world). The two years we should not forget are 1993 and 1994. Those were some of the most violent years of our time (when huge massacres occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi and neighboring countries).
You are right, there has always been violence in the world and plenty of wars. Being older now, I am much more in tune with the prevalence of global instability. In the mid-nineties, I was only interested if my hair and makeup looked all right. I now have to back track to understand all of the damage that has incurred in past years. Many (most) of these wars are/were bred from hatred spanning hundreds to thousands of years. It is that deep-seated hatred that I cannot understand. I doubt that I ever will. My optimism is that we can find a way to break the cycle of abhorrence. But until we can understand each other’s POV without preconceived notions and without guns, we will never know peace. My frustration is that we, US Americans (or more specifically, the Bush administration), choose not to even engage in diplomacy. You can say I am an idealist, and there is truth to that. However, I am not convinced that the current Iraqi crisis and its regional ramifications would even be happening if we, the USA, would have attempted diplomacy instead of a rush to violence.