Tonight I had a dream ... I was back to school. We were given a task to write an essay about anything we want. I always had a problem to come up with the ideas for my assignments or articles or news stories in real life, and used to ask Alex to brainstorm with me. But not this time... There was no Alex in this dream :)
The topic came up to my mind just two hours before handing in the actual assignment. I wrote about wars!
To my amazement I still could remember the idea of my essay in the morning. That's the reason why I decided to write about it now. Here it is...
Civil war in Afghanistan which is taking place from 1978 brought 2,000,000 casualties; Gulf War 1990-1991 - 20, 000 to 35,000 losses; Iraq war in 2003 – about 1,300,000 casualties; ongoing Civil war in Chad; 2006 Lebanon war with its 1,300 dead; 2006-2009 war in Somalia with about 8,000 dead; invasion into Gaza 2008-2009 with its 1,400 casualties...And many, many others.......
The horror of war affects young and old, it kills parents and it leaves orphans screaming in the night, covered in their parents’ blood and it also leaves scars on soldiers who have to kill innocents.
However, some people just feel stretched and full in a war and some always benefit from it. Wars are always profitable; they bring money to the richest of this world. They inspire the artists and journalists. Yes, for sure, media and artists do a great job to show people what’s actually going on around, the horror of wars, its consequences, hidden motives and its effect on human life. But it is also true to say that they are driven to this path to satisfy their ego. At the end of the day covering the wars bring them glory and money.
Many painters, artists, film makers, photographers and journalists devote themselves to the subject of war, covering the death of civilians, kids and mothers, hanger and sufferings, cruelty and injustice. It is hard to watch images of war, but it is much harder to be a part of it, to live it every day.
International organisations like UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International regularly campaign against wars, poverty, and violence.
But does the world without wars is actually possible and wanted?
Some wars are necessary, vital, and unavoidable and at the same time seductive. They must be, or humans would not make war, fear war, enjoy it and even love to some extent.It can be sickening, exciting and terrifying at the same time. It brings out the best in people, and the worst, and it can do it all at the same day.
For foreign reporters covering the wars to have a good day means someone else have to have a bad day or at least the last day of their lives, when the people they loved were killed, when their lives were so smashed by war that they would want to die too.
Yes, there probably wouldn’t be any wars like the First or the Second World War in the same way it occurred in the past. And it is not because people became wiser or because we have the UN to prevent anything like that. The only difference is that new wars would be much more dangerous and consequences are irreversible.
Comments
Rwanda genocide with 500000-1000000 dead,and Sri Lanka conflict with ~100000 dead.
I like Zizek and Chomskiy position on this issue.They say that violent resistance of certain groups of population to democratic/capitalist system of now days west is not much of a thread to our way of life.In a contrary its a direct product of our way of life.