War and Peace

"What have we done to deserve this?" Quote by civillian father, 14 May 2021, whose home in a building was destroyed by superior rockets shot at residential neighbourhood. This man's wife and several children all died in the ensuing carnage. Instincts of human beings, especially with political power, military capability, financial excess and cultural imperatives, have organised strong structured governments which still readily wage destruction and death on fellow beings who belong "to the other side". All the accumulation of knowledge, technology, philosophy, religion and grief in human history has not deterred the uncivillised habit of killing in the name of defence, freedom, conquest, civilisation and more. Increasingly the names and labels quoted and utilised by intolerant and aggressive political leaders to justify war and conflict bear no resemblence to the real and underlying causative reasons. War breaks out because the leaders we have emphasise more on strive, differences and an inability to reconcile. When you are an astronaut and look back at Earth from the darkness of space, all human beings and their affairs seem so small and fragile. And yet when wars are waged, they are killing each other. This rather basic and vile need and act to kill fellow human beings is an insult to the otherwise good progress of Homo Sapiens, who started killing for food - and now continue to kill each other for essentially tribal dominance, economic competition, financial gains from selling arms and misplaced perceived need to be on the top of the hierarchy. When religion is invoked as the rationale to go to war, it becomes more complex. Perhaps religion is misused to rouse the rabble, increase passions and make individuals willingly sacrifice themselves. For war to break out, compromise, communication and negotiation have already been thrown out the window, like the proverbial bath with the baby inside. Political leaders we get stuck with, through elections and whatever means in different societies, have gone radical, form alliances and pyschologically prepare their populace for the war. They deemphasise shared common values between opponents in a conflict - and can weave untruths to prop up the spirit of troops and civillians they will use as the price of war. It is always the older generation who send the younger generation to their demise. Veterans of the last world wide war, in their old age, still mutter " What was all the death and destruction for?". These aging survivors of horror and pain are convinced war is totally meaningless for the foot soldier and civillian. Yet, in the 21st century, threats of war rattling and beating of drums of conflict continue to be heard. Perhaps the damage in future wars can be less of human deaths, but more disabling of supply, energy and cyberspace networks. ICBMs, oh it sounds so 1970s, can now be supplemented by biological warfare - but in the end, it is the score of mass numbers of fatalties of human beings that are key indicators for the eventual victor. Maybe like the effects of a bush fire, human kind needs to be routed in order to grow better again. World wide forums set up for nations to cooperate over and resolve differences can be just money wasted to hold expensive Town Hall meetings. They did help over many matters over the past hundred years, but still were toothless and ineffective to prevent major hostilities. The severity of two intense world wars in the 20th century seem to be forgotten by a new generation of so called "leaders". "Those who ignore the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes." So, as civillians, as most of us are, what did we do to deserve suffering and destruction in the next major conflict? All it takes is for good women and men to do nothing, in the face of being possibly manipulated by egoistic individuals who urge us to go to war. The latter then retreat to their well protected bunkers, when the rest of us are highly likely to be fodder in this game of destructive chess. #yongkevthoughts