The Pity Of War!
Why do wars begin? It is usually because ‘Wars are good business’, according to Milo Minderbinder, Joseph Heller’s fictional character from the novel Catch 22.
The lust for power and a show-of-power, by politicians at the cost of human lives, property, environment, civil liberties, human rights and human lives which do not matter.
Bob Dylan's iconic song "masters of war" is relevant:You fasten all the triggers/ For the others to fire/ Then you sit back and watch/ When the death count gets higher/ You hide in your mansion/ While the young people’s blood/ Flows out of their bodies/ And is buried in the mud.Within the first half of the twentieth century, the world was ravaged by two great wars which resulted in millions of casualties and unimaginable material damage.
At that time, nobody thought that World War l would continue for over four years, a warning for future generations not to underestimate the length of the war.
Well-known author, H.G. Wells championed the phrase, "War of all Wars" claiming that once German militarism was put down, there would never be another reason to fight.
Today, as we stare into an uncertain future with a full-scale Russia Ukrainian war that is more than three months, I am reminded of the saying "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy & then as a farce".
Volodymyr Zelenskyy : President of Ukrane
While we have made great advances in technology science, medicine, and culture and produced the finest contemporary works of art, literature, architecture, and music, we have not learned anything from the history of the two world wars.
The past few months should have been a remarkable occasion to reflect on history, on the magnitude, costs, and legacy of the two world wars.
Vladimir Putin: President of Russia
Unfortunately, War continues to divide people, to change them forever, and the absolute futility of war & the senseless killing is so stupid & illogical that it invalidates the very purpose.Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Watching the breaking news on television, at first I thought it would get over in a couple of days. As the aggression continued, like most commoners I watched the news in disbelief wondering at the irrational behavior of world leaders.
Although most of the international community has condemned Russia for its actions in Ukraine, accusing it of breaking international law and violating Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian forces continued their systematic onslaught.Russia views much of modern Ukraine as historically Russian and continues to ask fundamental questions about the country’s right to exist.
Recently they bombarded the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and pledged that Ukrainian fighters who did not surrender would be killed.Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops remain bunkered down at Mariupol & more than 100,000 civilians are still thought to be in the besieged city.
The lessons of World War II, on whose ashes the United Nations was founded seem to have been all but forgotten. Around eight million people have now fled Ukraine.With Russian attacks now focused on the east of the country, the war in Ukraine has entered a new phase with a harder road ahead.
We have grown used to the tenacious Ukrainian forces beating the odds, but the 52-day defense of Mariupol almost defies the imagination.While Russia has already declared victory several times yet Ukraine’s massively outnumbered soldiers refuse to concede.
On 26th May, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set off alarm bells when he told state television that the risk of the conflict in Ukraine escalating into a nuclear war “is serious, it is real" and could start the dreaded world war lll.
In a landmark trip to Kyiv over the weekend, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Zelensky and promised $700 million in new aid to Ukraine."The first step in winning is believing that you can win," Austin told a group of journalists after meeting the Ukrainian leader.Amidst all the posturing by the heavyweights, one is left with the horrible feeling that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
"Futility" is a poem written by Wilfred Owen, one of the most renowned poets of World War I.
Futility
BY WILFRED OWEN:
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
"Futility” talks about a young soldier who has recently died, and the poet feels pity for the soldier's wasted life, that dies with dreams unfulfilled because of war.Futility is an anti-war poem, powerfully evoking the pity of war with its anger and simultaneous tenderness to those who suffer. The futility of war and of life itself is the main theme of the poem.
Not everything has meaning or happens for a reason; some conflicts are pointless and meaningless, and lives—many millions—are lost in vain.As the old adage goes, repeating the same failed actions in the hopes of a different result is the very definition of insanity.
UN agencies are struggling to reach civilians under siege in the east of the country, where humanitarian assistance is sporadic.he violence is always there, below the surface if not on the surface, ready to break out without warning; nations and human society are clearly no different.The biggest tragedy in this business of war is the loss of humanity!"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”Someone said older men declare war but it is the youth who fight and die.
"War, huh, good god/ What is it good for/ Absolutely nothing, listen to me/ Oh, war, I despise/ ‘Cause it means the destruction of innocent lives/ War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes/ When their sons go to fight/ And lose their lives" ~ War: Songwriters – Barret Strong / Norman Whitfield Peace is always fragile, as Bertrand Russell said "War does not determine who is right, only who is left! To the dead, it doesn't make any difference who wins & who loses.
