Recently I came across this article (warning: graphic images) about the effects of weapons used during the Iraq war on the general public. The images make you feel really sick and tell us how devastating war can be even to its survivors. Any war or armed struggle on a domestic or international level results in a lot of physical and emotional damage to people directly or indirectly associated with it, but still people choose violence to settle disputes. People kill each other for very trivial reasons (communal riots are an ideal example of this). Violence is not new to humans. We have seen many wars and massacres at various levels (including two world wars), and each time when it happens we feel sad and devastated. After each war, we talk about the futility of using violence to solve any dispute but again next time people forget everything that happened in the past and engage in fresh violence in the name of God, country, or whatever reason they can find, expecting that it will produce better results this time. People do not realize that it is futile to try the same thing again and again and expect different outcomes, they do it all the time. Many great epics (like Mahabharat) are also full of stories of war heroics and bravery which directly or indirectly inspire people to think that violence is a very legitimate and effective option to settle disputes or to achieve justice.
Any war results in pain and suffering, the use of violence to curb violence rarely works, and even if it works or brings peace most of the time it's temporary, it's just a matter of time before violence in the form of revenge erupts. All groups involved in war often justify their position using their own logic, normally both sides claim that they are fighting for self-defense, justice, and peace. This is what happens in most of the wars and communal riots, both sides feel they are killing others for the right cause, no one is willing to compromise and ultimately everyone suffers, but they still refuse to learn the lesson. People think that the use of violence can bring a quick solution to a problem. Somehow, people believe that the use of devastating weapons like atomic bombs can save many lives. People also think that long, tedious, and complicated negotiations cannot settle complicated issues between two nations and that war is an attractive option to settle issues quickly. However, in reality, rarely does it work like this. Lengthy wars, ethnic clashes, and continuous communal tensions between two communities are examples to prove that violence rarely brings any permanent solution to a problem.
Nations kill people to show that killing people is wrong, there is so much contradiction in this that's why the use of violence to stop violence rarely works. There are a few crazy dictators in this world, a few fanatic religious leaders who don't hesitate to put their entire country or community at risk just for their own personal selfish motives. These people somehow hypnotize people from their countries or communities who support their crazy ideas without even thinking about the consequences. Any war is an unfortunate event and its result is always tragic. No matter which side declares itself as a winner, there are tragic scenes on both sides, precious lives are lost, bitterness is created between countries or communities that last generations and people from both sides suffer for a long time.
Many people who support the use of wars or violence use a lot of reasoning and logic to justify it. They feel it's perfectly fine to lose some lives to save some. There is also a feeling that some people don't understand the language of peace and only violence is the way to teach a lesson to them. But this is not always true, there are rarely completely right or wrong sides in most conflicts that result in war, most often the winner is always right, and the loser is evil. But most wars rarely produce the result they are supposed to deliver. For me any war is a story of pain and failure of humanity, they leave permanent scars on our psyche.
I wonder when people will realize the futility of using violence to settle any dispute? I wonder when they will realize that every human life is equally precious no matter which religion, race, caste, or country they belong to. After reading about any war I always wonder how people can justify any war? Every war kills many innocent people for no fault of theirs, I can understand that sometimes on rarest of rare occasions, we can not avoid war or violent conflict but I still wonder how can we justify violence on such a large scale that takes many innocent lives? And if wars can solve disputes, why do we still have so many of them even after fighting so many wars to settle the same disputes? Why every time some new dispute emerge after each war? As I said, I know that sometimes it's really hard to avoid war or the use of violence (especially for self-defense), but I fail to understand when people glorify and justify it as if they did something great by killing some innocent people during this process. Loss of innocent lives is called collateral damage and I think this collateral damage itself should force us to avoid any war. Questions are many but answers are difficult to find. I am still trying to find a proper explanation and understand why two sides want to engage in an act of war and how people can justify it?
Any war results in pain and suffering, the use of violence to curb violence rarely works, and even if it works or brings peace most of the time it's temporary, it's just a matter of time before violence in the form of revenge erupts. All groups involved in war often justify their position using their own logic, normally both sides claim that they are fighting for self-defense, justice, and peace. This is what happens in most of the wars and communal riots, both sides feel they are killing others for the right cause, no one is willing to compromise and ultimately everyone suffers, but they still refuse to learn the lesson. People think that the use of violence can bring a quick solution to a problem. Somehow, people believe that the use of devastating weapons like atomic bombs can save many lives. People also think that long, tedious, and complicated negotiations cannot settle complicated issues between two nations and that war is an attractive option to settle issues quickly. However, in reality, rarely does it work like this. Lengthy wars, ethnic clashes, and continuous communal tensions between two communities are examples to prove that violence rarely brings any permanent solution to a problem.
Nations kill people to show that killing people is wrong, there is so much contradiction in this that's why the use of violence to stop violence rarely works. There are a few crazy dictators in this world, a few fanatic religious leaders who don't hesitate to put their entire country or community at risk just for their own personal selfish motives. These people somehow hypnotize people from their countries or communities who support their crazy ideas without even thinking about the consequences. Any war is an unfortunate event and its result is always tragic. No matter which side declares itself as a winner, there are tragic scenes on both sides, precious lives are lost, bitterness is created between countries or communities that last generations and people from both sides suffer for a long time.
Many people who support the use of wars or violence use a lot of reasoning and logic to justify it. They feel it's perfectly fine to lose some lives to save some. There is also a feeling that some people don't understand the language of peace and only violence is the way to teach a lesson to them. But this is not always true, there are rarely completely right or wrong sides in most conflicts that result in war, most often the winner is always right, and the loser is evil. But most wars rarely produce the result they are supposed to deliver. For me any war is a story of pain and failure of humanity, they leave permanent scars on our psyche.
I wonder when people will realize the futility of using violence to settle any dispute? I wonder when they will realize that every human life is equally precious no matter which religion, race, caste, or country they belong to. After reading about any war I always wonder how people can justify any war? Every war kills many innocent people for no fault of theirs, I can understand that sometimes on rarest of rare occasions, we can not avoid war or violent conflict but I still wonder how can we justify violence on such a large scale that takes many innocent lives? And if wars can solve disputes, why do we still have so many of them even after fighting so many wars to settle the same disputes? Why every time some new dispute emerge after each war? As I said, I know that sometimes it's really hard to avoid war or the use of violence (especially for self-defense), but I fail to understand when people glorify and justify it as if they did something great by killing some innocent people during this process. Loss of innocent lives is called collateral damage and I think this collateral damage itself should force us to avoid any war. Questions are many but answers are difficult to find. I am still trying to find a proper explanation and understand why two sides want to engage in an act of war and how people can justify it?
Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
1. Iraqi birth defects worse than Hiroshima (warning: graphic images)
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