In the name of war.

By: Sharanya Ramesh



War kills. That is the underlying fact that screams its horrors to anyone who dares to listen. There is no justifiable reason as to why war occurs, but still it takes the role of the protagonist in many tales of freedom and independence. However, every war that has been fought, by any country or person, living or dead, have always clashed swords under the pretense of revenge, rights or purity. The Germans
killed the Jews claiming to purify their race. The Rwandan conflicts arose due to the need to overpower an existing regime. The beginning and end of the genocide in East Timor was in need of an independent state.While reading through pages of history that narrate stories of war, a clear, almost common sort of emotion is seen in those who held power and were directly responsible for any sort of casualty caused by war.This sort of insanity, seemingly overcame those leaders who we as a race put in power, supported in power and died because of this same power. Adolf Hitler, a popular face in any War chronicle once said, ‘Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.’ It seems hard to believe that someone whose voice and opinion was so jaded was in power for over a substantial
period of time and cause havoc that wafts even in the air of today. At a risk of sounding like a kill joy, I would like to point out another obvious fact. War is never over. At least not till we want it to be. We see it, behind our T.V. sets while flipping channels over dinner. We see it on covers of magazines we browse over, while looking for the latest issue of ‘Vogue’. It’s there and yet we chose to ignore it, because like an ostrich we believe that what we don’t see, does not exist. Yet, a part of us, a part of our race is still there. They still face bloodshed and torn families. It is a result of leaders that we believed had out grown the nature of war. They voted them in,brought them to power and they, in return burnt their houses and raped their children. There is no justifiable reason behind this. They are not above law. Law was created to govern us, to separate us from those species to whom law does not apply. War is just another game to those who make others do the unthinkable while they sit in their thrones, watching over a burning city.To help you understand what I am trying to put across with this warped mention of war, when we look for a world filled with peace, I hav stumbled across another conclusion, one that you may very well not agree with. War never ended. It simply took various forms. We do not have concentration camps that kill 2000 people a day. We do not need those anymore. You see, as the world progressed, the human race believed that every sort of development was for the greater good.Words such as ‘globalization’ and ‘integrating economies’ came into play. We sat in our little bubbles of satisfaction, believing with all our heart, that we were heading towards the right direction.But then, greed and lust and power that had taken a back seat for a while, hit us again and we found ourselves in the same position we did years back. However this time, we knew how to hide it. The millions of people who die every year because of poverty, became a social cause.The thousands who are killed due to ‘protection’ were casualties of a greater good. We imposed curfews and no fly zones in vain attempts to curb any misdeed. At the end of the day, we sit in our homes, eat our supper and talk almost pitifully about those in the war-zone. We believe that whatever is happening, is all in the name of the greater good. Try explaining that to a child who has lost his parents or a wife who just buried her husband. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of
totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?’ So the war continues, under different names. We can chose to ignore it. We can wait till war knocks on our door and takes us out while we scream for mercy. Or we can wake up from those little bubbles, listen when their voices are heard on your T.V. set and try to remember to do your part,because at the end of the day, there is no peaceful war. There is no peace in war.



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