Wars are raging in many parts of the world and involved parties are using bureaucratic euphemisms such as “adequate response” and “retaliation” to sanitise different forms of murder.
Can it be proportional to use massive air power at low altitudes and risk hundreds of innocent civilian lives? Uncontrollable wars have made this era among the most perilous ever. Today’s brutal conflicts are an evolved propensity to eliminate any potential competitor. It is often during armed conflict that human rights are infringed the most.
The current escalating assault on global civilian areas is a gut-wrenching protracted war on defenceless civilians. Our inaction and delusions will end up costing humanity more than it can afford. The outrageous lies and euphemisms add insult to the genocide that is now in full progress, an assault that is inherently unethical.
Every misdirected bomb, every brutal raid, every innocent civilian killed, every lie and denial and minimisation is recruitment for those who adhere to the insane policy of might is right. In today’s international politics, force is becoming the ultimate arbiter of disputes.
What we are witnessing in the conflict zones is an industrial-scale campaign to eradicate the original inhabitants of the many lands.
It is indeed sad and tragic that the world’s conscience has not been sufficiently aroused by the scope and ferocity of events unfolding in war zones.
The insane bombardment of civilian areas is a total violation of even the basic rules governing armed combat. We must decry these inhuman wars and sufferings. Doing so might help spare the lives of children and civilians. The opportunity to resist the massacre of the innocents rests with us.
When human dignity is in jeopardy, when human lives are endangered, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. We, the living must speak for the dead in war-immersed areas. We cannot interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. By remaining silent or indifferent, we become accomplices to all acts of war.
Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni
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