In the old days which we call the Middle Ages or even the primitive era, wars were fought hand to hand and combat was honorable. If the brothers in arms never met again that parting was well made.
There is neither honor today on the battlefield nor the courage of the warrior. We kill by remote control and we target children and women and innocent civilians who have no role in these wars. It is a sobering thought and more chilling than flinging pails of ice water that in these past 12 months we have made destitute over 3 million children and think nothing of it than it being a mere spectacle.
What makes the acidic commentary even more bitter is that children are now being inducted into rag,tag and bobtail armies and given machine guns instead of study books. In Africa child soldiers are rife. In Syria, children are begging on the streets looking for scraps of food. The count of dead children in Gaza and the West bank remind us with grimness that nothing is over and the number rises daily as the wounded and the lost succumb to their injuries.
Even the UN acknowledges that the Syrian crisis is unprecedented and we have not seen anything like this in our times. What must be replicated in Iraq is not even known.
This cannot be the future for it denies, by its very core of violence, any possible future. If we fail to recognize that fact, if the world, as an entity, believes it will go away if we look away, then all 6 billion of us are not only wrong but in jeopardy because what is happening in the trouble spots of the world is like a forest fire. It knows no boundaries and it is capable of crossing all geographical and man-made borders.
Let it also not be forgotten that the other pressure comes from refugee camps. If neighboring nations open their doors to streams of refugees they need a helping hand that is tangible and ongoing. Countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey run a major risk of not just overflow but the rigors that come with them. Illness, epidemics, sanitation problems, medical aid, potable water supply, food, all these are very real problems and can exert a back breaking pressure on the host nations. The fallout is always negative and with the flow of humanity no way near abating, things look very bleak indeed.
In fact, in today’s context, creating a refugee dimension is a military tactic that gives the adversary a major advantage. It allows the attacker to hasten his advance because the defense is compromised by civilian movement. In Syria it is not just a caravan of humans walking away to safety. That is a very benign visual feed. Things are a lot worse. Rape and violence, indiscriminate killing, random executions, the robbing of childhood per se, all these are the sanitized collateral that so cynically covers the wound.
Except it not sanitized or antiseptic…it is gangrenous and seeps sadness.
