By Dominic Zi Ann D. Ng | Wag Ng Mawawala
Vol. XCI No. 14
Jan. 17, 2020
“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.”
“All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.”
“The real heroes are not generals in their armchairs but the determination of an unknown soldier, the ones who never came back home.”
In 1914-1918, 17 million people died because heads of states couldn’t sit down and solve miniscule issues, instead opting for what they thought was a better solution they send an entire generation to slaughter one another in the hopes of coaxing the other to stop the bloodshed. The First World War changed warfare and history forever.
At the Battle of Ypres, poison gas was used for the first time in battle. Men died in agony while lying in the mud. At the Battle of Passchendale, the mud was so deep that horses and soldiers were found drowned in it. In the trenches, the rats were so big that they would (according to some stories) eat the badly wounded alive. At the Somme, German soldiers were buried alive under concrete during weeks of hellish artillery bombardment. It was still the worst military disaster in British history. 57,470 died in just one day. There was even the story of a soldier that jumped for joy when he got a letter from his wife saying that she had given birth. His head was taken off by a sniper.
By the end of the war, 16 million people had died. Those that survived were never the same again. The sacrifice of the men that fought in the First World War will never be forgotten. From the fields of France, to the deserts of Arabia, to the mountains of the Alps, to the winter plains of Russia. The outcome? A peace that lasted only for twenty years, and then World War 2 broke out.
War is hell.
These things could happen if states use massive aggression to respond to minor injuries or insults. That use of massive aggression for the sake of revenge, that follows successful provocations of aggressions by the enemy. In the end, most of these wars are wars of aggression – simple.
War is not “defending”. If “defense” is to mean something other than “offense,” then attacking another nation “so that they can’t attack us first” or “to send a message” or to “punish” a crime is not defensive. In the case of the US-Iran tension, the U.S. blamed the Iran-backed militants for destroying the K-1 air base which ultimately killed a U.S. civilian contractor. So they targeted and killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Major General, which the Iran leaders vowed revenge for his death. There are countries which sided with the U.S and some countries teamed up with Iran, among these are countries are those whose military power surpasses both the U.S. and Iran military, so it would be best for our president to stay away from their conflict and should focus more on the nation’s problem.
A leader’s simple aggression could lead to a nation’s destruction. If the U.S. and Iran leaders will continue their hostility towards each other, it will be another huge cataclysm for humanity and terror will once again loose himself upon all creations.
History WILL repeat itself.
