War is a crime against humanity
THE destructive and escalating conflict in the Ukraine and build-up of military forces in the South China Sea, will lead to an immense clash that will witness the use of nuclear weapons in a trajectory that the combatants will neither be able to contain nor control.
The use of these weapons will usher in destruction that will erase human life on a scale beyond man’s comprehension. The US, China, Russia, Europe, Asia and many parts of the world, will be obliterated, radioactive debris will pollute every corner of the world. The dangerous strategy of unrestricted warfare in many parts of the world, will ultimately destroy humanity in its present form. In the aftermath of a nuclear conflagration, human life will virtually cease to exist. Medical facilities and every vestige of civilisation will cease to exist.
Humankind will be cremated in a fiery crematorium, whose embers will burn for decades. Deadly radiation will envelope our skies, land will be covered in atomic debris, the seas will become toxified, destroying marine life on an epic scale. With the advent of hypersonic weaponry, extinction is 60 minutes away. Today’s nine nuclear powers are ruled by irrational leaders, who have no idea what constitutes nuclear combat. Continuing bloodshed in these strategic lands will be catastrophic. The peace process will never become a reality if force becomes an instrument of diplomacy.
It was Hannah Arendt who had the following to say on violence, “The reason that warfare is still with us is not a death wish for our species, but the simple fact that no substitute for this kind of arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene”. Modern war strategy brings destruction unimaginable.
It was during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945, that chief prosecutor, Robert H Jackson, read this profound statement: “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilisation cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated”. We ignore his message at our own peril. Only time will tell if peace will come to the battered people of global conflicts.
War is a brutal tool to settle disputes, it crushes manhood, destroys society, and impoverishes life. It is indeed a grotesque crime against all of humanity.
FAROUK ARAIE | Johannesburg