By Barnes Mawrie
“The constant threat of Putin against NATO and the western world and his readiness to even deploy nuclear weapons, are clear indications that Russia is being ruled by a maniac. Again, China’s threat to the US, if Speaker Nancy Pelosi should visit Taiwan during her coming Asian visits, proves that China is in the hands of another maniac. Therefore we will not be surprised
if World War III would be triggered by these two dictators. History has shown that whenever such psychopaths are at the helm of state affairs, wars are imminent.”
“The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.” (Gene Roddenberry)
There is a saying that “history repeats itself.” I do agree with this statement because human beings act similarly in similar situations. Many man-made events which happened in the history of human civilization, are indeed being repeated in recent times although in different degrees and in a more contextual manner. One of the man-made events that have often been repeated in history is war. Wars have always resulted from human ambition and greed. Let me list down a few examples from history.
King Agamemnon of ancient Greece, was an ambitious man and hearing of Troy’s glory and pomp wanted by hook or by crook to capture that kingdom. Finally he got a pretext for an invasion through his brother’s wife Helen who had eloped with Paris the prince of Troy. When he got an opportunity, he razed that great city to the ground in the 12th or 11th Century BC. Another example from Greek history, is Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). He was a king of great ambition and wanted to conquer the world not being satisfied with his kingdom of Macedonia. This led him to march with his army through Persia up to India. But on his death bed he lamented that he had “no more world to conquer.” The renowned and mighty Roman Empire that ruled the known world at that time for more than a thousand years (625 BC till 476 AD), was a highly ambitious empire. Through its mighty war machinery it did manage to expand its empire like no other kingdom had done earlier. Its history is marked by innumerable battles resulting in countless deaths and suffering. Coming to medieval history we have the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566) which expanded its territory to a large part of Asia and wanted to swallow Europe as well. Then we have the great dictator Napoleon Bonaparte (1804-1815) who ruled France and made many military exploits in order to gain control over the whole of Europe. In the history of all these ambitious rulers and empires, we witness wars and battles being perpetrated whereby untold suffering was brought upon innocent people and massive destruction was effected.
Now coming closer to our millennium, we once again witnessed the result of human ambition during World War I (1914-1918). About 30 nations and more than 65 million men were engaged in the war. The global war was brought about by territorial, economic and military ambitions of some nations. The consequence of the war was the death of 16 million soldiers and civilians and massive destructions of property. Again when we come to World War II (1939-1945), once again we witness the consequence of human greed and ambition. The war started on two fronts – the ambition of Adolf Hitler which led him and his Nazis to invade Poland in 1939 thereby leading to a declaration of war by the Allies against the Axis; the ambition of Emperor Hirohito of Japan who started an invasion of East Asia and finally the bombardment of Pearl Harbour in 1941. This terrible war caused the loss of 70 to 85 million lives both soldiers and civilians (3% of the world population) and an untold destruction of property.
Now coming to our present time, undoubtedly we are witnessing a repetition of the 1940s. Once again we have two ambitious nations, Russia in the West and China in the East, just like Germany and Japan prior to World War II. What those two nations did, namely, bulldozing weaker nations and capturing territories, we see Russia and China doing the very same thing. Just like those two nations were ruled by dictators, Hitler in Germany and Hirohito in Japan, so too today’s Russia is controlled by Vladimir Putin and China by Xi Jinping who are both dictators by a general definition. The ongoing war in Ukraine betrays the ambition of a country led by one man who behaves like a psychopath. Similarly, the constant Chinese incursions into India’s territory and their continuous threat of invasion of Taiwan reveals the ambition of a sick mind and another psychopath. It is the existence of such ambitious dictators that poses a great threat to world peace.
The constant threat of Putin against NATO and the western world and his readiness to even deploy nuclear weapons, are clear indications that Russia is being ruled by a maniac. Again, China’s threat to the US, if Speaker Nancy Pelosi should visit Taiwan during her coming Asian visits, proves that China is in the hands of another maniac. Therefore we will not be surprised if World War III would be triggered by these two dictators. History has shown that whenever such psychopaths are at the helm of state affairs, wars are imminent. Recent developments in world politics indicate that two power poles are emerging which are at odds with each other. This is a matter of concern for humanity itself. Should UNO fail in its mandate to curb aggressive nations, then the world is heading towards another terrible disaster. What we can do today is pray to God that such things will not take place and that rogue nations may come to their senses and realize the futility of wars. Let me conclude with the inspiring words of the Father of our nation, an epitome of peace and reconciliation who said “I appeal for cessation of hostilities, not because you are too exhausted to fight, but because war is bad in essence.”
When will we learn
from history,
That war and violence
are a futility?
When will humanity
ever learn
That love and respect
are earned?
When will we value peace and harmony
As the only way to save humanity?
When will we learn from Mother Nature
To let God take control
of our future?