With some armed aggressions necessitated by the ‘need’ to prove a point, the world has indeed become a dangerous place to stay in, writes PACHU MENON
The pugnacious stand on matters relating to Ukraine has only exaggerated Russia’s militaristic intents which could well bring the world to the brink of another global catastrophe.
If Adolf Hitler’s obsession with racial superiority threw the whole world into turmoil, Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian fixation has become one of Europe’s gravest security crises since World War II.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies, the unfolding scenes of total devastation that is bound to numb the world once again bring to fore the wastefulness of wars to settle disputes between nations.
However, with the sort of emphasis being placed globally on modernisation of their armed forces by various countries, wars do appear to be decisive methods to settle differences between them.
But ever since the horrors of World War II traumatised the world, most of the nations have desisted from engaging in wars and have settled their disagreements more amicably through diplomatic negotiations.
Besides, with technological advances, warfare strategies too have changed. Nations have developed weapons capable of inflicting death and destruction on a massive scale.
Yet rebellions and civil wars continue to be a perennial feature of countries with unstable governments and despotic rulers.
But with a considerable presence of foreign nationals in every country either as students or employees, wars in general have had worldwide ramifications.
Hence the mere mention of a war unsettles most of the global governments!
The effects of any war are widely spread and have long-term implications. It is the civilian population that bears the brunt of the attacks, almost always. Thoughts of millions of displaced people adding to their refugee-count are a nightmare no country would ever want to envisage.
Besides the dangers posed to the civilian population, the economy of the country could also suffer overwhelming impacts.
Nevertheless, the race and craze for acquiring and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction continues to be that show of strength which presumably gives nations the awe-inspiring stature that their enemies are wary about.
With countries capable of decimating their opponents with a mere push of a button, the situation is all the more scary. Wars are hence impossible propositions to imagine, considering the trail of catastrophic consequences that it could leave behind in its wake.
Yet, wars do appear imminent with nearly half of the world in conflict with each other. The intruding-ways of the super-powers into the internal matters of the third-world countries have only complicated matters.
With some armed aggressions necessitated by the ‘need’ to prove a point, the world has indeed become a dangerous place to stay in. If only all crises could be resolved through peaceful means!
But with leaders ready to dangerously direct their military might against each other at the slightest provocation, frontier skirmishes have become the order of the day.
One should however be pardoned for harbouring misgivings about such drastic situations which could result in cataclysmic turnabouts for the world.
Hardly has the world come out of the pandemic gloominess that it now stares at a scenario where massive destruction and loss of lives will be a natural consequence. It is however the spacing of the ‘earthshattering’ happenings that has been too close for comfort. It is as if the doomsday predictions have begun to assume a ring of truth about them. Is the world heading towards total annihilation!
Are the Covid pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia just the tip of the iceberg! In an era where science and technological inventions are supposed to have made lives all the more easier for mankind, the world is however coming to such a stage where machines and such other scientific creations have upended human beings to create an ominous aura around their presence.
A deadly virus created in a laboratory and which had the potency to hold the whole world to ransom and continues to evade any known cure for well over two years has further fuelled such assumptions. Just as scientific advances have helped mankind scale unknown frontiers, they also have the potential to cause unforeseen and unimaginable damage and impairment to the world.
The race for supremacy has nations competing with each other producing weapons of mass destruction. Besides nuclear, the ability to launch chemical and biological warfare already has the world on tenterhooks.
The vagaries of nature and climatic upheavals continue to bring about untold miseries on mankind.
Unseasonal rains and floods in certain areas and the droughts reported from other regions; hurricanes, tsunami and such other catastrophes; all these portend changing climatic trends which could wreak havoc on the world.
As much as the frequent cyclones and other natural calamities which have been the cause of largescale destruction across the world, the spate of ‘virus invasions’ has further weakened the human race.
The ‘discovery’ of a new virus every other day which soon enough assumes a devastating mode has been the bane of the modern world. The inability of the scientific world to check the effects of the rampaging virus has further complicated matters.
At a time when the whole world is at risk from calamitous situations that could wipe out the entire human race, we have super-powers trying to impose their will on less powerful nations with tragic consequences.
We are rushing headlong into an awful situation which could well be averted if we were only to be a bit more circumspect about decisions taken in haste.
It is indeed ironic that while we spend billions of dollars to find life on other planets, we don’t as much as bat an eyelid squandering trillions of dollars killing life on this one.
Could there be a better statement to so very explicitly explain the futility of wars!
Nevertheless, the imminent fallout of the war between Russia and Ukraine is starkly too evident to be ignored.
Moreover, in this eon where sitting atop nuclear piles typifies most of the nations’ resolve to maintain peace in their respective territories, the anti-war slogan which was invoked in other anti-war contexts ever since it was associated with the American counterculture of the 1960s, the catchphrase ‘make love, not war’ assumes equal significance even today.