Accents
War: as insane as it gets
Kofi Anan spoke in grave, sober tones: "The time to act is now..."The UN Secretary-General was on BBC World asking the UN body to resolve the ongoing Israel-Lebanon conflict. Children and innocent civilians are "victimized in a conflict of which they have no control, he said, stressing the urgency for action.
The BBC newscast followed with images from the war zone. Amidst a backdrop of rubble, a woman pleaded for humanity's intervention: "Stop the war! Please stop the war! Where is the rest of the world?" My warm nightcap of tea didn't induce sweet slumber as BBC continued with horrifying images of the destruction.
Print and broadcast media have been ablaze on the Middle East crisis: Israeli kills 51 mostly children. Israeli tank hit by Hezbollah fire. 1,500 OFWs already home. Survivors struggle thru the rubble, etc., etc. A sea of rubble behind him, one brave journalist asked a survivor why he chose not to leave the war zone. The reply: "I don't have a car to run away. I'm poor." And so it goes -- reports and pictures that get grimmer and grimmer by the day.
Us TV viewers stay paralyzed in the comfort of our homes, witnesses to fellow human beings scrambling for evacuation, getting out any way they can from the scene of battle, hoping no bomb explode as jet fighters circle overhead. One heart-breaking film clip was that of a child wiping streaming tears with his hand. In our helplessness, we could only pray that the innocent survive. Will the wounded being rushed to the hospital survive minus an arm or a leg? How many will be handicapped forever?
Three years ago when the Iraq war was getting intense, I wrote on the insanity of war, questioning thus: "If the children survive [the war] physically whole, how many would be emotionally scarred for life? How do you heal the wounds of war? It behooves the adult world who has failed the children to answer this."
I recall the Mass we attended at a West Virginia church where the priest allowed anyone from the parishioners to say his/her special intention for the entire congregation to hear and, thereby, strengthen said special intention through collective prayer. There were those who offered prayers for the US soldiers who died in the Iraq war. In loud participation, I uttered: "For the victims of the INSANITY of war regardless of race, creed, color, and nationality." To make sure the subliminal message would sink in, I raised the decibel on the word INSANITY
Without fear of or favor for the adversaries, let me say that war is extremely insane. War is also most immoral when there is hunger across the fence. Renown consumer advocate Ralph Nader declares: "One month of military spending can erase poverty in the world." And there's multi-talented Peter Ustinov (1921-2004), the actor, writer and director who left us with this blazing condemnation of war hawks: "Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare." A bulls-eye hit Ustinov had delivered at the military-industrial complex, a hive of profiteers who laugh their way to the bank while people die. Those who saw Quo Vadis will remember Peter Ustinov in the cast of the emperor Nero fiddling with the lyre while Rome burns. Beneath his many roles in the make-believe world was a human being of great social conscience (but this is a different story).
War rages on in a certain portion of the earth as I write. I took a last sip of the tea with a hope and prayer that the UN's search for lasting peace would materialize. To the leaders of the world, please halt apocalypse now!
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)