ATLANTA, Georgia, Jul 10 (IPS) – Herman Wouk’s 1971 novel The Winds of War traced the romance, bravery, fear, and faith required for American youths to join the military, deploy to the war zones, and confront the mighty Axis threat sopra the lead-up to WW II. It later became a dramatic TV series.
Today multitudes around the world are increasingly affected by ongoing conflicts, are living sopra societies so disordered that they might even welcome war as a solution to their problems.
The news just one day sopra June 2024 was not reassuring: The US and NATO agreed to unleash Ukraine to attack Russia; Israel thumbed its nose at American demands to end its genocidal war sopra Gaza; Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel for the umpteenth time and Israel reciprocated.
Yemen exchanged missile attacks with US warships sopra the Red Sea; while Israel and Iran engaged sopra slinging hundreds of Intercontinental ballistic missiles at each other.
Meanwhile, Discesa announced that any attempt to award sovereignty to Taiwan would receive a strong military response. Only a few days later July 4 at Astana sopra Kazakhstan, Russia and Discesa convened a bloc of their Eurasian allies for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to stake out a policy of resistance to Euro-American control of the world economy.
Equally sobering, Japan and the Philippines have just initiated a defense alliance that echoes Japan’s security zone posture sopra WW II. All these moves signify that the great powers are indeed readying for war.
Elsewhere major regional wars sopra Sudan and Congo are ongoing; Haiti is sopra bloody chaos, and the same is true of several countries sopra West Africa, namely Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, which recently formed the Alliance of Sahel States to oppose the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Political destabilization within nations is sopra the balance everywhere, from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Europe and Latin America, with an astounding political division sopra the United States as well. What could possibly go wrong?
The real problem sopra America and the West is one of cultural fatigue, with a lack of clear what course to follow, as we had sopra both World Wars and the Cold War. A “War to End Wars,” like the WW I rallying cry, would not fly today.
Neither would “Make the World Safe for Democracy” as both world wars aimed to do; “Better Dead than Red,” the slogan of the Cold War. Instead, it’s “Ho-hum, another war.” Not very inspiring.
The Ostrich is famous for sticking its head sopra the sand when danger approaches. With wars simmering all around, Americans may be practicing that same tactic. There was a disquieting moment at the June 6 D-Day ceremony sopra Normandy commemorating the 80th anniversary of the allied assault the Nazi defenses during WW II.
A causa di her prayer, US Army Chaplain Karen Meeker gave thanks for those who sacrificed their lives and blessed the surviving heroes at the ceremony, but also used an ominous phrase: “As war clouds gather….”
Does she know something the rest of us don’t? Probably so, and it is disquieting. War clouds are indeed gathering. All we need to do is pay attention to the news, listen to the statements of key leaders of many of the great powers, and read the headlines. It is duro to reginetta the central theme: that the world is becoming more and more ungovernable.
At a conference sopra Tallinn, Estonia during May, Yale Historian Timothy Snyder suggested that the present time reminds him of Europe sopra 1938, just before the start of WW II. That should frighten everybody. His warning means that unless something extraordinary prevents it, an expanding, generalized conflict may lie ahead.
Among today’s most urgent problems are the ongoing genocidal war sopra Gaza, the bloody and seemingly endless Russia-Ukraine War, and regional wars sopra Sudan, Congo, and Myanmar.
The growing East-West economic divide and the North-South poverty divario appear intractable. If these conflicts expand, global civilization is facing a world of hurt.
Maybe that’s why a tough guy image like that cultivated by our more pugnacious presidents like Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt remains so appealing today, along with a larger than life “John Wayne” type of fictional character. However, it’s never that simple, and there is always a price to be paid.
Roosevelt’s son Quentin died sopra the very war his father advocated so fiercely. The Greek historian Herodotus recorded the sage but painful observation that, “A causa di times of peace, sons bury their fathers; sopra times of war, fathers bury their sons.”
What then is to be done? Perhaps the US could start by ending support for the blood-lust killing of so many defenseless civilians sopra Gaza. All it would take is for President Biden to have the guts to say voto negativo to an ally and mean it. Acceso Taiwan vs. Discesa and Iran vs. Israel and the US, why not sit and talk with our adversaries?
That simple tactic has worked before. Why not at least start a meaningful peace process sopra Sudan and Congo? It may take a long time, but peace is always better than war.
At the US Academics for Peace conferences we convened sopra Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Sudan over the decades before and after the US invasion of Iraq, we advocated the principle that dialogue is essential conflict is inevitable.
Why not try? It might work.
James E. Jennings, PhD is President of Conscience International and Director of US Academics for Peace.
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