War brings only miseries to humanities

Md. Masum Billah :War means destruction. War means curse. War brings only miseries. War means evil. War kills humanity. War is brutal and savagery. War relegates civilization hundreds and thousands of miles back. Still humans wage war against their fellow humans. Still they world produces arms and ammunition worthy of billions of dollars at the cost of millions of humans’  huger and starvation, malnutrition and deprivation and basic human needs.  Still the world produces war heroes (!) who wear smiles on their lips at the cost of humans’ sufferings’ and miseries. We thought that the world has taken a good lesson from Iraq war. Iraq, the center of ancient civilization, has been reduced to dust because of war actually for nothing or for a very negligible cause. Didn’t the brutal world witness the miseries of the innocent Iraqi civilians? Didn’t the cruel world feel even a little compunction for the people of Iraq? The same game has started in Libya. What the world will g achieve through the Libyan war?

Living costly dress and taking costly food don’t mean civilization what we do.  Civilization is an impulse to nurture feeling for fellow humans. We thought that the Japanese serious natural crisis would teach us something. We thought we really understood and would respond accordingly to the fury and wrath of Nature. Unfortunately we haven’t learnt  any lesson from it. The world’s  one of the most important economic superpowers  has been reduced to helpless and distressed humans .Seven thousand people who enjoyed the world’s most sophisticated  medicate and social service met tragic death within minutes. The people who never witnessed any want in their lives are standing in the queue to collect food from the relief centers. Still we have not learnt anything.  I think it’s a great learning for the whole humanity.

The longest term ruler in the Arab country Mommar Gaddafi responded to the attaché against him by the western allies “It is now necessary to open the stores and arms for the masses of all types of weapon to defend the independence, unity and honour of Libya.” It indicates more than a civil war. The people will have arms in their hands and use them haphazardly. Gaddafi will not bend down. He is adamant to defend the attack. But does he have enough strength to face the combined forces? Probably not. How the rebellions respond to the attack “We think this will end Gaddafi ‘rule . Libyans will never forget France’s stand with them. If it weren’t for them, then Benghazi would have been overrun tonight. “– Iyad Ali a middle aged man said. ” We salute France, Britain, the United States and the Arab countries  for standing  with Libya. But we think Gaddafi out his anger on civilians. So, the west has to hit him hard.” civil servant Khalid al Gherfalz.commented. What is next. May be he is going to face the same fate like Saddam. Now question arises. What the people of Iraq who were against Saddam have gained from their western friends?  What benefits or what kind of taste of democracy they now enjoy through the puppet government placed by the West? Probably the Libyans think that their new government will ensure freedom and democracy. But they never think that the government they will have replacing Gaddafi will be a puppet government of the west which will give them the same thing or more than the Iraqi government is giving their people.  The rebellions never think of the west’s ‘catching fish policy in the troubled water’. They were just waiting to get the water muddier to catch the fish more comfortably. Arab League chief Amar Muossa said what was happening was not what Arabs  had envisaged when they called for the imposition of a no-fly zone and what  we want is the protection of civilians  and not the bombardment of more civilians. “ They have already started to see the evil omen of the western attack.

The strikes launched from some twenty five ships, including three US submarines, in the Mediterranean  and Arab leaders  back the intervention. Analysts question what western powers will do if the Libyan leader digs in especially since they do not believe they would be satisfied with a de facto partition which left rebels in the east and Gaddafi running a rump state in the west. Barack Obama has placed a good argument “ We  cannot stand idly by when a tyrant  tells his people there will be no mercy”. Gaddafi warned that the attack against Libya will invite serious problem in the Mediterranean and the European countries. Already thousands of Libyan asylum seekers fleeing a violent uprising have made their way to Europe. The oil price has become double. Millions of workers who worked in Libya took shelter in the neighbouring countries and have managed to come back to their respective countries empty handed. They had a nightmare experience in the relief camp. Their respective countries including Bangladesh have started witnessing seriously low remittance and are waiting to see further deterioration in their economy and human casualties in Libya will have not ending miseries.

Libya which has kept itself isolated for years together from the world contains 46.5billion barrels of crude oil which is double than that of the USA and ten times greater than that of Egypt. The growing influence of China in the global area is frowned upon by the US. China has a great interest in Libya as thirty thousand experts and labourers are working in the oil field of Libya coupled with its considerable amount of investment in Libya. The western countries’  over enthusiasm and crocodile tears for the Libyan civilians raise question what role they played in Philistine civilians who are born in the roaring of canons and die in the roaring of tanks and heavy armours unleashed by Israeli soldiers. In respect of Libya they did not make delay. The world people are not foolish enough to guess the intention of the allies to make bombardment.  The bitter result of this war will not be swallowed only by Libya but also the developing countries of the world.

Now the world can be compared to the Dover Beach of Mathew Arnold who says,

“Ah, love, let us be true to one another!

For the world, which seems        

 To lie before us like a land of dreams,

 So various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy,

 Nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain       

 Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

Really we don’t know why we are nurturing unlimited hopes and reign a state for years together.  Really we don’t know why we are fighting with each other. We are really confused what to do. We just continue committing mistakes. We just give priority to our whims and emotions over thoughtful plans. Reason hardly finds its place. We never think of the bitter result of conflict, clash, fight and big war. We just invite our own dooms though these unwise and passionate deeds. Let reason and humanity reign over emotion and brutality.

(Md. Masum Billah ,Program Manager: BRAC Education Program,Cell: 01714-091431

Email: [email protected] )