Does war make peace?

The news, and the statistics on fatalities, which are reaching us after the war in Iraq, is just another example that the old Latin saying is wrong. To please the Editor, who likes Latin expressions, I am going to repeat it. Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war!

That may be the philosophy after using preparatory show of force as a deterrent, but it fails when the preparations go beyond that limit. When battle is engaged, there is never true peace.

If Roman history is any example to stand by, wherever the Romans were victorious and the locals were sent sub jugum, that is under the yoke to manifest their submission to the new authority, it did not mean the end of reprisals. Nor did it mean the end of an aspiration to push back the Romans, even though they were lavish in their public works, in their road-building and in promoting a higher standard of living. Pax Romana was a historical figment of the imagination.

Nearer to us, we have remnants of past wars which did not heal anything. Pieces of paper drawn up on a formal table of peace are scraps of paper. We have been witnessing for far too long what is happening in Palestine. And Israel itself is an example of a resurgence of an indomitable spirit which an armed conflict in the first century should have put an end to! How shortsighted!

A few months back...

A few months back we were told of the precision of modern military armaments, which make it almost unnecessary to risk human life, and the casualities are more to be considered as accidents rather than deaths while on the front. A declaration of victory did not mean peace in Iraq.

Now we are hearing about the poor American soldiers, and of other nationalities, who are losing their lives while they are patrolling what should be a land of peace, as war has been concluded. There is no opposing army to defeat.

The same situation prevails in Afghanistan. The cameras are there when the action is hot, and then they focus their lenses to other areas where there is more action. All of a sudden, what was considered as a situation under control erupts and causes loss of valuable human life.

A few months back it was almost anathema to speak out against a war effort to oust Saddam Hussein. It was considered as jeopardising what democratic values stand for. One government after another took a position which reflected the thinking that war is inevitable and that war is a solution.

What was at issue for some time was whether there was a mandate from the United Nations, or whether a new mandate was required. When the fighting started, the greatest preoccupation was to see the conclusion of the fighting, hoping that it would stop the fighting.

Present circumstances prove right all those who predicted that an armed conflict, however precise, sophisticated, surgical, modern, accurate, and incisive, would not solve the problems of Iraq. If Saddam was the problem, and he was not the most likable individual on earth, the solution was certainly not war. War does not breed peace.

War makes money...

What I know for sure, although it rarely catches the attention of the international media, especially the video images which are broadcast into our homes, is that war makes money. It does not make money for the ordinary taxpayer. The war effort means that public money has to be spent, and unfortunately the eagerness to contribute to the effort is considered as a civic duty by the vast majority. When the smoke is out, then the vultures fly in.

It is not only a question of arms industries growing fat on the misery of war. There are other global players who gamble on what should be done after a war, and financial gain is more important than any other principle. There are no scruples to use corruption as a means to eradicate the corruption practised by an earlier regime or system.

This is an experience which is widespread but not talked about. The ravages of war bring with them the spoils of victory. In Roman times, the sharing was among the soldiers who had participated in a war or battle. The generals always had the lion's share. Now we have the spoils divided according to the nationality of the victors, and apportioned accordingly, if the victors are more than one.

Events have definitely proved the position that war does not make peace, but it may make big money. Poor are those who believe in war!