The Horror of War

If anyone ever had any doubts about the misery, the terror, the horror of war, they should force themselves to view photographs of injured, maimed, dying and dead children. If nothing else could work to persuade people that any and all other means be sought before any country would resort to war, then viewing these photographs surely would.

Yes, there is a genuine case to be made for protecting oneself against violence from another. And every country can legitimately claim that if another country embarks on a course of destruction with the intent to conquer it militarily and destroy its peoples' lives, then under international law it has a right and an obligation to itself and its population to respond.

When there exists such an historical and intractable conflict as the world sees between the State of Israel and the Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza, surely suspicion, anger, blame can be overcome when there is a sincere effort to meet one another's objectives; largely each side making an effort to retain what they feel is their peoples' inheritance, yet willing to trade off.

Reason cannot overcome passion, and passionate emotion leading to aggrievement and an inability to bargain in good faith simply has both sides clinging to their wish list of optimal needs, with neither willing to make the tremendous effort required to surrender something of great value to achieve something of greater value; peace. If for no other reason than to safeguard the lives of the next generation.

While perusing the web site of the on-line Haaretz Daily Newspaper yesterday I came across a portal that likely wasn't meant to be there, and out of curiosity clicked on it; it read "Help Gaza", and it took me to a gallery of photographs, many of which represented a horrendous calamity, graphically illustrating the dreadful death of a child.

Others were photographs of children, their eyes wild with terror, in horrible pain as they were being carried toward medical help. For some of these children, that desperate run for medical assistance would be too little, too late. For others it would mean their lives would have been saved, but the trauma that they experienced would never leave them.

This is no way to represent ourselves as thinking, feeling human beings.