Worldwide solidarity with Gaza

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

^ well put Mr Cheese.
I've been mulling this thread over for the past few days, trying to put into words my opinions and thoughts on this subject. Regardless of cause or reason, I can find no justification for war, no justification for bombing civilians, no justification for killing of innocents and no justification for the killing of innocence. War resolves nothing - if there is a winner then there is a loser and not all those who lose are on the losing side. War never results in a peaceful conclusion, only one group gets what they want, and when that is won by sheer force alone it only leads to resentment and bitterness that will flare-up again and again. Like all keyboard pundits here I've not studied this in any depth or detail but I am aware of the history and background to the current conflict. It is a history that is as old as history itself and it will never be resolved by rockets and missiles just as it was never resolved with bows and arrows.

Australian comedian Adam Hills succinctly summed up some of what I intended to say last night on The Last Leg - using more-or-less the same language and metaphors [he said more than this but that is the only clip Channel 4 have released on You tube].

Play Nice or Go To Your Room.

A parent who sees their children squabbling doesn't pick sides: pleas of "they started it" fall on deaf-ears; both are in the wrong and are treated equally; both are punished equally - privileges are denied and they are both grounded.

Sure that is yet another trite over-simplification of a very difficult and complex set of issues, but so is war. Bombing the living daylights out of each other is a drastic over-simplification of any issue; just because it is "difficult" doesn't mean that the only solution is to hit your opponents with great big sticks. If it is difficult and complicated then you have to work harder at making a lasting peace, waging war is a cop-out, peace should not be the brief respite between consecutive wars and battles, it must be the end to war. War is not a continuation of politics, it is a failure of politics and politics in turn is a failure of humanity, politics are partisan, this is not a virtue. War is uncompromising, peace is compromise that does not try to resolve differences but simply accepts that they exist and finds ways to live with them.

This does not mean that we as outsiders and on-lookers should step-in and force the peace in the Middle East - it means we should not pick sides. We are not their parents even though we must accept some responsibility for the creation of the current conflict, but not for the history going back millennia that brought us to this point. 

If this was a purely religious war of muslim vs. jew (or jew vs christian or christian vs. muslim) then it is incumbent on all members of those religions through-out the world to see themselves in a parental-role rather than take sides as bickering siblings, because history has shown that their god is not going to intervene, nor would a god of peace take sides. If you claim to be the religion of peace then prove it - make peace, accept your differences and be united in what you share, condemn those who sully your religion in the name of your god. Don't make excuses.

Once we pick a side we become a part of the conflict, we become a part of the justification for the killing and the continuation of that killing; in picking sides we become culpable to all the atrocities that occur, to the innocent lives lost, to the destruction of homes, lives and livelihoods and to feeding the fear, resentment and hatred that entails.

Edited by Dean - August 02 2014 at 06:39