The escalating conflict in Ukraine and build-up of military forces in the South China Sea will lead to an immense clash with the use of nuclear weapons.
These weapons will usher in destruction that will erase human life on a scale beyond man’s comprehension. The US, China, Russia, Europe, Asia and many parts of the world will be obliterated, radio-active debris will pollute every corner of the world.
Unrestricted warfare will ultimately destroy humanity in its present form. The fierce and bloody struggle for survival erodes the veneer of civilisation and makes savages of us all. In the aftermath of a nuclear conflagration, human lives will virtually cease to exist.
Deadly radiation will envelope our skies, land will be covered in atomic debris, the seas will become nuclear toxified, destroying marine life on an epic scale. With the advent of hypersonic weaponry, extinction is 60 minutes away.
Today’s nine nuclear powers are ruled by nine irrational leaders. Sadly, they will perish in a nuclear assault without realising the global cost of their insane miscalculations.
The peace process will never become a reality if force becomes an instrument of diplomacy. It was Hannah Arendt who had the following to say on violence: “The reason that warfare is still with us is not a death wish for our species, but the simple fact that no substitute for this kind of arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.”
Current war strategy brings destruction unimaginable two decades ago, such as drone attacks, cluster bombs, chemical weapons and missile strikes, which involves indiscriminate violence against civilians on a massive scale.
During the Nuremberg trials in 1945, chief prosecutor Robert H Jackson read this profound statement: “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilisation cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.”
We ignore his message at our own peril. Only time will tell if peace will come to the battered people of global conflicts. War is indeed a grotesque crime against all of humanity.
Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni
