July 28, 2014 marked the one hundred year anniversary of the beginning of World War One.
The Great War yielded 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded, for a grand total of 37 millions casualties.
Those who fought that war thought (hoped) that it would be what the French called “la Der des Ders”, roughly meaning “ the war to end all wars”.
Never again they said.
One hundred years later, instead of the universal peace dreamed by the veterans of that horrendous conflict, there are at least 30 major wars or civil unrests taking place around the world and people dying by the thousands.
Contrarily to what many people think, wars are not the result of conflicting ideologies. They are caused mainly by envy and the widening gap between the Haves and Have Nots.
Envy is defined in The Merriam-Webster dictionary as:
“A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, or quality of life”.
One hundred years ago, people living in underdeveloped countries had not the faintest idea of what life in industrialized nations was like.
Today thanks to television and the Internet, the poorest people on this planet know what’s going on in rich countries and they long for the same lifestyle.
This longing is exploited by a few extremists who take advantage of the resentment of their people to preach a Holy War against western culture that will bring about peace, justice and prosperity.
Fat chance!
Disaffected youth living under inept and corrupt regimes are easy prey to a rhetoric that promises heaven on earth, and since the world is awash in weapons and idle young people, it is relatively easy to start a conflict.
Unfortunately, the aftermaths of conflicts are often worse than the conflicts themselves.
The common people find themselves often worst off under new regimes than under the regimes they brought down.
The French Revolution gave birth to “La Terreur” (the Terror) where tens of thousands of (often innocent) people were sent to the guillotine.
After this slaughter, the fate of the commoners was not significantly improved.
The Russian Revolution produced the Red Terror that was a thousand times worse than the excesses of the French Revolution.
Bolshevik extremists, under Lenin’s directions, executed hundred of thousands of “enemies of the people”.
The commoners fell under the yoke of the Communist party, a fate probably worse than living under the Romanovs.
The Chinese Revolution was not any better.
Then there was the Iranian Revolution.
Are the Iranians living under a barbarous theocracy happier today than under the Shah?
And then we have the never-ending Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The people of the Gaza strip undoubtedly look with envy at the prosperity of Israel.
That’s what we want they surely think, but are afraid to say so.
They are coerced to believe that only the destruction of Israel will give them what they yearn for: peace, justice and prosperity.
But judging by what’s happening in neighboring countries, even if Israel were eradicated from the Middle East, peace would not flourish in that region.
There are too many enmities and ancient tribal and religious conflicts in this part of the world to attain a lasting peace.
Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia are in a state of war or undeclared war.
Their past histories should be a lesson for the Arab world but the Arabs are too busy killing themselves to pay attention to those minor details.
Israel is a convenient scapegoat for their resentment and if it did not exist it would have to be invented.
The first thing to do to stop this bloody non-sense would be for Hamas to unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist and abjure violence.
But Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal ensconced in Qatar (far away from violence and destruction) won’t have any of it.
In a recent interview with CBS news, he reiterated his refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
There cannot be peace as long as Israel exists!
What do you do with a neighbor who swore to kill you and would rather see his entire family annihilated rather than to negotiate?
Isn’t it what loony bins are for?
France and Germany managed to become friends after three bloody wars and millions of casualties.
There is absolutely no reason why the Arab world and Israel cannot achieve the same results.
All it takes are courageous men on both sides, but unfortunately they seem to be in short supply in this part of the world where vendettas and human sacrifices still endure.
Alain
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I am a curious person. I always try to understand how things work and what motivates people. For instance, it seems to me that many actors more often than not sport a three-day stubble.