War is Not The Solution

The crisis in Russia and Ukraine, and the war between Israel and Palestine are arguably the biggest conflicts in the world today.  However, the killing of rebels, those deemed troublesome, and the innocent civilians caught up in these battles is intolerable.

When will nations learn that killing people is not the solution to their problems?

Most of the current worldly issues are based on conflicting opinions, norms and values.  The fears, biases, and goals that drove foreign policies in the past continue to direct national policies today in America, Europe and beyond.  Just as policymakers believed that they were doing the right thing back then for the sake of national security and their citizens, policymakers think they are doing the right thing now.  When we consider the conceptual idea of war, we should not shame and blame our soldiers, past and present, regardless of our attitudes towards their line of work.  Troops are at the mercy of policymakers.  And policymakers are in the grips of cultural and psychological habits, as well as the constant pressure from their capitalist state.  Therefore, we should not condemn anybody, but instead figure out whether there are better options today, and if so, then they should be considered and pursued with equal (if not more) weight to warfare.  Democracy is built on the idea of strong, independent citizens exchanging and debating various points of view, even those that may enrage us.  But we do not have this opportunity when our government decides to invade another state. 

The purpose of change in a civilised society ought to be to create a world in which everyone feels safer, not one in which in order to correct an injustice perpetrated in the past against one persecuted minority a new fashionable hate group is created and singled out and deemed fair game for bullying and vindictive injustice.  Unfortunately this is not the case, as demonstrated with Israel’s maltreatment of Palestinian people in Gaza.

The problem with wars, therefore, is that they treat people as means to an end, rather than ends in themselves.  Hence it must be asked, how can the persecution of innocent people in the name of "politics" be anything other than wholly unacceptable?

We need to create non-violent alternatives for “revolutionaries” worldwide in order that oppression, violence and exploitation can be eliminated from all societies. 

Perhaps if the countries that have been involved in wars over the years hadn't wasted their money on arms, their nation may be stronger, not just economically, but socially and environmentally.  War creates more problems than it solves.  At most, it can be viewed as a temporary solution.  Long-term, however, war is not the solution.