War as Threat to Value of Life - Essay Example

Stacy M. Burleson David Ebert Module Ethics 2306 Module No: 08-10 War as Threat to Value of Life By critically evaluating the history of the world at large, it becomes crystal clear that wars and hostilities have always brought death, destruction, disturbances and desolation in their wake by challenging the very peace, prosperity and tranquility of the warring states and nations, and threatening the value of their life by shoving them into the whirlpool of uncertainty and socioeconomic collapse. Even fought for some noble cause, war invites dreadful consequences and subsequently forces the rival factions to come to terms for the peaceful solution of the conflict. Since no group, faction, state or country can remain indulged into any endless war for a long period of time, the wise and prudent leadership always tries its best to escape the possibility of hostility and invasion, so that the energies and resources of the nation could be allocated into positive and constructive purposes for the best interest of the country at large. There was a time when war had been the order of the day, and warriors used to be looked with great reverence and admiration. Somehow, the two Great Wars of 20th century have realized the people the fatal aftereffects of the bloodshed and aggression, where hundreds of thousands of people died and turned wounded and disabled, along with the reversal of financial and scientific achievements man had invented and devised after the hard efforts of many decades. Hence, wars brought ruination to progress, prosperity, unity and moral values, and crush all ethics and quality of human life under their chariot wheels. It is fact beyond suspicion that the history of war is as old as the history of human arrival on the very face of the earth. “Distinguished philosopher Immanuel Kant emphatically argues that the state of peace among the people living side by side and remaining in constant interaction with one another cannot be remained peaceful, as it is in the nature of man to contain differences with other fellow-beings. It is therefore it is war rather than peace which could be stated as the natural one.” (Porter, 2003: 310) One of the most imperative reasons behind the aggression and antagonism against others includes the innate avaricious nature of humans, which urges them to take the life of the rival out of the feelings of envy, jealousy, anger and fear. It is therefore the individuals and nations attack their opponents in order to deprive them of the privileges they have obtained. The Old Testament also narrates the tale of the Abel’s murder at the hands of his real brother Cain, who was killed because of God’s favor upon him in the form of the acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice. (Genesis 4: 1-17) Thus, the flow of first human blood on the earth paved the way towards the series of killings, assassinations, bloodshed and wars for the future generations to come. However, it was an individual enmity that resulted into fratricide; as the humans are still busy in killing their brethren for the last several centuries, yet their lust of dominating over other individuals has witnessed no satiety at all. History demonstrates the very reality that the wars are commenced, inflicted and fought in the sacred name of religion, justice, peace, solidarity, freedom and human rights, where war mongers destroy human societies, cultures and civilizations just to acquire pelf, power, prestige and possession. It is therefore the warfare inflicted upon humanity during ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval eras just meant to subjugate the weak neighbors in order to snatch their wealth and resources by killing their men, enslaving their women and annexing their territories to their own countries. The European scramble for Asia and Africa during 17th century onward also reflected the brutality and butchery exercised by the big powers upon the weak and defenseless humans just to declare themselves as the world power. The recent war campaigns under the command of the US army against the hapless Asian states of Afghanistan and Iraq just to capture their natural resources as well as control the entire region by seeking her domination in strategically most valuable part of the globe. No one can deny the bitter truth that in ancient and medieval times the nations had strong belief in displaying of the military might and strategic strength in order to keep the neighboring countries under their influence on the one hand, and to deprive them of their territories and wealth on the other. Eminent blind poet of ancient Greece Homer describes the horrible and dreadful affects of Trojan Wars, during which the young and energetic men lost their lives; the beautiful young women turned widows and the innocent children were brought up under the supervision and affection of their fathers. Moreover, numerous warriors had to spend the most precious years of their life in the battlefields, far from their parents, wives, children, siblings and friends in order to win battle for the defense of the boundaries of their country. It left indelible impact on the brought up, education, training and socialization of their children, which got indulged into destructive and criminal activities and delinquent behavior, as the state had least concern with the future of the children pf dedicated and committed army personnel. The same was the situation in medieval and Classical times, where the royalty and generals dragged the poor army men into the dreadful flames of war just to earn name and fame as great conquerors, warriors and victorious generals in world history. Alexander the Great is thought to be one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever produced. The list of his victories is very long, as he had overpowered nearly half of the world. However, his war lust deteriorated the life of his army, which was so fed up of his campaign that they started cursing their general for dragging them into the hell of fatigue, retardation and exhaustion along with the long separation from family and friends. The same was the situation with William the Conqueror and Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte is undoubtedly remembered as the most prestigious leader of France, yet the contemporary French declared Louis Pasture far greater than Bonaparte in respect of services and contributions for the French nation. His self-centered policy of launching campaign against Russia not only deprived France of the most superior armed force of the world, but left thousands of poor women and children in a sorry state of affair after the young and untimely death of the head of thousands of French families. Thus, poor women had to work in the houses of others in order to keep the wolf from the door. Thus, war adversely challenged the values of human life, and paved the way towards the humiliation of both the victorious and vanquished nations. Similarly, the first, second and third partition of weak and defenseless Poland at the hands of her powerful neighbors including Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary during eighteenth century is the reflection of the nefarious designed fabricated by the dominating neighbors towards the small and frail nations, though all the four imitated the same religious belief. Thus, these despotic rulers did not take the fate of the poor Polish Christians, a large part of the population had to beg from others in order to make both ends meet. Moreover, the notorious Russo-Turkish wars were fought in the holy name of religion, though neither the Russian emperors had any concern with Christianity, nor were the Turkish sultans the real follower of the sacred teachings of Islam. “Many wars had been fought between the two in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Christian subjects like Greeks, Albanians, Armenians and others served as sandwich between the expansion-campaigns and war-adventures of Russian Imperialism and Ottoman Empire, both of which contained unquenched thirst for more and more lands and territories.” (Mahajan, 1999: 446) At the time when Russia had launched a condemnable expansion campaign in the name of Christianity, England, France and Italy, the so called patrons of the religion got engaged into wars against one another on the matter of capturing the territories and resources of African continent. Thus, anonymous soldiers and common men sacrificed their lives for the purported wars of lust for gaining more and more power and prestige. “The massacre of Ochakov in 1788 in the Russo-Turkish war has restrained its notoriety as an increasingly infrequent example of lust for occupying more and more land in various parts of the world.” (Corvisier, 1994:467) Though wars always invite nemesis and ruination in their aftermath, yet the WWI & II have no precedence of massive destruction in the entire human history. Reflection of the European rulers’ lust for dominating over others, the Great Wars smashed the pace of progress, and wiped the face of the earth with several thousands of extremely talented, proficient, dynamic, dedicated and energetic youth in the battlefield, which could render extraordinary services in the fields of science, technology, economics, psychology, arts and much more. “Images of devastated battlefields are all too familiar. A German officer in 1918 described ‘dumb, black stumps of shattered trees which still stick up where there used to be villages. Flayed by splinters of bursting shells, they stand like corpses upright. Not a blade of grass anywhere; just miles of flat, empty, broken and tumbled stone.’ The ploughs in Flanders fields still turn up human bones every year.” (Quoted in Peace Pledge Union) Thus, when the WWI ended, France had lost over one million people, which remained a nightmare for the entire nation for the coming decades. One of the most horrific aspects of war includes the ruination of the social fabrics of the warring countries. Renowned twentieth century playwright and intellectual George Bernard Shaw’s remarkable drama Arms and the Men (1894), Rose McCauley’s impressive gloomy poem New Year 1918 and Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway (1924) portray the sorrowful and ghastly impacts of war on men, women and children, where the war-afflicted areas always remain under constant stress and depression, and are hence unable to perform and create something great for the future years to come. Besides, fauna and flora are also annihilated during the course of war. Since man turns out to be brutal and savage during war, he pays least attention to the human relations and objects of nature. Consequently, he crushes everything on his way while fighting against his enemies, and inflicts atrocities and cruelties even upon women, elderly, children, sick, animals and crops in order to take revenge from the rival country. Hence, beastly characteristics of humans are at their peak during the course of war. It is therefore, the political leadership of twentieth century had acknowledged the reality that no ethno-racial, religious or regional group, faction or community could be kept subjugated or enslaved forever by force and threat. On the contrary, certainly provokes the enslaved nation to raise a decisive campaign for the invader in order to win freedom from the awkward clutches of exploitation, harassment and humiliation. They came to the conclusion that war not only destroys the infrastructure and economy of the rival forces, but also challenges the very human values by turning the individuals into a sorry state of affairs eventually. Hence, peace serves as the ultimate end of every war, and the negotiation is sought after heavy losses in men and material. Thus, an overwhelming majority of the enlightened countries including Japan, China, Germany, France and others appear to be saying good-bye to the ominous entrance of war in their countries, so that they could be in a position to startle the world by dint of their creative and productive work in the fields of technology, fine arts, economics and social sciences. However, the USA still sticks to the age-old war campaigns against different weak nations including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and others, without acknowledging the startling impact of 9/11 catastrophe of the American children and youth. Such condemnable strategies are not only threatening the prosperity of the country, but also many US financial institutions have observed bankruptcy and insolvency in the wake of the notorious US invasion over Iraq. “Congress has already appropriated approximately $357 billion for military operations, reconstruction, embassy costs, enhanced security at US bases and foreign aid programs in Iraq and Afghanistan. This total, which covers costs through the end of November 2005, includes $251bn for military operations in Iraq, $82bn for Afghanistan and $24bn for related foreign operations, such as reconstruction, embassy safety and base security.” Thus, the US is undergoing serious threats because of her war campaigns, and the citizens observe grave challenge to the quality and value of their life at large. Works Cited Bilmes, Linda & Stiglitz, Joseph E. “The Economic Costs of the Iraq War: An Appraisal Three Years after the Beginning of the Conflict” Boston, January 2006 Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/lbilmes/paper/iraqnew.pdf Corvisier, Andre. “A Dictionary of Military History” Blackwell Publishers Oxford UK 1994 Mahajan, V. D. “International Relations since 1900” S. Chand & Company Limited Ramnagar India 1999 Porter, Jene M. “Classics in Political Philosophy.” Second Edition Prentice-Hall Canada 1997 293-402 Peace Pledge Union “War and the Environment” Retrieved from http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/st_environment.html Read More