The fertile imagination could not have conceived how powerless, gutless, and heartless man is.

This offensive, unjust, and one-sided policy in the Middle East is not only concurred but abetted by a number of anemic leaders of the so-called Free World. They remain silent — deaf and dumb, hands and feet tied, immovable, inflexible and unyielding.

Courts and conferences try to settle their differences between individuals, while hundreds of thousands die. Cities are destroyed, populations vanish while they argue and explain. No sign, no rush. Bullets, bombs, missiles, chemicals pour on the open battlefields of humanity — no matter, no bother.

No, “not in our stars, but in ourselves,” so they say. War is big business and God forbid there is a pause or a lull in the carnage, they will invent it.

The merchants of death speed up with their creations, inventions and executions of more ammunitions, new weapons, to furnish the shortage of the brave new war, the next war, the future war, ad infinitum.

The US are the biggest arms exporters on earth and for some reason or other they find a way of getting caught up in every war since the last two centuries. Millions of dollars expended for what? The thought of killing must be thrilling. Splurge on the war, any war, every war. There is always a war of every place, every size, every name.

In all ages war has a flamboyant name for posterity to preserve. “War of the Roses” is florid; “War of the Oranges”, colourful; “War of a Thousand Wars” is extravagant; and there is even “A Pig War” that must have been unpleasant, over a confrontation in 1859 between the UK and the US. The war was triggered by the shooting of a pig.

They do have a name for the “War of Terror” unleashed indiscriminately and with lucrative rewards. As for the “Israel-Hamas war”, it is indeed a misnomer, since only one party kills, the rest bleed.

Is the whole world guilty or is humankind hostage to a handful of maniacs who urge nations to perform atrocities, driving the world into the next world war?

Men of evil started many wars, killing mercilessly his fellowmen and we let them. Why do better men stop them? Throughout history names are dispersed that strike terror in the hearts of friends and foes alike — do men fear them or admire them? Why do they fight them of like them?

Ignoble names still live in history such as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Chiang Kai-shek are responsible for killing millions. Others more benign are responsible for only hundreds of thousands, like Idi Amin, Suharto, Franco. What about Netanyahu? Will they damn them or condemn them? Will they convict or sentence them? The courts have spoken, but he is free to kill and maim, unleashing furiously against men, women and children of one nation after another, undisturbed, unharmed, unscathed? Is it his guilt or the guilt of those good men who do nothing but watch?

War is on the minds of journalists, critics, politicians, novelists, filmmakers, consumers and particularly businessmen. Hundreds profit from them; not one can stop them, or want to.

The most recent publication by journalist/author Bob Woodward, specialised in eavesdropping on the White House gossip, behind closed doors, relates in his book War that Netanyahu continues to say: “he was going to kill every last member of Hamas”. At this rate, it is more accurate to kill every “Palestinian”, every “Arab” or everyone in the whole of the Middle East.

The persistent, unending excuse by the West is Israel’s diabolical claim for self-defence. Scenarios of potential threats are invented to exterminate the indigenous population from their native land, to make place for the “Greater Israel”. The US and Company appears to have no objection as long as the war machines keep turning.

While on the subject, should we not mention nuclear weapons?

At the end of WWII, the use of the atomic bomb found man faced with his own folly and the potential of total destruction on his planet. Why do we fear nuclear weapons while simultaneously seek and covet them? We amass them, hide them, lock them up, never use them, less the world collapses. Why then do we have them in the first place? Again the feeble answer is self-defence. The theory is to prevent wars or make more machines to prevent wars?

“It is not in our stars” as was once said, it is in our imagination. Did Science-fiction inspired man to fulfil his dreams?

In the 100 ADs, the Hellenic/Syrian writer Lucian of Samosata, satirised the works of the ancient authors by transforming his voyages to the moon, unintentionally developing the first science-fiction novel. Man reached the moon in the 1900s.

It was a glorious feat in technology when the 20th century was born — how innocent, how delightful. Thrilled with the discovery of electricity, telephones and automobiles, they never knew where technology would lead. Once started, technology had no end and wars were the root of many technological evils.

Scientific discoveries now unfold technological skills, opening portals hitherto unknown, thrusting mankind into the space age, altering forever the face of our planet.

Everyone profits the fruit of war with or without intent.

Men of evil start wars, with machines designed to kill other men.

Why do we good men stop them?

“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than war.”
Homer (circa 750-650 BC) 

* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 October, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly