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The ghost of another world war is hovering about

Apr 23, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Someone cynically remarked that the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones since all civilization as we know it today will be completely wiped out, including a large segment of the human race, in the event, God forbid, of another world war. The world had experienced two world wars with devastating consequences both in terms of human lives and infrastuructural destruction. Yet it seems that the lessons of those painful episodes in our history are being ignored by some global policymakers.
I disagree with the old adage that if you wish for peace, you must prepare for war. It is this flawed thinking that has resulted in the huge buildup of military hardware to such frightening levels. The temptation to utilize such hardware at the slightest provocation could be strong unless adequate control mechanisms are in place by the international community which sadly is not the case.
During the period of the cold war, several treaties were hammered out between the United States and the then Soviet Union to limit the production and use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles. There were for instance, several rounds of discussions on disarmament strategies and several treaties were arrived at such as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and several others.
Those were the days of intense strategic and political rivalry between the two superpowers for spheres of influence. The two military blocs, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact were formed with the support of the United States and the USSR to protect and preserve territorial gains which emanated out of the spoils of the Second World War following the defeat of Hitlerite fascism. Germany itself was split into two, East and West Germany under the watch of the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR.
The world has changed enormously since then. The USSR has ceased to exist and Germany has now been reunited following the collapse of the Berlin Wall which once divided East and West Berlin. New global powers have emerged such as China, Japan and Russia and to a lesser extent India, Brazil and South Korea. North Korea despite being economically poor, has invested heavily in military hardware including nuclear weapons and medium and long range missles. The same can be said for countries such as Iran, Israel, Pakistan and India.
The proliferation of nuclear weapons poses a serious threat to world peace and for the whole of the civilized world. The entire world can potentially be destroyed at the click of a button. Instead of a global policy of mutual deterrence based on denuclearization and arms limitation, we are now seeing a new round of anti-ballistic and nuclear testing using the latest developments in science and technology. It would seem that the insane policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is taking precedence over the more enlightened policy of peace and disarmament.
The recent development in the Korean peninsula must be cause for serious concern by all peace loving nations. The recent use of chemical weapons in Syria and the dropping of bombs in Afghanistan by the United States deemed “the mother of all bombs” will only serve to escalate global tension. The spectre of another war looms dangerously and every effort should be made by the United Nations Security Council to diffuse this rising tension before it is too late.
One sure outcome of any war especially involving the use of nuclear and chemical weapons is that there will be no winners. It will be one ill-wind that will blow no one any good. All of humanity will be lost. The true cost of war is not the actual money spent but the deaths, destruction, misery and suffering inflicted on humanity as a whole. Nagasaki and Hiroshima still stand as living monuments on how devastating the use of atomic bombs could be. It is therefore imperative for all of progressive humanity to add their collective voices in opposition to any attempt to raise global tension. In the words of our celebrated national poet Martin Carter “all are involved, all are consumed.”
Hydar Ally

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