I’m gonna study war no more

Aug 23, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

It’s about time we learn from our shared experiences. In a few hours, we mark the anniversary to commemorate the Battle for Stalingrad, described as the most brutal battle among so-called civilised people in recent times. As a youngster, my parents and Uncle Joe talked about the Battle for Stalingrad. They also talked about the attack on Pearl Harbour earlier, which changed what began as a European Civil War in 1939 into a full-blown World War.

To recall Stalingrad, is to remind us of a universal obsession to use power to dominate others and worst of all, the arrogance of one side determining what is right and what is wrong. This combination has led to steady steps of shared stupidity. Unfortunately, a condition that has led to the loss of millions of innocent lives that has and continues to lead to the loss of millions of lives. This stupidity continues unabated in the world, but Guyana has its fair share of it.

The Germans deployed a massive force to take control of Stalingrad, beginning on August 23, 1942. By the 17th of September, Stalingrad was on fire, brutalised by Nazi dive-bomber attacks. For the first time, the Russian conceded that German shock troops rammed their way into the outskirts of the city after a non-stop 26-day attack. The German command claimed its troops had crossed the Volga and barreled into the city. Years later, as a member of the QC Cadet Corp, and the BG Volunteer Force, using those royal enfield rifles, we were taught how to attach the bayonets to the rifle and using bags stuffed with straws or other materials, we were taught how to pierce the enemies’ abdomen. The bayonets then were like cutlasses, cut lengthwise in half. Some veterans boasted that with good techniques, the bayonet could penetrate from the stomach to the back of the enemy.

The German battle plan was very effective until later when the Russian sharpshooters, dug into trenches, learned how to punish the German fliers. In today’s warfare, there are more sophisticated methods, with drones, bombs and lethal weapons that can be effective for many miles. Today, we have the atrocities in Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, among others. The big question is, when will the human species learn from our own experiences? In all of this, the loss of innocent human lives from Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, and elsewhere is a sad, sickening saga of people who claim to be civilised and promote the sanctity of life. There are always those who manufacture and make available to one side or the other, not equipment to till the soil and produce food and energy but to destroy fellow human beings.

Genocide and warfare could not characterise our world. The arms trade and the arms race only benefit those who produce these weapons of destruction. Stories about Stalingrad, the horrors of wars and conflicts in every continent have produced among some of us the need and the passion to avoid this wanton destruction of life and property. Let us pray and hope that as we wind down Emancipation Month, we also recall man’s inhumanity to man and go beyond the rhetoric of talking about peace as we would likely do during the upcoming Christmas season. It may be helpful if we subscribe to the words and lyrics sung by Mahalia Jackson – I’m gonna lay down my burden, down by the Riverside…I’m gonna study war no more.

Regards,

Hamilton Green

Elder

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