I don’t know what to think about this: war in the middle East

Two weeks or so ago, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria killing a number of her people and it promised to respond. But when you read this Post you would think Iran is the aggressor for responding to provocation. Why start a conflict with your neighbour when you don’t want them to fight back?

I like echo chambers. They allow us to be all the rage about those we don’t like without sitting back to ask if we could be culpable. I hope I am wrong on this and we have no major conflict and that lives are not lost needlessly.

It looks like this is the year the world says to hell with peaceful coexistence and goes to a world war again. There’s been weapons build up with nowhere to use them or buyers of the same. A wider conflict in the middle east provides such a market for weapons while people continue to die.

I don’t think there is any hope for lasting peace in the Middle East in this generation and maybe the next.

Is a greater war looming?

The US is accusing Iran for attacks that left 3 soldiers and a dozen others injured in Jordan and there’s push for Biden to act, which in American speak is send missiles dying and babies flying.

What should be the best response to this escalation?

The red sea strait through which most tankers travel has become a small war zone making tankers do a round trip with the result that prices of imported commodities will go up, supply chains disrupted further and so on. What is to be done?

In a month it will be 2 fucking years since Russia’s last invasion of Ukraine and there seems to be no peace in sight. Its beginning to look and sound like a war of attrition. Why is man still called the rational animal?

The clusterfuck that’s the Gaza- Israel war is not ending. Right wing Israelis are talking of resettlement of Gaza, a progrom sort of. Though as I said previously, otherwise rational men and women can’t discuss this on merit. The deck is always loaded. You either are antiSemite or a supporter of terrorism. No middle ground. And all in the name of god. Where do all the prayers go?

And finally at home, the least said the better.

Everywhere is war

Or rumours of a war.

The war in Ukraine is almost 2 years and still going on with no signs of abatement. Somewhere there must be an opportunity to consider peaceful resolution but it seems the Americans have deep pockets and will continue to fund the war effort. Russia also seems to have unending resources. Depending on the bias of your news source, you’ll have heard that Russia has run out of ammunition and are losing the war.

Iran has opened war fronts with Pakistan and Iraq. This one I don’t even understand. I thought they were all on the same side!

Israel is committed to removing all Palestinians from Gaza. And big brother is sending help.

Sudan is still at war with itself. Last I read some ancient sites are in danger of destruction as happened Aleppo making the world a poorer place.

The rest of Africa is fighting a general war of depreciating currencies, debt distress, poor economic performance and adverse weather conditions without proper mitigation measures.

Looks like we are not ready for peace yet.

In the Rebel

Camus asks, if I recall correctly, why I’d killing of thousands as in war is permitted, why not of an individual and that is the subject of this Medium article. A man who kills hundreds or thousands as a sniper in war gets a medal of honour. Kill your neighbour and you will be lucky if you see outside the prison gates.

The question then is, if we can allow murder of thousands by the state, why do we disallow the killing of individuals?

on the humanitarian crisis that is Israel- Gaza war

I have seen with dismay, people on either side of this conflict, falling over themselves in how this madness can and should be written about. I admit at the outset that I have nothing really new or revolutionary to say about it only to recognize that it is a complicated. What shocks me is the fact that so many well meaning people have not found courage to admit that the killing of civilians by Hamas was and is despicable. And that Israel’s destruction of Gaza and sending an eviction notice is also despicable.

This article is a way to discuss the conflict/ war without soiling your shoes with vomit. Should we take sides in a war of attrition? And how should we decide whose side we are on? The one who is like us, or all the civilians on both sides whose lives have been upended? Is there an end to it? Or is it as many observers have said, a clusterfuck with no solution in sight for the foreseeable future? I don’t know, except to hope that it will someday end.

Every where is war

War in the East, war in the west, war in the south. Everywhere bullets are dying, children flying. Peace remains elusive ad it has always been. And the naked apes with their weapons made to maim and kill the most number of fellow apes are busy at it.

It is a tragedy when an innocent is killed. But I don’t know whether it is a tragedy when thousands are killed. Because in the death of thousands, there are military honours of valour, and good command.

And because I have nothing to say about the war in Israel and Palestine, may the hostilities come to a close sooner. So many lives have so far been lost on both sides.

And peace to all those who have lost friends, family and loved ones in the ongoing conflict.

War

Or rumours of a war. War on the east, War in the west. War everywhere.

It does seem to me that for some regimes facing issues of legitimacy at home, external conflict or War is their War to rally the nation together or divert attention from the real issues. This seems to be the case between Tehran and Tel Aviv. Bibi is intent on destroying nuclear plants in Iran regardless or the cost and in the recent past, there has been escalations that if not checked may lead to a bloodbath in the east.

Lockheed Martin and other defense suppliers seems to have run out of money as well. Maybe the war in Ukraine is not bringing in as huge profits as they would prefer and they may as well help in festering the ground for War in the east.

China is toying with the idea of annexing Taiwan. This too would be a bloody battle and shortly, it will be rockets dying, children flying. And all of us caught in between.

The possibility of nuclear holocaust continues to rise. The war between Ukraine and Russia is unwinnable. Which reminds me of the remarks Denzel made in the movie Crimson Tide, in a nuclear holocaust, there are no winners, only the dead and those who are left.

For a world in crisis, not recovered from the effects of the pandemic, war is the last thing anyone should be dreaming of. But it seems inevitable that unless something drastic happens, someone is going to make a mistake and it will be a shithole after that.

Maybe I am wrong and war is great.

I don’t know

What’s your favorite candy?

But that wouldn’t be interesting, would it?

I love sweet things. I don’t know how some people can’t stand sweet things. in fact, the sweeter the cake, cookie, sweet is, the happier I am. Maybe my happiness is tied to sweet noms. There have been hundreds of articles if not thousands written telling us how sugar is bad for us, how it is killing us slowly and I agree, especially if your source of sugar is coke. I don’t know what ingredients they use in that drink but, hell, man, it ain’t good. I have seen it used to clean battery terminals in cars, whiten toilets and so on. For me, I use it only when I have a stomach upset and no chemist is nearby. This is not to say you should remove sugar from your diet. You can’t, even if you tried. As long as you are eating carbs, you’re consuming sugar in some form or other. Only advice could be to reduce over processed sugars. They give you empty calories and may make you fat.

There was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Turkiye and Syria whose death toll keeps rising and it may soon be the worst such disaster from an earthquake in the recent past. If you are in a position to help, please do so. I think there are gofund me pages and other ways to help.

Meanwhile the war has not ended yet and is not about to end as long as there are weapons to be bought and sent to both sides. So we wait and count the dead once the war effort is done. It’s a shame we haven’t found peaceful ways to live as humans. Everywhere, as Peter Tosh sang, is war.

So back to the question, I don’t know if I have a favorite candy. If it is sweet, we are in business.

We have a fuel crisis

And I don’t know if it is the war in far off Ukraine or it is domestic politics.

On the war in Ukraine

Power play in Ukraine War

I have no dog in this fight, for the moment, except for the fact that 2 of my friends are stuck in Kyiv. I hope they remain safe. The above article puts most of the responsibility for the war on NATO, EU expansion and US foreign policy. Since I am not a student of Int’l politics or foreign policy, I let those more knowledgeable to comment and share their views.

As for me, I hope the war ends soon with no much further loss of life.