Peace or War: To be Optimistic or Pessimistic about the Future of Humanity
- Written by: Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
“Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture...
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away...”- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Realism has its own moral and intellectual properties and truth cannot be made truer simply by numbers and fake political statements. We, the People of globe have no passion for war; it is incompatible with human nature whereas peace is the outgrown truth of human consciousness and moral, spiritual and physical balance. The on-going war between Russia-Ukraine and NATO appears to set the psychological agenda undermining a sustainable future for mankind without realizing its real-world affects across the board manifesting frightening waves of fear and hatred across the globe. Fear and hatred are the defining traits used by the warmongers to belittle mankind just as lifeless digits and numbers to be counted in official statistic.
Is the media propaganda a weapon of conquest of human minds, soul and future-making? Come to understand the contemporary issues of the 21st century’s Russian-American and European discards over Ukraine and the future of oil and gas supplies, grain exports and economic relationships all under scrutiny between those who during the 2nd WW stood united against foreign aggression and killings of fellow human beings . There is an amassed collection of fear, ambiguity and distrust that spells out the prevalent reality of current global affairs. There is no corresponding communications and dialogues between the superpowers to change the horrible present into a sustainable and peaceful future for the humanity populating this planet. All that is happening or could happen such as: “Ukraine goes in darkness”, “Russian bombing destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructures”, “NATO not fighting in Ukraine” , “the EU discard over Russian war on Ukraine”, and lot more making sensational headlines. The perplexed statistic of weapons and money to aid Ukraine represents a shaky scenario of encountering the military onslaught, and balancing of reason is missing across the tensions of unrealized possibilities of peacemaking and conflict resolution.
Is there an Irony between Logic and Political Wickedness?
Alexis Carre, the 2022-23 Thomas W. Smith Postdoctoral Research Associate of the James Madison Program, Princeton University (“Europeans Have Weapons but Aren’t Warriors” Foreign Policy: 12/07/22) , argues negating the history of European conquests across Asia, Africa, North Africa and South America as if they went in peace and were not the warriors of horrors, killings and political deception and military occupation. Often crises have multiple spillover agendas for change and surprises. Just as there is an EU, alliance between America and Japan, Russia and China-Japan and so on. Could we imagine the coming of a new age of relationship between Russia, Ukraine and America-led NATO when even most exemplary political vigilance could be liable to unusual surprises?
Ukraine wanted to join the European community-NATO and claims the right of freedom to join any international organizations for its betterment, peace and security. NATO’s formation and scope is limited to nationalistic conventional warfare in the European theatre. One wonders, what wars did NATO fight to protect its ideals and strategic priorities after the 1945 WW? What NATO had to do with Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya? Were these accidental engagements or simply an extension of planned irresistible catastrophic instances of tyranny against the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. The history of NATO and its plans and ideological motives are equally distorted and disfigured on the global screen of reason, honesty and accountability.
Is NATO run by the wrong people, glued to wrong thinking and doing the wrong things without any rational sense of time, people’s interest and history? Craig Murray (“NATO-an idea Whose Time has Gone.”: AntiWar.com), former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee, UK, foresees the body as obsolete
It is also the case that the situation in countries where NATO has been most active in killing people, including Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan ……NATO’s attempt to be global arbiter and enforcer has been disastrous at all levels…it is very clever and cynical. NATO provides power to the elite and money to the wealthy.
Leader of Human Consciousness should Think Critically before They Act
Hans Morgenthau (Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 1978): the legendry theorists of the 20th century points out that: “Realism, believing as it does in the objectivity of the laws of politics…politics must be subjected to the dual test of reason and experience…..for realism, theory consists in ascertaining facts and giving them meaning through reason….If we want to know the moral and political qualities of his (politician) actions, we must know them, not his motives.”
We, the People live in a splendid Universe in which planet Earth floats ordained by the commands of God. We are moral beings unlike animals that possess the eyes, ear and other senses but cannot draw logical conclusion from their senses. We, the People draw rational results what we see and what we hear, therefore, we are different, and we cannot act or live animals. There is a moral sense of spirituality and humanity to co-exist in harmony with the rest of all creations on this Earth. Modern wars represent sadistic and cruel minds to undermine human rights, dignity and life. They destroy all that is built over the ages that we call human cultures and civilizations. All of the Abrahamic Faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) reveal the truth of “Trust” – human beings took to be responsible and be at peace with the Nature of Things. This TRUST and its reminder are explicitly mentioned in (The Qur’an, Chapter 33: 72):
“We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth; And the mountains but they refused; To undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it; He was indeed unjust and foolish.”
We are One Humanity and we are the most intelligent being populating the earth. We can THINK and REASON and cannot act like animals without accountability. The Earth is a living entity and is meant for us - the human beings. We, the People wonder who else except God created life, the Earth and the living Universe floating in space well balanced and functional since time immemorial. Who else other than God determined the Earth spinning of 1670 km per hour? Who else than God ordained it to orbit the sun at 107,000 km per hour? And who else than God made it to spin at 28,437 km per hour at the equator? (https://www.newscientist.com/question/fastearthspin/#ixzz7C8p37S9X). Be aware that earth average distance to the Sun is about 93 million miles (105 million km); the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units and if the distance between the Earth-Sun or the Earth-moon were ever to change, there will be no sign of life or habitats left on Earth.
We, the People, wish to rejoice truth, not evil. We, the people of the world enjoin focused minds and imagination to articulate a new world of One Humanity, brotherhood and peaceful co-existence amongst all, free of hatred, fear, wars, encroachment and animosity. We, the people of the globe possess understanding - how to change the egoistic and embittered insanity of the few hate-mongers and warlords into equilibrium of balanced relationship between Man, Life and God- given living Universe in which we reside all.
Every beginning has its end and effective leaders should always be open to listening and learning. President Macron had a phone conversation with President Putin and reasserts the need for futuristic ‘security guarantees’ for Russia to come to peacemaking. President Biden tells audience in Washington that he can speak with President Putin. President Putin shows readiness to talk with Western leaders. What are they waiting for? Why don’t they take initiatives to have a dialogue for a ceasefire and peace treaty? The US, the EU and NATO and Russia should rethink peacemaking, not to enlarge the scope of current conflict in Ukraine. President Putin needs rethinking to be at peace with its neighbors even if its national interest differs and future could be challenging for peaceful co-existence. Most superpowers and their strategic thinkers and political planners lack understanding of the convergent factors of life articulating viable change when it is at the peak of its lifeline. They worship the form and forgot the essence of peace, security, human survival, Planet Earth and global peace and unity of mankind for sustainable future. Raymond Aron, French Political Philosopher and Sociologist offered the following foresight at the dawn of 1939 WW2:
“When one is speaking to people who profess to despise peace, one must say that, if one loves peace, it is not out of cowardice. It is ridiculous to set regimes founded on work against regimes founded on leisure. It is grotesque to believe that cannons can be resisted with butter, or effort with rest.”
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.
