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Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Editorial: What war can bring
Two aspects of the threatened war on Iraq apparently have not been thoroughly considered by the United States and Britain:
l How will it affect the rest of the world, especially in countries already in the grip of a worsening economy?
l Aside from death of civilians from bullets and bombs of the war, how much suffering will be inflicted on refugees who will be dislocated and forced to flee their homes?
The Philippines will be among the victims of the war. Its economy already rocked by the assaults on peace and order, on top of the built-in and crippling forces of corruption and inefficiency, will be worsened by expected sharp falls on trade, investment, and travel, and the inevitable high leaps of oil prices. Which can translate into more hunger, more crime, more want and discontent in the land.
How much have the US and Britain given thought to the problem of refugees that every war creates and the accompanying woes of hunger, disease, and human rights abuses?
Raining thousands of leaflets on Iraq, urging Iraqis to defect, speaks more of the US-Briton war goal than concern for the civilians who will have to leave their homes and be exposed to all sorts of danger.
The imponderables in what the war will bring are even scarier: What if Muslims in the war region and the rest of the world like the Philippines will strike at perceived allies of the US?
What if the Iraq war will set off terroristic havoc and destruction all over the world?
UN: another casualty
Another casualty if the United States and Britain wage the war without the authority of the United Nations will be the structure and symbol of world peace and cooperation.
If the UN cannot stop US and Britain from using peaceful disarmament of Iraq before using bombs and bullets, how can the world body survive such erosion of authority by two of the world’s great powers?
The UN may not collapse but it will be reduced to a mere forum for debate, in which decisions have little moral force and cannot bind its members.
Beating of war drums
Few words are ever said for war. Listen to what have been said against it:— There never was a good war or a bad peace.
— Everything, everything in war is barbaric.
— History reveals that wars create more problems than they solve.
— War does not determine who is right—only who is left. Next time it won’t even do that.
— War does not, and cannot, prove which side is right, but only which side is stronger.
— War’s a profanity, because let’s face it, you’ve got two opposite sides trying to settle their differences by killing as many of each other as they can.
The last line is from an American general, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led at least one major war.
But, someone said, war is regarded as wicked, that’s why it has not lost its fascination.
And that’s why, someone else said, the most persistent sound that reverberates through man’s history is the beating of war drums.
(March 12, 2003 issue)
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