SINCE my childhood days, my greatest fear was an outbreak of a nuclear war. When I was in grade six, I happened to see a movie entitled “The Day After” which was about the aftermath of a nuclear war. That film bothered me much and gave me anxieties. I had sleepless nights ahead.
The next film I saw was “Nostradamus” which talked about the predictions of the end of the world. The interpretation of his writings were so negative that again it simply confirmed what I previously saw in the previous film.
Events like the American hostages in Iran, the Iran-Iraq war, the KAL incident Falkland Islands conflict, the AIDS Menace, the skylab incident, and the Marcos Dictatorship were the backdraft of my teenage stage. The fear of nuclear war and talks of World War 3 was very loud. It created more anxieties in me.
My college years were calm and serene. The storm had calmed down and I had learned to surrender all my fears to God. Every fear that I had was transmigrated to prayer and thanksgiving to God. I had spiritual directors who transformed my fears into graces and blessings. The anxiety was soon gone.
In 1991, another conflict hit the ceiling. The Gulf War was the issue. It seems that the world was about to split into half. But, of course, it was not the time. But it created fears in all of us.
Looking at all these, I could say that these are events that made the US great once more. In all of these world events, United States became the savior of the world. At the back of all these, the USA was the hero at the expense of the other countries. In our history, these were also the years when the US experience the lowest in their economies. A legitimate way of bringing up their economy is by staging a conflict or war outside of the US.
Now, Iran is the target. The US is overjoyed by the death of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite military and intelligence forces. This allegedly triggered the anger of the Iranians. Tuesday night, Iran claimed the missile attack over US Base in Iraq. In a foreign report, there was no casualty in the US forces. What does this mean? Is the conflict once again staged? I hope not.
If this is the war that everyone has been waiting for, then we start talking about real peace. However, if this was again another ploy of the US to answer their economic problems, then we are once again being made to watch a very beautiful film about the Iran –US conflict. When is the showing of this film?
I hope they will not make the Philippines a stage again of their multi-million production. We have already hosted a full-length movie way back in the ’40s, remember World war @. It was their war and not ours. We were only the stage and the poor Filipinos were just props to their movie of the century.
St. Sebastian, Patron of the Diocese, pray for us.