By Shawana Badat

02-04-04

War -- what is it good for? Absolutely nothing -- or so said Bruce Springsteen, a pop superstar of the 80s. What does war achieve? Nothing. War kills people, destroys nature, devastates society, consumes resources, weakens democracy, undermines peace, promotes racism and threatens human survival.

And people say this is a way to resolve feuds? War is human kind's deadliest activity.

From 500 BC to 2000 AD there have been 1,022 major documented wars. War disproportionately kills and injures women, children and the elderly. War destroys nature. Bombs destroy wildlife, disrupts habitats and contaminate the land, air and water.

War consumes too many hard-earned resources. Waging war requires burning vast stores of oil and generates greenhouse gases. Did you know that the Second World War consumed 6-9 bn barrels of oil? The Pentagon alone consumed 134 mm barrels of oil in 2001. The Pentagon, a building that represents war, is the largest consumer of oils, chemicals, precious metals, paper and wood. All these resources could be used for peace in ways other than weapons of mass destruction.

War pollutes the world, war pollutes the air we breathe, therefore war pollutes us. Did you know that the world's armies are responsible for as much as 10 % of global air pollution?

War costs money, the money spent on wars is drained from critical, social, educational, medical and environmental needs. Did you know that in the US 51 % of the 2003 discretionary federal budget went to the military? This money could be, and should be, spent on wars worth fighting and by this I mean wars against diseases and wars against poverty.

War promotes racism, citizens of one country believe that the citizens of the competing nations are evil, sub-human or a threat. The flip side of war is the tens and thousands of refugees who will use this as an excuse to emigrate and claim asylum in countries of greater wealth, like Britain. How many asylum seekers can these countries support?

Some people think that the government should look after their own citizens rather than asylum seekers. Well, if that's the case then act against war and these problems will be no more. We must speak against war with a clear voice, a voice which demands respect for the absolute right of people all over the world, for them to decide their own destinies, without occupying armies, without commercial schemes to rip off their national wealth.

The UN was set up as a talking table for the world after the Second World War to prevent wars from happening again. We need to use this as a way of achieving peace.

Always remember, without justice there can be no peace and remember, war does not determine who is right... but who is left... !

Source: Gulf Daily News