By Andy Spearman
Two gatherings held over the weekend in Drogheda have served to underline the futility of war and the importance of diplomacy and political leadership in saving the lives of civilians who outnumber by far the number of military deaths.
Sadly, in the circus that passes for international politics these days, the clowns have taken over the show and long-standing laws governing military engagement and the targeting of civilians are being disregarded.
At dusk on Friday evening people young and old gathered on the steps of St. Peter’s Church in West Street for a candlelight vigil for the 11,000 victims of the carnage being visited upon the population of Gaza in Palestine.
The current fighting in the decades long war between Israel and Palestine was sparked by the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas fighters which shocked the world and resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israeli civilians with 200 or so more being kidnapped.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s kneejerk response was to declare his intention to wipe Hamas from the face of the earth. Within days rockets started falling on towns, cities and even refugee camps, in the Gaza strip.
All the world’s population could do was sit and watch the devastation unfolding on TV. Sickening images of bloodied civilians, many of them children, are now a nightly occurrence. Just like they were a couple of years ago when another clown, Vladimir Putin, sent his killing machine into Ukraine.
The last thing on these monster’s minds is the fate of civilians. Even humanitarian aid is used as a weapon, denying access to humanitarian aid is just another way of killing.
“The war to end all wars!”
The next morning, on the faa side of Drogheda, another gathering took place to remember the victims of war. The annual November 11th Remembrance Services to remember and honour the soldiers who were killed in great numbers in battle was started after the First World War which was variously been called “The Great War” or “The war to end all wars”.
Whatever about being great, the First World War certainly did not put an end to war. By 1939 the combatants were at each other’s throats again and there has been war of some sort in one place or another ever since.
The machinery of war has come a long way since then and armies have terrifying killing machines at their disposal. Running across no-mans land with a rifle and shooting at whoever you come across is no longer how they do their business. They don’t need to stare their enemies in the eye, they can kill them from hundreds of miles away.
It’s a horrifying vista but sadly there seems to be nobody in a position of power to change it. International politics and diplomacy has been so debased that there is an almost total lack of leadership.
Statesmen and women are a thing of the past it seems. If they exist at all they are staying very quiet at a time when they are badly needed by populations in many countries around the world who are experiencing conflict of one type or another.
Quite apart from Gaza and Ukraine, children in 30 other countries are also feeling the effects of war. Their terror, and their tears must count just as much as their Palestinian colleagues who are currently on our TVs every news bulletin.
Think Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, and Yemen. Their children’s tears, their spilled blood, their wasted lives are an indictment of the current crop of world leaders.
