The real dynamic
in war and conflict comes from ambitious politicians, big business, the arms
manufacturers, newspaper proprietors, and national leaders all seeking their
own personal self-advancement and aggrandisement; they are all involved. And if
you don’t' believe me then perhaps we ought to remember that apart from the millions of ordinary people in
Britain and America who got out on the anti-war demonstrations eleven years ago
where was there at any significant level, a responsible leadership opposition to the illegal war that
was waged on Iraq by Britain and America in 2003? This was a war that exposed
the naked opportunism of our leaders, as well as their incompetence. This was a
war that has set in train misery on an unimaginable scale, a war in which today
remains unresolved and has to date taken 193,000 lives as an absolute minimum
whilst Isis militants now look poised to
conquer the region and now call on Iraqi Christians to convert to Islam or be
executed. The combined cost to Britain
of the wars waged in Iraq
and Afghanistan
is reckoned to be around £20 billion.
After
the First World War, in 1919 a wood-and-plaster cenotaph was erected in London for the Allied
Victory Parade. A more permanent structure now stands there. But very year
since 1919, there has been a parade and a ceremony in remembrance. It’s been
said that if in 1919 all Britain’
first world war dead, were to march past that cenotaph four abreast, the parade
would last for seven days. The size of this march past would number 994,138
rising to 1,225,914 if we included service personnel from other parts of the British Empire. Not included in this calculation are the
British military wounded who would have numbered another 1,663,435. The total number
of deaths in World War 1 is estimated at around 16 million, but this would be
more than doubled in the Second World War when around 37 million adults and
children would lose their lives.
And so we reflect
on the cost of human life in war situations and when we are brought close to
the reality of it all we must surely be overwhelmed by the insanity of what we
has human beings are putting ourselves through and what the inestimable price
in terms of sheer pain and misery must be. Through war we are really creating a
hell on earth.
And so we recall
that in the Garden of Gethsemane a time of great danger and at the cost to his
own life, Jesus told his protector to put away the sword for as he said, "those
who live by the sword shall die by the sword". This as ever is the choice
facing the world today.
