Daily Times

Way back a poem by Isaac Rosenberg surfaced. He was 28 and he died in the First World War;

“Snow is a strange word;

No ice or frost

Have asked of bud or bird

For winter’s cost.

Yet ice and frost and snow

From earth to sky

This summer land doth know,

No man knows why.

In all men’s hearts it is.

Some spirit old

Hath turned with malign kiss

Our lives to mould.

Red fangs have torn His face.

God’s blood is shed.

He mourns from His lone place

His children dead.

O! Ancient crimson curse!

Corrode, consume.

Give back this universe

Its pristine bloom.”

One can clearly understands the idea upon reading it that all he wanted were the miseries to end and all he desired was the pristine bloom of humanity.

To fight only to get over your troubles can not justify it rather nothing can justify war.

When the First World War ended, many people at the time may have thought that it was the end of the bloodbath. Men and women, who lost their sons, daughters, friends and lovers to the war, must have hoped that the world would never plunge into such darkness again.

Yes, a war definitely ends eventually, but one can never tell when the next war will begin. This is what exactly Plato meant whence he said “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

The only alternative to war that exists logically is the renunciation of war just to resolve the conflict through negotiations.

Yes, a war definitely ends eventually, but one can never tell when the next war will begin. This is what exactly Plato meant whence he said “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Thus, never to stop dialogue is the sole and the best option to reach to logical conclusion.

This is however the most critical time which ought to be dealt with extreme care and precision. For escalation can ever be controlled through the use of nuclear weapons. Escalation is after all escalation and using nuclear weapons would be the ultimate escalation.

Herman Kahn, a very famous strategic theorist, always reminded us that crises, conflicts and wars may escalate. One of his famous theory is the Escalation Ladder Theory. Essentially, Kahn explains gradations of conflict, from “ostensible crisis” up 40+ rungs to “spasm” thermonuclear war. Such a spasm is to be avoided, obviously.

I am referring to Kahn as he always wanted to think rationally about the unthinkable and he is also right in saying that scholars and leaders do have to think about the possible not merely about the probable.

Given the escalated situation across the border between Pakistan and India, and as said by the premier Imran Khan India we must give peace a try. However, unfortunately, his counterpart in India is surrounded only by brass hats and a NSA whose son otherwise has huge business interests in Pakistan; according to the Indian media.

Notwithstanding, at this point in time, Modi ought to understand that war is too serious a business to be handed over to Generals completely. However, it also reminded me of what President Kennedy told his aide during the famous Cuban missile crisis whilst he was facing tremendous pressure from the generals or the brass hats, “These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor.

“If we listen to them, and we do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them they were wrong.”

So, anyone who is going to surrender critical thinking to a thick head with only jingoistic thinking, devoid of logic is doomed in my opinion.

Well to conclude, both the nations at this critical point in time should neither calculate nor miscalculate, rather appeal for peace to prevail. For war is nothing but a reduction of humanity in deed to a savage state.

The writer is an independent researcher

Published in Daily Times, March 3^rd 2019.