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Shadow Of World War Three
THE First World War (1914 -1918) and the Second World War (1939-1945) both started almost as casual conflicts, expected to be stamped out by the authorities. No one had a premonition that the wars would drag on for years. Global peace was expected to be restored soonest. In each case, it didn't happen that way. One thing led to others: assassinations, invasion, alignment, coercion and so on. Before the world became fully appreciative of the imports and impact, it was on fire from all sides. Although historians categorically gave dates for World War I and II, those dates relate only to when exchange of fire and animosity between nations became very protracted. In real fact, the events that led to each of the wars started years before the formal declaration. But the wars were similarly devastating for the world and mankind. They remain, for ever, black spots in the history of man.
All wars have similar features. There is killing in small and large scales. Civilised rules, including those formulated by international agencies like the United Nations and International Red Cross are usually thrown overboard. The first rule is self-preservation . In wars, bombs grenades, mortars, missiles, machine guns and other ammunitions are used freely on human beings, buildings, bridges, farmlands and virtually anything in sight considered to be a threat. In all wars, the 'enemies' are killed, but in the process, innocent people also are killed. They include women, children, the disabled and ordinary travellers. If one considers this scenario, the inevitable thought is whether the world is now not in a state of war. All the features of war recollected are occurring and recurring daily in virtually all part of the globe. Some of the conflicts are informed by religions differences, others by political, ethnic, racial or tribal sentiments. Whatever may be the antecedents or causes, a war is a war, and its aftermath is always terrible.
But there is a more dangerous addition to the seeming war going on now. That is the unseen face of the enemy. It started with September 11, 2001 when the United States was attacked through suicide plane hijackers who in the process destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Organisation and the American Pentagon. President George Bush rightly described the attack as "an act of war." But unlike in the conventional wars of the past, including World Wars I and II, it took a considerable measure of investigation and intelligence services for America to trace the attack to Al Qaeda network. This is a group of Islamic fundamentalists which sees the United States as a sworn enemy perpetually bent on undermining the group's religious faith. Whether the perception is right or wrong is another matter. But America felt that by destroying the WTO headquarters and killing perhaps 4,000 people in the process, Al Qaeda deserves to be exterminated. And so, the war on Afghanistan's Taliban government, thought to be harbouring Al Qaeda's leader, the dreaded Osama Bin Laden.
Afghanistan and Bin Laden were globally unpopular for the American attack. Practically every country, Muslim and Christian alike, condemned the senseless carnage of human beings, including Muslims and Christians, white and black, young and old, male and female. But, in the characteristic manner of how wars spread, Afghanistan extended to Iraq, expressly for different reasons but presumably for what America considered to be the terrorist connection. Now, almost two years later, the global spectacle, as regards terrorism and anti-terrorism measures, is unsightly. In the last two years, the record of people killed in the war against terrorism must be competing strongly with the casualty recorded in similar periods during the first and second World Wars. The enemies remain unseen largely, with a strong resolve to die with an attack rather than taken alive. Hostages are taken as happened several times in post Saddam Hussein's Iraq and once in Saudi Arabia. Often on such occasions, television coverage of the hostage taking is almost live, but the captors are hooded. Their personality and character can only be conjectured. The unknown and unseen enemies are everywhere, causing havoc in Spain, France, Turkey and many Asian countries.
Russia is the latest. On August 24, 2004, two passenger planes were crashed in a manner and style suggestive of terrorism. Indeed, a little -known terrorist group calling itself the Islambuli Brigades that claims to be part of the Al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the tragedies in which 89 people were killed. Six days later, on August 31, a suicide bombing outside a Moscow metro station killed nine and injured scores. But the worst war yet to come as experienced just three days later when unknown terrorists seized a school in Beslan, Russia on the first day of resumption.
They held captive school children, their teachers and many parents who had accompanied their wards. Again, very little was known of the attackers apart from a strong suspicion that they were aggrieved Chechens, seeking independent political identity. Just over 48 hours after the school's captivity, bombs, believed to have been wired around the school premises started to explode. There was massive stampede as Russian special troops stationed around the school moved in and tried to rescue who they could. The school's captors gave little room for such heroism and at the end, 350 persons were officially confirmed dead. More than 400 remain hospitalised and nearly 200 people could not be accounted for.
The situation was reportedly so bad that the unknown enemies were said to have shot fleeing children and women from the back, just to prevent their escape. To further complicate the scenery, the people of Beslan and North Ossetia generally, the region in neighbouring Chechnya where Beslan is located, took up arms against the terrorists probably in a perception that the authorities were too slow in responding to the attack. The Russians had a good ground for their fear. For the three days the school was held in captivity, the terrorists did not allow food or water for those inside. It was clear the result would be mass starvation and dehydration of the children and teachers unless something happened. But what happened was probably beyond the reasonable imagination of the whole world. The grief thereby occasioned is so deep and widespread that CNN likened the day, September 3, 2004 to the attack on America of September 11, 2001. Again, the unseen enemy is at work.
Even now, the Russian episode is still confounding. There is little to confirm wide speculations about the people behind the attack or their motive. Reports on the number of terrorists are conflicting. Initially, the authorities said 16 terrorists were behind it and that 13 were reported to have escaped. Then different officials cited numbers ranging from 29 to 34 terrorists, saying all had been killed, except for three who were captured. More confusion: Nine of the hostage takers were said to be Arabs and a 10th was reported to be African. Moscow has offered no proof to back the claims.
The world is definitely going through a war with a difference. The enemies are unknown. The causes are not understood. With Russia's President Putin threatening brimstone and fire to deal with the enemy, one cannot but trepidate. That threat is too similar to President Bush's style that has led to Iraq in 2004 being practically lawless and ungovernable. If Bush's actions have worsened international terrorism and made the world several times more unsafe, nobody wants to contemplate what Putin's resolve would lead to. There really must be more ways to deal with this nagging problem. The world was a much better place to live in barely two years back. Why has the situation so degenerated that people are willing to sacrifice their lives just to punish perceived oppressors? Why is religion causing so much division and conflict in the world when one religion is not much different from another in the case of the world's major religions - Christianity and Islam? Suicide bombers probably have deep grievance, which originated several years back. Can we now say that parents whose children are being killed daily in Russia, Iraq and in Gaza are not being inflicted with similar or deeper grievances? Even more potentially dangerous are children who are daily watching their loved parents moved down senselessly. These are highly impressionable people, whose mind is amenable to manipulation.
After Russia, the question is begging: where else? And what next? Is there a place for diplomacy? Jaw jaw they say, is better than war war. Among other things, the United Nations have rules and conventions governing most major crises in the world. I fear that the world is already going through the third global war. More than that, unlike in previous wars, this is a war that is so different in context and in pursuit. It has the potential of destroying the entire mankind.
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