WORLD WAR TWO 70YEARS ON

“We no longer demand anything, we want war. - Joachim von Ribbentrop (German foreign minister in August 1939.)

These words were barely uttered when German Wehrmacht tanks rolled across the German-Polish frontier on the 1st of September 1939, signifying the commencement of the most catastrophic war in human history. Pitting Germany and then Japan and Italy (Axis Powers) against Great Britain, France and later the United States (Allied Powers); the Russians had to switch sides to guarantee their survival after coming under attack from a supposed allied Germany.

Regenerating from the ashes of the First World War ending twenty one years back, it took the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively bring  the war to an end on 14th August 1945, as Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced an unconditional surrender; though Germany had surrendered earlier in May 1945.

Atomic Bomb Smoke Capped by Mushroom Cloud Rises More Than 60,000 Feet Into Air over Nagasaki
Source:www.allposters.com/-sp/Atomic-Bomb-Smoke-Capped-by-Mushroom-Cloud-Rises-More-Than-60-000-Feet-Into-Air-over-Nagasaki-Posters_i3592149_.htm

"Japan has today surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low.”.......Clement Attlee (British Prime Minister 1945)

Though Seventy Years back from the time, the World still has significant lessons to learn from the resultants, impact and outcome of the war, viz:

§  Belligerent Germany was demobilized of Military hardware and sanctioned on the size of its fighting machinery by the treaty of Versailles following the end of the First World War. Yet, its army took the world by a storm, capitulating the French army in days and it took a coalition of Allied Countries to subdue its might.

§  The German fighting machine was built up by rhetoric fascist leader—Adolf Hitler, despite existing sanctions against its military expansion.

§  World leaders frenzied from the First World War experience preferred to appease Hitler with territorial expansion rather than confront his ambitions with force.

§  The resultant ensuing conflagrating warfare resulted in the arms race for weapons of mass destruction, a product of which was the atomic bomb.

§  The end of the Second World War ushered an established bipolar World order between Western/Capitalism and Eastern/Communism.

Wary of Nuclear warfare, World powers rather than confront themselves, sponsor belligerent groups/ governments in attritional conflicts as seen especially in the Syria and Ukraine currently; thus, buoying several complicated pockets of conflicts around the globe.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein

Seventy Years on from the end of the Second World War today, the international polity still simmers from the same effect that precipitated World War Two in these forms:

§  Ever since the end of the Cold war and Warming of tensions between the Eastern and Western Blocs, never has tension being heightened between these two passive belligerents as it currently plays out in the Ukrainian conflict.

§  Leaders of some countries still render unwholesome violence filled rhetoric not hiding their desire to destroy some other Country and perceived allies. Such examples abound in Iranian rhetoric against Israel and North Korea against USA

§  Despite the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,, more countries outside the permanent five members of the United Nations have acquired Nuclear weapons whilst the permanent five are reluctant to disarm.

§  Owing to failed resultants of Western Military interventions in the Afghanistan and Iraq, Western powers are reluctant to execute full military force especially against belligerent groups in the Middle East (e.g the Islamic State) favouring instead limited intervention of airstrikes and dialogue with Iran with regards to its nuclear activity.

“Anyone who fights, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy who dominates the air, is like a primitive warrior who stands against modern forces, with the same limitations and the same chance of success”. - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

No doubt, Military Ordnance has become more sophisticated and deadly than what obtained during World War Two; one thing is assured in case of any belligerence betwixt world powers----‘Mutually assured destruction’.

Indeed, it will spell the end of humanity.

Seeing similarly intrigues brooding, such as those that ignited World War Two; seventy years on, it is imperative for global actors to learn from the past else the existence of humanity be plunged into an impending oblivion.