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.

World Peace: A responsibility of every Nation!

Since the inception of recorded history of mankind, it has been inundated with tales of conquests and heroic actions of individuals who rose to fame through leading their peoples through warfare. Even in religious parlance, figures like the biblical Joshua and King David are popular conquest heroes whilst contemporary history boasts of empire builders in Nebuchadnezzar 1, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Shaka Zulu, Alexander the Great, Emperor Justinan 1, Genghis Khan amongst several others. However, there are several other Empire builders who ended up on the losing side of history in Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Attila the Hun, Hannibal, amongst several others.

Whether conquerors, heroes, victors, plunderers, terrorists or villains; one thing is common to these historical figures and their empires—they were founded by shedding of millions of human blood.

until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."…………Chinua Achebe

 "History is written by the victors"……Winston Churchill

Human Skulls-- Relics of mass murders of humanuty around the world
Image: LKEM / Flickr)

Whilst the murderous antecedents of human history over the past centuries has been long forgotten or forgiven/relegated to the shredders of human memories; there is a sharp awakening to humans murderous tendencies especially from the 20^th century to the present 21^st century, as rough estimates has it that the number of murderous annihilations of specific tribes, race and religions over the last 200 hundred years (this includes the first and second world wars) almost equals the number of humans who have died (through natural or human causes) over the other centuries.

To buttress this, reckoning from the obnoxious slave trade (trans Atlantic and colonial expenditures of the 16^th,17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries); humanity experienced murders on the industrial scale during the first and second world wars where war causalities were reckoned in millions as hundreds of thousands were felled in minutes -no thanks to the technology of machine guns, ‘conventional’ bombs and nuclear bombs.

From the 1915 Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust, to targeted deportations and killings of several ethnic nationalities under varied guise during first and second world wars, leaders of the world powers said never again in 1945 through formation of the United Nations and allied charters.

Nevertheless, since 1945, the sanity of humanity has again been called to question as a resultant of awakened genocidal tendencies in massacres and ethno-religious cleansing in recent conflicts around the world. Sadly, this murderous tendencies has had a contagious effect in 3 of the World’s continents.

Europe has it in balkanization of Yugoslavia which had its high point in the Srebrenica massacre of 1992. Currently, there are heightened tensions in Eastern Europe especially amongst former Soviet bloc nations over the ethnic consciousness of Russian speaking peoples in these nations which has caused the Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008 and is currently heightening tensions in Ukraine.

Africa has it Sudan where prolonged conflicts (sometimes dubbed Africa’s longest civil conflict) lead to the splitting of Africa’s largest nation and the emergence of a new nation in South Sudan in 2011. This never ended the conflict in that region as battles still rage in South Sudan and mother Sudan itself (both targeting ethnic nationalities).

Across the Sahara to South, brutal civil conflicts in Liberia, Cote d’ivore and Sierra leone during the 1990’s and 2000’s claimed thousands of lives with associated brutality of limb amputations of survivors. To the east, Africa’s most populous country Nigeria, has had a civil conflict in the 1960’s which had ethnic undertones and yet scores from that war are yet to be settled as it a common trend for riots and recently ‘scotch the earth’ annihilation by Boko Haram insurgents to sporadically claim the lives of hundreds of Nigerians daily -all of which has ethno-religious undertones.

Away from the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which already had a precedence in targeted killing of Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s; the drooling effect of these menace has eternally plundered peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the Banyamulenges are almost extinct. Somalia reels from an eternal conflict now engulfing its larger economic neighbour Kenya and also causing a serious concern for the wider East Africa sub region. The Central Africa Republic is also witnessing an annihilation of it Muslim population. No thanks to years of civil wars and religious revenge attacks.

In Asia, targeted marginalization of the Rohingya Muslims amongst other tribal wars is an issue in Burma (Myanmar) and is a reminisence of the brutal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Kurdish repressions as experienced in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran as well as the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calls to question the sanity of humanity. The Arab spring has provided another butcher field in Syria and questionable anti-terrorism interventions by the United States and her allies has forever destroyed the bliss once known in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of all the continents, only South America has tended to move on from its murderous pasts but pockets of conflicts still remains in the drug fuelled clashes/wars of Columbia and Mexico.

After reeling the murderous tendencies and man’s inhumanity to mankind over the 20^th and 21^st centuries, one must note that these murderous tendencies if not nipped can spell doom to humanity (especially as seen in the origin of the first World War).

Amidst the conflicts, terror attacks and civil unrests that grips our world today, it is not enough for words of condemnation to be said no matter the veracity. Considering the burden of refugee welfare which usually lies of on non-conflict countries, there is a call for every nation to ensure world peace and reassert our common humanity.

Articles 43 through 48 of the U.N. Charter already provide for a permanent command structure for a standing volunteer rapid response force, which has never been created- a liberal interpretation of those articles would  permit creation of a standing world army.

On a year when the world the centenary of the outbreak of the first World War, there is no better time to set aside selfish international interests amongst world powers and other Nations who inadvertently by their actions fuel conflicts around the world and see to a stop of mass murders. We are all humans with one Heart, Spirit and Soul. We should be sane and protect the sanctity of human life to save humanity from outright annihilation by our own actions.