Wars and Elections

In recent time, wars are becoming tried and tested formula for winning elections. Whenever Existing Government loses popularity and feels it difficult to win elections again, they either initiate a conflict or escalate any dispute to divert public attention from real issues.

Recently we saw same thing during Indian Election where BJP Govt. converted Pulwama attack  into Indo-Pak war. Now US Elections are coming and Mr Trump is losing popularity. Thus, it seems that Mr. Trump is considering a war as the solution to re-gain popularity.

Today we saw its beginning when U.S. airstrike killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard . Soleimani was not just Iran’s top-ranking military official but he is also very close to the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a message published to his official website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “harsh revenge awaits the criminals” involved.

Pentagon is calling it a “decisive defensive action”. The Pentagon also blamed the Iranian general for orchestrating attacks on coalition bases in Iraq in recent months, including an attack on 27 december that culminated in the deaths of an American contractor and Iraqi personnel.

Iran influence is increasing in the gulf region and US and its ally does not like it. It is Election time in US and anything is possible. Any escalation from Iran side may convert this tension into a war.

We, as a citizen and voters of different countries must understand that we should not let wars and offensives distract us. We should cast our vote based on five year performance of government not on emotional outburst or instant patriotism. Because electing right government is more patriotic then supporting corrupt government. Governments will stop waging wars once they realise that wars will backfire on their popularity. Let’s say no to wars and yes to peaceful resolutions of any dispute. Let us keep humanity first and live with peace and harmony.  

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War and Peace:

Part-1: WARS

Whenever I start believing we are living in most peaceful time ever, I found some disturbing pictures of mass killing and wars on social media. Last time it was Myanmar, now it is Syria. It seems like Muslims are becoming soft target everywhere. Partially Muslims are responsible for it. They keep fighting each other. Nevertheless, as Indian home minister rightly said during Gujarat riots, “one injustice cannot justify other injustice”. However, people keep justifying voilance as a tool for justice.

Waging war without proper investigation, without trying peaceful diplomatic solutions, is immoral. All nations must respect sovereignty of other Nations. If something wrong is happening in some country, economic sanctions and diplomatic means must be used by world community rather than waging war. Afghanistan, a war-ruined country, attacked by some of the mighty forces of the world just to capture one person. They toppled the government, destroyed the nation and killed thousands of innocent civilians but they were unable in capturing Osama Bin Laden at that time. CIA was not able to find one person. To capture him, America went on War on Terror. To hide their own failure, they diverted world attention towards war against Afghanistan. Similarly, in IRAQ no weapons of mass destruction were found, yet it was attacked, destroyed and left to breed terrorism. Same was the case with Libya. Blaming only Americans is wrong. Few Muslim countries do not want other gulf countries to have strong Army and economy. Whenever there is a war, they keep quite or help USA and her allies.
In Myanmar, America has no interest. Kill Rohingya peoples, rape them and kick them out of their country but it will neither qualify as Terrorism nor as human right violations. Because in this case it is Muslims who are suffering. Moreover, Myanmar (also known as Burma) does not have Petroleum.
If people like Aung San Suu Kyi (the State Counsellor, a position equivalent to a Prime Minister)  could win Nobel Prize for peace in 1991 without any investigation about her views on Rohingya Minority, I have serious doubt about the transparency and credibility of Nobel Peace Prize. If there is no provision of revoking Nobel Prize, in that case, at least they must criticize Suu Kyi recent acts of supporting violence and covering it up as against the spirit of Nobel peace prize.

PEACE :

Since WWII, there were very few major wars and border disputes across the globe, some are mentioned above. Every country has a well define international border. Though there are, some exceptions but that does not affect development of major economic powers. 70 years of peace for economic super powers means development in science, technology, weapons, literature, art, culture and medicines. More and more countries are striving to develop indigenous technologies. China emerged as fastest growing economy in world.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasing at unprecedented rate. There are two forces working together which are increasing speed of development. First, increase in population of educated youth. Second is human machine interface. For example, computing power increased tremendously paving the way to solve difficult problems. Storing, processing and sharing data is becoming faster. Internet has changed everything. Anyone can learn about the latest technologies around the globe. Countries are spending more on R & D than ever before. We are more connected than ever before across the globe. All these are fruits of Peace in world. If countries can resolve border issues and stop internal civil wars peacefully, this speed of development and prosperity can increase further. Let us force our government to choose peace over war.