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Wars are caused by the failure of human values

Man is rushing headlong into an epic confrontation that will reduce our planet to radioactive rubble. Powerful nations are busy assembling and deploying weaponry that boggles the human mind. Instruments of total and utter destruction will result in the omnicide of the human race. The Indo-Pakistan border is on hair trigger alert as nuclear missiles are on the launch pads awaiting orders. The Korean peninsula is bristling with weaponry that could be fired in minutes. The South China Sea is awash with warships that could send the area into a fireball of catastrophic proportions. The Arabian Gulf is seething with anger, one slight miscalculation could result in an inferno that will rage out of control, catapulting the price of oil to over a hundred dollars a barrel. Human life will cease to exist as events escalate out of human control.
Peace at present is balanced on a knife-edge. War changes our parameters. In the face of actual or perceived threat, acts that would normally be abhorrent become acceptable and even routine. History graphically reminds us that any war involves infinite physical destruction. The biggest loss to war and violence is the loss of humanity. The consequence of war is the creation of hatred, and the loss of values. Wars of aggression result in the failure of human values. Millions will struggle to survive as animals, plants, trees, and insects that form the biodiversity are under threat as entire ecosystem is decimated.
- The writer is based in Johannesburg