Glorified Evil

"For Your Tomorrow, we give our today" - an article about the largely forgotten role of Indian soldiers fighing under the British banner during the first and the second world wars.

Speaking of  war, I recall an essay I had written in high school on wars. The conclusion was that as long as we keep justifying wars in the name of freedom, annexation, history, religion, (and nowadays, democracy); keep on calling it war of indepence, crusades, or Operation Iraqi Freedom (for example), wars will never end. They will continue and each time we will make a new excuse. Is warring a basic instinct of mankind?

Let me quote Einstien (from an article in the APS newsletter), speaking at a one-day conference at Institute for Advanced Studies on Nov 17, 1946:
"To have security against atomic bombs and the other biological weapons, we have to prevent war, for if we cannot prevent war, every nation will use every means that is at their disposal; and in spite of all promises they make, they will do it. At the same time, so long as war is not prevented, all the governments of the nations have to prepare for war, and if you have to prepare for war, then you are in a state where you cannot abolish war."

On another note, there is this beautiful article in Salon on race.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2005 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Idle Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.