‘This is What Happens in War’.

Never were truer words uttered, when aid workers were killed recently, after bringing in food for the starving people in Gaza.

Claims are now being made that the Hermes 450 drone used in the attack was powered by UK produced engine parts.

We are seeing the results of war - not the heroic glamour of what is called victory, but the relentless suffering of whole populations, plus the brutalising of those, who once claimed high ideals, and probably still do.

War becomes a nonsensical, topsy turvy time: 12,000 children killed - and it is still called the right to self defence.  One life becomes worth more than another. 

Fear, hate, bombs and mere survival become the war’s and the world’s currency.  All of us eventually lose.

History reveals, thankfully, some extra acts of selflessness and goodness, but also more atrocities.  

War lives on inside people.

Let us not turn away, but remember all of this as accurately as we can, with whatever strength we have left.

Otherwise we are condemned to repeat it.  

According to each of our abilities, we need to dismantle the divisiveness, the poverty and the power imbalances which unfortunately feed the human capacity for war from generation to generation.

Now it is even more urgent, as our highly technical weapons, bypass our own critical thinking, and then distance and sanitise the cruelty.

Patiently, we must learn of the equal value of each human being and work for a just peace across all nations.

Yes, we must remember: ‘This is what happens in war’

Salisbury ‘Ceasefire Now’ Peace Vigils continue every Saturday in April. 5pm outside the Library. Everyone welcome.

Carry Gloyns

New Forest

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