SPEAKING ACTIVITY

War Begets War

By Rachel Eva Samuel
 Hello and
welcome to my
English Class!
 War Begets War
The lessons of history are the building blocks of the future.
Those who do not heed those lessons
will repeat the blunders of the past and the consequences
of their insensitivity will be more
devastating than ever before. The closing stages of the last
Great War have taught us that the
power of modern weapons is total destruction.
 And yet can war be totally avoided? Again the last Great
War has taught that war can sometimes
be justifiable. This notion has given rise to a recent concept
of the “just war”. War and
justification. Can they go together? Sounds oxymoronic
(sounds contradictory). And yet in some
situations in spite of the collateral damage of loss of life
and property war can be justifiable.
The prequel to World War II will teach us
that strict adherence to a no-war policy
coupled with
the willingness to appease can be more
devastating than war itself. Let me
elaborate.

If the then prime minister of Britain had acted to stop the initial exploits of
Germany it would not have
emboldened the leaders of Germany to think of themselves as an Alexander
the Great or a
Napoleon and set out to conquer the world.
 Millions of lives were lost. Centuries of infrastructure were
flattened. A small war in that
instance would have prevented a global inferno. This should
teach us that a just war is not
illogical but on the contrary an unavoidable necessity
 A lesson from more recent history has taught that a just war
must only be waged judiciously. The
war waged to remove Iraqi presence from Kuwait was by many
accounts justifiable. However
the war waged to invade Iraq is a silent blunder one not many
people are willing to debate but
silently acknowledge was a mistake. A war that was started in
the belief would last a short while
has even today never really ended. Thousands of lives were lost
and millions were displaced. I
repeat “a just war must only be waged judiciously.” And only as
a last resort.
 However what is a justifiable war and
what is not is a distinction that only the
lessons of the wars
gone by can teach. Out of the ashes of

A Just War? World War II emerged lessons that those

who lived
through its horrors chose to heed. And
out of that collective wisdom was born
the United
Nations.
 The United Nations
The prime objectives of the United Nations are and I quote “The United
Nations is
an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War
by 51 countries
committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing
friendly relations among
nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human
rights.”
 Has the UN always been able to achieve its
objectives? Perhaps not. Has it been able to avoid
major conflicts? Perhaps. However if the
members leave the divides of religion, politics and
ideologies outside the hallowed halls of the global
collective and adjudicate issues purely on

Conclusion merits the organization could do even better.

That said I conclude by saying that the world does not
belong to those who imprudently waged wars. It belongs
to us. Do we want war? A resounding “no”. Do we want
peace? An emphatic
“yes”. We want harmony. An all pervasive harmony. A
harmony that encompasses man and nature. To us all war
is evil. It only begets more war.
Thank You!
Have a great day!