MAD

It’s that tribal thing again. And it’s spreading across the world. Throwing up endless conflicts, where one side seeks to wipe out the other; and probably will. 

 The Syrians are a fine example. On one side a brutal and oppressive regime. A leader who has used ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ to assure his reign. A dictator enforcing a right to rule; rubber-stamped by his birthright (how very middle-ages). A man backed by the most disruptive influence in the world today. A confederation of Oligarchs whose real interest lies in widening the Russian sphere of influence in the Middle East. A Russian government who turns its blind-eye toward the mass murder of civilians because it furthers Russian interests. 

 But are they any better, or worse, than other governments in the region, and in the West? Governments who supply death to the competition, instead of stopping the war. They interfere but don’t intervene. Because they have no great interests in Syria beyond removing the Islamic State. And then what? What is left? Rubble, rubble, and a whole shit load of trouble. And the different warring factions making more rubble.

 Stop fighting by proxy! If you can’t put out the fire, then  stop it from spreading. Place a fire-break between the flames and keep it well-watered. 

 Alternatively, drop a big BAD bomb on the dictator who murders en-masse. Who refuses to end the rape and pillage of a country. In terms any government can understand . . . It’s cheaper! And an ironclad warning to all other wannabe despots. 

 Stop throwing money at the problems of migration in Europe.  End the reason these people are running away. One bomb, and then another. Until being a dictator isn’t what it used to be. 

 M A D worked in the fifties and sixties. It could work again . . . Mercifully Annihilate Dictators. Has a certain ring to it, am I right?

 We call ourselves civilised, but do we truly understand what being civilised means? Go take a look in the mirror. We in the West, for the most part, have comfortable and safe lives.

 We, in the nuclear powerful West, live warm and cosy, and well fed lives. 

 We, the reticent West, who sigh with sympathy, but lack the empathy to do more. Detached from the Other World still filled with terror and horror. 

 We, who change channel on our TV to avoid what we don’t want to see. Well, lucky us. 

 But what if it turned out to be, us? 

 You, me, and the kids. Displaced from our homes. Our wives and daughters raped. Our fathers and sons butchered in the street.  

 What then? Would we want others to end our suffering with thunder. Or prolong the suffering with rhetoric? 

 Would you think it enough that they took votes, and then complained. Applied sanctions to make living in a war, a war against the living. Would you be satisfied if the powers-that-be supplied your children with weapons so they could kill too? 

 Or do we prefer the quicker, cheaper version of help . . . M A D.

 We have more power to help, but regularly switch our attention to the other side. Any other side. But it’s still the Dark-Side.  

 Those who inflict fear and terror, they are monsters, no matter their needs, or their original intent. 

 Those who allow these monsters to persist, can consider themselves to be no better.