War Settles Nothing Essay

THE HORRORS OF WAR

Nothing is probably horrible than the scene of war, It is not the death of millions of lives but it is their manner of dying which strikes terror into the heart and creates disgust in the every soul of humanity. When people die by millions in the battlefield, it is but natural that many children are rendered homeless, many women are made windows and many parents are deprived of their sons. The very separation between husbands and wives, between brother and sisters, between parents and children is a painful sight. Very few of those who go to the battlefield return home, and many of them come back with crippled limbs_ some for ever grown deaf, others without their legs or arms, still others completely deranged. These are the after-effects of every war.

But warfare in modern days is a more horrible affair than it used to be in the days of yore when people used to fight only with the bow and arrow, the sword and the battle-axe, the lance and the javelin. But now there are the machine gun, the torpedo, the submarine, the depth charge, the mustard gas, the air-bomber, the tank and so many other latest destructive inventions of science. There is no escape from destruction in land, water or air. Just imagine when the civil population of a country is bombarded form the air by machine guns and air- bombers, how helplessly the people try to hide themselves in the jungles, in the mountain or under the stone roofs of their houses, but even the hardest stone-houses are shattered into dust by the highly explosive bombs, the trees in the jungles are set into a blazing fire, the mountain caves are explosive into stone particals making a living grave of those who fly there for shelter. When are suffocated and scorched to their very lungs, grow blinds and die the most painful death. There is nothing to protect them against the foul, obnoxious gas that kills millions of souls like files and lets them lie in heaps in the open streets, in the fields and meadows, the jungles and mountains. There are anti-aircraft the guns against the air-bombers but there is nothing anti-mustard gas except the gas mask which is costly and which only the soldiers out on in the battlefield. It is the civil population that suffers the greatest in times of war, particularly by air-raids and tank-rolling. Nobody knows when a peaceful city is to be attacked from air. It may be when all are asleep in the night or when people are busy with their work in the streets or in the fields or in the workshops or in the offices.

Look at the work of the submarine, the mines and the torpedoes in the eyeless and depthless water. It is not merely the merchant or passengers ships, but also the battle cruisers which are taken by surprise and made to sink in the bottomless sea by a sudden charge from the submarine or the torpedo or the mine. Not even the greatest precaution can give you any foretaste of the appearance of any of these formidable and destructive demands of war. Like death they wander about very near you in disguise taking shelter in the pit of the sea, in the fog of the air, in the misleading badges and colours of your allies, and betray you when it is too late to escape. There are depth charges against the submarine and the torpedo as there are anti-aircraft guns against the air-bombers but the result is the same_ death and destruction.

When the battle rages on land there are so many of killing the army. The guns and the cannons are the first to operate when the opposing armies are in sight of at a near distance. Next, the charge of the bayonets when there is an occasion for hand-to- hand fight. But all the while, the tank, the bomber, the mustard gas do play an important role in the raid to carry on the devastation of the enemy in the largest scale possible. When the soldiers work in the trenches or behind the barricades, it is not the cannonading that matters so much as the raid from the air by machine guns and the bombers that make the sheltering troops absolutely helpless and lead them inevitable to death. What a tragic thing it is where a complete battalion or whole regiment is blown off by the air-raiders with no injury to themselves.

Sometimes, the soldiers are completely cut off from food supply or reinforcements with the result that they are bound to surrender themselves to the enemy with the best of arms ad their back and the greatest courage in their hearts. They have been innumerable cases of merciless massacre of soldiers and civilians even in spite of their forced surrender for the mere feeding of revenge or fun. How many beautiful cities with valuable works of art and science have been ruined  and depopulated, how many resourceful countries have been impoverished in the course of the Great War.

WAR SETTLES NOTHING

               It is a fact that seeds of the World War 11 were sown when the peace treaty for the first tone was written at Versailles.  Since very disgraceful conditions were imposed on the Germans and the Turks, it was sure to cause reaction, which it did. Although strict limits for armament were imposed on Germany, yet Chamberlain was shocked to know that Germany was hundred times better prepare for war than she was in 1914. It is quite obvious that the Great War 1 gad led to the second, as the conclusion that war settles nothing.

If force is met with force and the only way for settling disputes is to settle them through warfare, we cannot achieve anything substantial for the betterment of humanity. War creates an atmosphere of doubt, fear and suspicion which leads to a race for armaments and an endless vicious circle which is recurring in its nature and thus seems to break nowhere.