Welham Girls' School

Fight for the greater cause they say…fight against humanity we are made to hear. No, I am not here to condemn India’s retaliatory actions in any way. What I do condemn are the wars that world leaders wage under the pretext of protection. In the long run, no one truly fights terrorism itself, they only fight terrorists. While both are necessary, only a fight against terrorism as a system and ideology can truly save the world. Nobody fights illiteracy that seeds radicalism and funds education the way they fund wars ( yes, capitalism thrives off wars, that explains a lot, but communist nations do no better). A missile is dropped and a few hundred millions again spent on a nuke. Surprisingly you don’t see a similar reaction, neither short nor long term, globally and especially in third world countries in case illiteracy rates keep rising or when critical thought goes on a decline. While both situations deeply differ on the scale of urgency doesn’t mean both don’t demand action, genuine action, not increase the voter bank, clumsy, laid back action. Fight one war without bloodshed and a hundred bloody wars would cease. Unleash a war against  classism? Against food insecurity? Against the snappy phrases that seek only to divide? Resisting division is a big one in itself. The need of the hour may call for a war,  a physical one, but the need of a century (with the right wars fought) will never call for one.