Date:12/04/2003  

In the face of war

The world watches in helpless horror as a war is being fought. A war, to liberate a nation that does not want liberation.

Cold comfort... father and son.

As the war flames consume Iraq and smoke and toxic fumes cloud the troubled firmament, people feel helpless and hopeless. One man has decided the fate of so many British and American soldiers, Iraqi civilians and a "post war'' world. I find myself at peace with nothing and at war with everything inside. I am speechless, weaponless, and without any significance in this big bad world. There are many nobodies like me in Asia, Africa, Europe and in America too who are powerless in the face of this one man and his whim. Our opinions do not matter.

The U.S. creates its own enemies and, in a sense, it has found another, in me. While innocent people prepare to give up their lives, George Bush, sitting comfortably in his office, attempts to find the answer to the question — WHY? Not because he feels he owes it to the world, but because too many people are asking and it won't go away. Bush is not fighting this war for a better world in the near future. Bush and his government are trying to liberate a country that hasn't asked to be liberated at all. The U.S. wants to control everything. Uncle Sam wants to rule the world. George Bush is unperturbed by the protests from within his country and outside it, by the catastrophic consequences of war. Nor is he moved by the strong, but alarmingly subdued, voice of the entire global community and their strenuous demand to stop the war. I am frightened and horrified at the prospect of a future in which the U.S. emerges victorious from this war, as Bush threatens, without much of a fight. In such a situation, I see no hope, no ray of light. It is Iraq today. Tomorrow it could be us. This time the excuse is a harmful regime. Next it could be anything else that George Bush feels is wrong with our country.

Homeless and alone...

I am a 17-year-old, in the middle of my school-leaving examinations. There is nothing I can do to make the world a better place just yet. I am troubled and distracted. I need something to hope for.

In the face of this war, I mourn at the murder of democracy and see public opinion shatter in front of my eyes. I see liberty, equality, justice, freedom, fraternity, peace and hope struggling to stay afloat and succumb to a dangerously rising tide of authoritarianism, absolutism, repression, and hopelessness. I realise, to my horror, that there is only one thing to hope for, as every other powerless and disturbed person can — I can hope for hope.

ARANYANI BHARGAVI

© Copyright 2000 - 2002 The Hindu