Professor's perspective: War destroys ethos of humanity

History tells us that there are no real victors in the
battlefield; we are all losers as we not only kill or maim soldiers
and innocent civilians, but also cause irreparable damage to the
environment.

Mankind has been fighting each other from the beginning of human
civilization and only the weapons have changed. The early battles
were fought on equal terms; first with fists and stones, then
sticks and swords. Now the wars are conducted with sophisticated
weaponry. While the early battles did not affect the environment,
modern warfare has a damaging impact.

Most of the ancient and modern wars were fought for certain
reasons, territories, precious metals, ideology, race, religion and
ego. Earlier wars were mostly local and involved two neighboring
leaders or kings. However, World War I and II were global with the
first involving mostly Europe and the second affecting the whole
world.

During these crises, the weapons evolved significantly thus
affecting the entire humanity and bringing us to the geopolitical
conflicts of today. In the modern world, David has no chance
against Goliath. History has taught us that invaders like Attila
the Hun, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler were egomaniacs and
megalomaniacs and had their own agenda. When a large and powerful
nation with the latest weaponry attacks a small country with
limited capacity, one wonders about the rationale for the
conflict.

I never thought that man was the ultimate goal of the
evolutionary process. But in reality, man is far from it as he is
only its latest product. But looking at the geopolitical conflicts
and human ego, I am not sure now. We are desecrating the
life-giving environment and totally destroying this life-sustaining
planet by maiming and annihilating each other. And in the near
future, we may become the final product of the animal
evolution.

War is usually a temporary solution for a permanent problem. As
long as humans live and control their own destiny they will create
more problems. An ever-increasing population has a cascading effect
and the solutions are few and far between. In times of war, the
first casualty is truth. War never tells you who is right, but it
can definitely tell you who remains.

What has happened to all other wars we have been fighting? Have
the wars against poverty, ignorance, hatred, abuse and drugs
already been resolved?

Life is a precious commodity and originated on this planet.
Therefore it is our sacred resolve to protect and sustain any form
of life on this planet. Humans have evolved enough to guide their
own destiny, but our history tells a different story. If we do not
remember history, we are condemned to repeat it.

As members of the human race we do not have to write our own
epitaph. As Naomi Replansky succinctly said, “My spoon was
lifted when the bomb came down/That left no face, no hand, no spoon
to hold./One hundred thousand died in my hometown./This came to
pass before my soup was cold.”

To Norman Cousins, “the tragedy of life is not death, but
something dies in you while you are still alive.” We are
living in a world of turmoil and we are losing our resolve.

As homo sapiens, we are dwelling on a few and petty peripheral
differences rather than the many deep-seated similarities that make
us human. Let us strive to make this world a better place for the
posterity.

Berlin is a professor of epidemiology.