Questions on war

I’ve been thinking about wars from various perspectives in last few days and wondered that history has been repeated a million times, so many wars have been fought, whether a kingdom invaded other kingdom only to be invaded by some other kingdom and this loop continues without an end but what ends are uncountable human lives and what remains is pain, sorrow and hatred which many a times triggers another war.

But why do nations indulge in unnecessary war when the outcome is always the same? What problems does acquiring an extra piece of land solves at the cost of millions of lives? Most of the times that land has loads of natural resources but can’t those resources be traded as per healthy relationships which has mutual benefits? The questions are unending but often the reason behind wars are a few, may it be invading the entire world just to show off your power or to spread your ideology.

In Hinduism, war is considered as the last option. There shall be war only to defend your nation, or to protect your rights and when peace can’t prevail without war. In such a long history of human civilization, why hasn’t there been a mechanism to throw off the King, or whoever in power from their throne when they start causing havoc? But how did such fools come in power at the first place?

That era is over now. There’s democracy all over the world. What a relief, no more wars, no more dictators, peaceful times but it seems like democracy has its own loopholes. Some leaders who were elected for a limited amount of time have found ways to remain in power for lifetime. And how can you call a single party system as democracy when ideology remains the same at core.

Do great leaders emerge during a war or the one who wins writes the history and declares himself as great in every way he wants to be, because after a century only the texts survive not the people of that period. Damn! Cleverly played. How to distinguish among true great men and the fake ones? If you can’t distinguish, then the story is too old and they are already dead. But it paves the way for a more important question. How to stay safe from propaganda? It feels like propaganda is being spread everywhere all the time and at a rate never seen before and even the media is biased. Seriously, you can’t trust any source. Brainwashing people, extreme censorship, scrapping off the right to speech, it’s all common these days. Think before you trust and confirm the facts from various sources.

Does being a super powerful nation with nuclear weapons and advanced military leads to stability and peace? Well, yes but technology always advances and at a particular time, some nations are far superior in weapons, technology and economy that less powerful countries have to accept their dominance or else they might face consequences. Time changes, countries in power change but the scenario remains the same. There’s a lot to figure out but if the leaders in power know that their ambitions are wrong and can’t be justified on various grounds and they lead towards war then they should rethink but if it was the case, history would have been different.