Give peace a chance

The escalation between Pakistan and India has reached a dangerous level. Tensions are running high between the nuclear-armed neighbours. As I write these lines, Pakistan has closed its airspace for air traffic. India too has closed 10 airports in North India and Indian-occupied Kashmir. Heavy shelling has taking place at the LOC and the Working Boundary.

First, the Indian jets violated Pakistani airspace and dropped a few bombs at an isolated place near Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This provocative act and aggression by India further escalated the situation. In response, Pakistan Air Force on Wednesday struck at non-military targets across the Line of Control and shot down two Indian air force jets, according to the Foreign Office and the DG ISPR.

And if India decides to retaliate and strike back then that might lead to an unthinkable war between these two nuclear-armed neighbours. The situation is so tense, volatile and vulnerable that it could lead us to the unthinkable. Peace-loving people on both sides should come forward against this madness, and voices for peace and love should be louder than the beats of war drums. China, Russia, the US and the UN, and the rest of the international community, should intervene to stop any escalation.

The fate of 1.5 billion people is at stake. This madness must be stopped. Sanity should prevail. War will not solve anything because war itself is a problem. Meaningful dialogue, peaceful engagement and talks between the two countries can normalise the situation. So sit and talk to each other.

We have a choice here. Either go to war and engage in death and destruction or stop the war hysteria and initiate a peace process to solve all longstanding issues and problems. Going to war would destroy infrastructure, cause destruction to each other economically and militarily, and to the property, human lives and infrastructure that both countries build in the last 71 years. Even after the 1999 limited Kargil war and year-long military standoff in 2001-2, both sides eventually initiated peace dialogue and talks..

Forget about nuclear weapons, just imagine a full-scale conventional war between the two military forces. A conventional war will cause significant damage and destruction. Both armies are well armed with modern war machines and lethal weapons. But the fact is that a war will result in a stalemate after causing unimaginable damage and destruction on both sides.

The Modi government has created this war-like situation and hysteria to take political advantage in the upcoming general elections in India. The media is also playing its role to beat the drums of war. Indian mainstream media is busy instigating a war by promoting war hysteria, war-mongering, and jingoism. A big section of the Indian media is acting as the mouthpiece of the BJP and Modi. There are some on the Pakistani side that are also behaving like their Indian counterparts but, in general, Pakistani media has shown restraint so far – which could change in the coming days.

Corporate media will sell whatever is profitable, be it hate, war-mongering, jingoism, government propaganda or even all-out war. But Indian corporate media has shown its ugliest face. It is easy to start a war but difficult to finish it. History shows that whenever there is war; it is the people who ultimately suffer.

As Dwight D Eisenhower put it in these words “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

Give peace a chance before it’s too late. Give peace a chance before starting a war that will bring destruction and further miseries to millions of people on both sides of border. Give peace a chance to end poverty, unemployment, starvation, hunger, and exploitation.

The tremendous suffering that results from war is unimaginable. Innocent civilians are maimed or killed while soldiers face irreparable physical, psychological and emotional damage.

War brings humiliation, poverty, hunger, misery, suffering, devastation, starvation, and destruction. War not only destroys crops, factories, land, schools, hospitals, homes but also destroys society, human values, culture, and families. No one can ever fully recover from the different forms of destruction war causes. It tends to leave scars, some more painful than others.

War is another name for destruction. It brings with it endless suffering. When we look at the countries affected by war, we see the tears and tragedies of innocent victims.

The writer is a freelance journalist.