Although the world has been plagued by Corona infections, state-to-country terrorism, ethnic and sectarian oppression, and attacks on state borders have not stopped. Many countries in the world are still buying arms with equal or greater importance as well as corona coping and economic recovery. A U.S. TV report found that corona's ubiquitous influence has led to a decline in production and employment everywhere, but that production at their armaments factory has doubled and new recruitments continue. Different warring states are buying these weapons through competition.
In other news, the United States has seen a surge in the purchase of small arms at the individual level. It is astonishing to see this arms race at the individual and state level, thinking that this life-threatening extermination has not been able to awaken the sense of humanity in many statesmen. In the same way, it could not awaken the sense of humanity at the level of individual, society and community. For mankind as a whole, it seems more dangerous than corona. The coronavirus vaccine will be discovered one day. No vaccine will ever be made to discourage human sacrifice, warfare and arms trade in the face of inhumane politics and power.
In many countries, including the Middle East, adjacent Africa, Persia, Central and South Asia, and China, ethnic and sectarian persecution, ruthless sacrifices of democracy and human rights, and counter-attack, incitement to attack, religious militancy, etc. continue unabated. At least for forty years, Afghanistan has been in turmoil. The first Persian war, which began with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran in 1980, ended in 1967 with the deaths and injuries of nearly 600,000 people on both sides. Then again Saddam's campaign for Kuwait (1990), a humiliating end seven months later. Then came the US invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein (December 30, 2006). That Iraq is still turbulent.
The Arab Spring began in 2010. Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain were shaken by his push. Ben Ali, Mubarak and Saleh lost power. Assad and Gaddafi continued to attack desperately to quell the uprising. Gaddafi became the second victim of Western persuasion after Saddam. He was brutally beaten in the street. There is still no real government in Libya. The civil war that started in Syria in 2011 has now ended in 10 years. In the meantime, more than five lakh people, both military and civilian, have been killed, the number of casualties is innumerable and 35 lakh have been displaced. That Assad is still sitting on the rubble as the emperor of half the country.
The most horrific and heinous incident in recent times is the invasion of Yemen by an alliance led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. The United States and the United Kingdom are allies here. Five years have passed since so many states launched a concerted attack on 13 million poor Yemenis. Thousands of people were killed and houses destroyed in the war. In addition to the attacks of war, thousands of people are dying of scarcity, famine and disease. In all, at least five million people have died on both sides. But he made no attempt to stop the war. All parties to the war are buying billions of dollars worth of weapons.
Israel was once the common enemy of all, now the undeclared ally. Now they themselves are enemies of each other. Powerful Turkey when it attacks whoever it pleases. They have no regrets in the fight to wipe out Kurdish Muslims. Egypt does not share the waters of the Nile with Ethiopia and Sudan. In that whole region, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and Iran are the driving force behind these conflicts and deadly wars, with the United States and Russia behind them. The causes of such suicidal conflicts in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf and adjoining Africa are very simple and common. Hereditary retention of state power and the use of force without hesitation, and the direct and indirect support of many Western so-called "democratic-liberal" states, including the United States.
Won't any calamity, calamity, epidemic moisten our conscience? We will be immersed in a kind of selfish immersion like ‘where life is’. People in no part of the world have been at war for so long against people of their own race and religion. The whole Middle East, through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, has not been able to recover from the long-running war, kidnappings, killings and oppression. For so long in the history of the world, there has been no history of congregations being closed in all mosques, including the Holy Kaaba. But is there any forgiveness for this anti-politics of dividing Shia-Sunni-Salafi etc. for the sake of religion and killing people patiently?
In today's interdependent world, no one can separate us from each other in the division of race, religion, caste and state. So we are disturbed by the Sino-Indian border clash. When a bomb falls in Yemen, it hits me. Saudi Arabia has reluctantly bought billions of dollars worth of weapons, re-employed US experts, and protested when the weapons were used by Syrian rebels or Iraqi Sunnis to kill Shiites or fight Houthis in Yemen. Because thousands of innocent Bangladeshis are being laid off in the Middle East and have died of coronary heart disease, not just because the whole human race is in danger and upset.
In these difficult times we can only call, we can expect. Let the war stop, let the feeling of humanity awaken, let the people live. Let the armament and arms expenditure be reduced, let the health expenditure be increased for the people.