‘The Other Side Has …’ : : :
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The worldwide struggles are an up and down of violence in new constellations, but they do not decrease^*. Threatening, arming, fighting and negotiating follow recurring patterns of hostility, even if the actual warmongers increasingly hide behind shadow and proxy wars.

The armies keep fighting, peace researchers continue to study, politicians continue to debate, leaders continue to demand, and civilians continue to suffer. But the entire ‘civilized world’ has obviously still not found a plan, effective means or ways for lasting peaceful coexistence. Even the statements repeat themselves phrasewise: “The other side has ...”, “Our response will be appropriate ...”, “We will never ...”, “Our values forbid it ...”, “History has shown ...”, “We deeply condemn ...” and at the end: “Our thoughts are with ...”.

Propaganda also works with phrases. War facts, like the enemy, are crushed until they fit into the mass graves of lies and onto the pedestals of power plans. For the physical destruction of the enemy, an enemy image must first be created. Then the ‘order’ of the opponent can be broken down more easily.

‘Paranoia’ is the name of the disease for planning to eradicate other thought and culture. Only selfish delusion can plan the ‘pulverizing of civilians’, the ‘neutralizing’ of creatures; who, like oneself, came into the world with birth in pain and deprivation for a far too short life. Self-proclaimed ‘leaders’ find pleasure in the sky burning and threaten weapons of mass destruction. Why do such figures still come to power and why can they stay there for so long? And who, on the other side of the pompous, prestigious tables where new deals are negotiated, can ever think of haggling over resources and profits with murderers and liars? Who could ever remain true to their so-called ‘values’ when signed treaties are foreseeably moot because words given in the past have been proven never to have had any sincere value? How can priests bless ‘holy wars’ without negating their faith?

The electoral victories for firebrand candidates are often opaque and systemic. Yet wars remain difficult to predict because history is erratic, not linear. Where the economy collapses and where resistance stirs, fighting is more likely.

It’s war in Europe again. In addition to the overt threats, the technical false alarms in nuclear-tipped missile silos, the ‘near-events’ in the Cold War, are coming back to mind. The current situation is volatile and could quickly become hot. For the infinite paradox of deterrence is already no longer effective when negotiated conventions are simply ignored by cold-blooded egomaniacs who have nothing left to lose or who, come hell or high water, want to get into the history books.

Is humanity trapped, fighting each other in the endless loop of wars, until the obliterating, final battle?