Friday, November 13, 2009

To Be or Not to Be!

Most of us might have seen CNN flash news of the shoot out at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood , United States Military base at Texas on 5th Nov 2009. This army officer i.e a US Army Major killed around 13 people and ended up injuring another 30 of them. Horrifying!
(For more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/12/fort.hood.wounded.soldier/index.html )

This whole incident is terribly sad. Imagine what must have gone through the minds of the soldiers who died in the shoot-out: 'Hey this is one of our own guys, how could he????'. They must have never imagined what was in store for them. The guy has done the damage & whether he is punished or freed, why he did it etc etc only further investigation will tell. Whatever the reason may be, killing innocent people is just not acceptable. He has destroyed so many lives associated with the ones killed in the process! Its extremely agonizing!

The other day I was watching the memorial service for all the people who lost their lives in this shoot out and it made me wonder: How long will such kind of killings continue? Don't the killers realize these families are destroyed?  No amount of sympathy or money will ever replace their loved ones. Their lives are changed forever!

I read somewhere in the aftermath of these attacks that men who return from the military invariably become weak psychologically, total lunatics as they start seeing themselves as murderers who are authorized to kill. They kill in cold freezing blood for their countries demand it! Terrible but true!
War & Hate always beget War & Hate and its high time we all realized it!

USA changed after 9/11 just like how India changed after Kargil. And this change of theirs has changed how people are looked at or treat each other entirely. Now after these attacks, there are so many questions on why he did it? Some attribute it to the fact that he did it because ever since 9/11, his ethnicity was under suspicion. Others say he was transferred to Iraq and he wanted to get out of the army and so he did it. People may have thousands of questions for him once he wakes up from his coma as to why he did it? But will his answer bring about any change in the way the world operates? I doubt it!

This will go the same route too. Another Man->Another Case-> Investigate-> Relate it to all possible scenarios happening in every part of the world-> Public Appeal to Punish->Court Appeal to follow the law->Acquit or Convict->Case Close.
Bottomline: Lesson Learned: NONE!

Few questions popped up in my mind after this incident:

  • What makes people do what they do? 
  • Why do they do it?
  • What does it beget?
  • Is there a deeper trouble here than what we see? Psychological? Environmental? 
  • What war does to people?
  • Is one war an answer to another?
  • Will this ever end?
  • Terrorism or Hate? Bombs or Knives? Guns or Poison? Aren't they all the same? Aren't they all responsible for the destruction of humanity?
Well, I don't have answers in the literal sense to these questions. If there is one thing I know and if there is one thing I always wished everybody knew, that would be: No amount of hatred, intolerance or terrorism would be the end to the miseries of this world. Violence always begets violence. But again to be tolerant or not is in itself a paradox! My two examples below: USA & India

USA might not be tolerant but India is, some say it is good cause we do not want to go to war, some say it is bad for our silence is what that is killing more and more people everyday.

For those who say we shouldn't be tolerant? USA is an example. They bombarded Iraq in the name of nuclear weapons and to this day, has it really ended? They ended up awaking more otherwise innocent people in taking up war just to avenge Iraq. For all their good intention of ending terror, it might just backlash & create more havoc in the world!

For those who say we should be tolerant? India is an example. We have been tolerant since ages on issues like our prized Jammu & Kashmir, our neighbours continuing to cause unrest in our country, terror attacks, massive killing sprees, hostage dramas etc,we have seen it all. We have lost more lives than any other country & continue to lose lives everyday! Cause for this: Our Tolerance.
We come from the land of the Mahatma & we are supposed to follow his ideals of peace & Ahimsa i.e Non-Violence but where has it taken us? Even today, after more than 50 years of our independence, we are still fighting against the same issues everyday!

So war or no war? Tolerance or no tolerance? Love for Hate? or Hate for Hate? What EXACTLY do we need to make this world a better place to live in? To be honest, I don't know! I have no answers. No religion or science preaches killing people & no man is good or bad, it is always education & circumstances that make him so! The sooner we all realize this, the faster we can get our world back in the right order!

In the words of Pierre Omidyar, the founder of E-Bay:
" Every man is good & if given a chance to do good, he always will"

Miracles or no miracles, may the world be blessed with peace!

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