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Armageddon is at our doorstep

Donald Trump.
Donald Trump.
Image: Getty Images

Across the world, military conflicts are raging unabated, while the UN is powerless to intervene. When you read the news, it seems mankind is always at war somewhere.

Iran and the US are shadow-boxing before a full-blown conflict which could envelope the entire world.

Throughout world history, nations, alliances and imperial empires have battled one another. Mankind has practised warfare as a way of life. In the last 3,428 years of recorded history, only 268 have seen no war.

There are more than 50 conflicts going on in the world today, and there have been more than 275 major wars since World War II. Three times more people have been killed in the past 90 years than in the previous 500. A certain fatalism towards war is rooted in our mentalities. War is almost considered an inevitable and peace only a vague Utopian dream.

It was US general Douglas MacArthur who issued this solemn statement at the end of World War II: "Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war."

We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door.

It is only in the last 65 years that we have developed, deployed and used weapons capable of omnicide.

It took nearly 15 billion years to create the self-awareness of the universe that we humans represent.

This self-awareness could be lost in a blinding flash of a thermonuclear war and the nuclear winter that would follow. Armageddon lies at our doorstep.

Farouk Araie

Actonville

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