The Slowly, Slowly Degrade War of Iraq and Syria and Democracy

by John Singer Sargent. Oil on canvas,

"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous" George Orwell

 

Yesterday I watched with much interest a debate that took place in the British Parliament on whether to bomb in Syria or not. I also visit twitter frequently and had noticed that there were many tweets against any such bombing and the polls too seemed to indicate that an overwhelming majority of the good British people were against any such adventure. The experiences of similar ones in the past have been sad and disastrous and the public is wary of the arguments politicians put forth in favor of more.

A completely new concept has been invented for the war in Syria - ‘degrade’ and not ‘win’ as has been the case with wars through human history. Some politicians have explained, this implies a war going on for a generation or more, perhaps because then it produces a steady stream of income for a long, long time for the military- industrial complex, and that may well have happened if Russia had not entered to throw a spanner in the works. The concept of fighting and winning a war was so old fashioned, the complex made a huge profit indeed over the dead bodies of children and mothers that died in the war but what seemed to be fun to some came to an end far too quickly. It was like a wonderful movie or party that came to an end far too soon, but now this degrade thing sounds so wonderful to the war mongers and those who build mansions out of the blood of wars and children killed, maimed or orphaned, children through who the same gentle soul runs as through their own children, it could go on forever in principle – Pardon the sarcasm in this paragraph but there seemed to be no better way to describe what is happening with humans on our lovely planet.

Returning to the debate in the British Parliament, the right honorable members voted in favor of bombing the shits out of Syria, but not fast enough to win right away mind you, just degrade slowly, slowly, slowly as more and more children and civilians die or are driven out of their homes, slowly, slowly, slowly – to go and drown in the sea off the coast of Turkey perhaps as some do. They would follow the US perhaps and take care not to destroy the oil fields under ISIS or impose a no-fly on Assad as on Libya, or the game may end far too soon.

The thought that came to the mind of many, humans introduced democracy so that the will of the people may prevail rather than a few, but time and again modern democracies have proved that, this is not the case. If it was so, a few handful would not have been able to amass such a disproportionate amount of wealth that as per data by Oxfam, less than a hundred rich persons in the world own wealth equal to that of half the humans on the planet – some 3.5 billion humans – and inequalities would not have continued to rise for more than three decades even as corporate CEO’s laugh all the way to the bank.

How have humans led themselves into such a sorry state despite democracy? The answer is that on a planetary scale, human civilization is still young. It still has a long road ahead to evolve. Although voting has been introduced, much else that surrounds it has not been designed appropriately enough to prevent inappropriate governance and misuse. Democracy, that has within it the element of voting by people, is a catch all phrase to cover many different types of governance models that currently exist in our world and new ones that shall be invented in future. The best ones are far from being discovered yet.  

Democracy is a powerful thing. If not designed and operated properly, like most any other powerful thing such as a nuclear bomb, it can explode in the face and cause a damage that spreads far wider.

It is not the scammers who benefit from errors in democratic models that are going to reveal them or fix them. It is the people who shall, after they have suffered enough from those errors. In the meantime, the best most countries of the world can do is, follow the example of countries that seem to be faring the best as per most all indicators that measure human happiness, peace and well being and these are countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavian Countries and Iceland, countries that have found peace and prosperity by upholding compassion and by avoiding feeding themselves and their children the foul profits of corruption or innocent blood that is shed in wars.

Update: Also check out this report on the MPs and the Arms dealer dinner:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/vince-cable-one-of-40-mps-on-guest-list-for-arms-dealers-dinner-in-london-10026302.html

Update December 15, 2015  This note has had the desired effect, Leaders including President Obama some hours ago in a public address have stopped using the phrase Degrade and eventually destroy (after some long long time a generation away perhaps)  to simply destroy or defeat. Notes from this blog get around because links are put out on twitter, google plus etc. and there is an army of analysts out there studying and gleaning the information that comes out on media and sort/ summarize it for those they serve, best wishes to them all, for whenever their actions add good to the world and a smile on the face of a child in a boat off the coast of Turkey, The Universal Consciousness that dwells in the hearts of all breathes a sigh of relief.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/09/05/Four-Syrians-in-custody-over-toddler-s-sea-death.html