The following column was submitted on June 21.
On September 9, 2013, I wrote an opinion column in The Dispatch that war is not a solution. At that time President Obama was in power, and Syria had a civil war. The U.S. government was thinking of striking Syria, because the Asad government used sarin gas on protestors and opposition parties.
Though war is everyday business in the world. It looks like 2025 can be called a year of war.
What is the outcome? Humans are forced to die in an untimely way. We face a natural death every minute. Remember COVID? Nature took away so many lives! So many people literally took an oath to become honest and kind and show empathy to others.
However, right after COVID, in early 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and it is continuing.
In the month of October, all of a sudden, Hamas, a Palestinian armed militia group, launched a terror attack against Israel and killed more than thousands innocent Israelis and kidnapped hundreds. As a result, Israel invaded the Gaza strip and in retaliation killed 50 times more humans, and it continues.
Israel is addicted to war. The country was born out of war thus every person is a fighter. Not only that, but they have the world’s best spying agency called Mossad. Can you believe how have they built up a drone factory in Iran!? The first deadly strike that killed Iranian high ranking scientists, military leaders, and political leaders stunned the world.
Thus, the war began with the destruction of humans along with both countries’ infrastructures.
Why did Israel start this war with Iran? A simple answer is if Iran becomes successful in making a nuclear bomb, then in one strike, Israel will be gone as a country. So, it’s better to dismantle nuclear facilities beforehand.
On the other hand, two countries who have been rivals from their birth – Pakistan and India – started a terrorism-related war in the first quarter of 2025, however it ended within a week.
Dear Dispatch readers, can you believe how many countries in the world are currently in war either internally or externally? At least more than two dozen, namely Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Mali, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mexico, Sudan, Yemen, Columbia, Philippines, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and many more.
I don’t understand why then every country keeps an embassy or high commission when there is no diplomatic solution? Why the United Nations or other international bodies?
Besides, there are no leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin who ultimately ended the WWII.
I think as humans have empathy with other humans, the country should have empathy with every other country, irrespective of the country’s political ideology.
Finally, I am emotionally disturbed reading this poem by 24-year-old Iranian poet Parnia Abbasi, who was recently killed in a Tehran air strike.
I burn
I fade
I become a silent star
That turns into smoke
In your sky
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, is a retired chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences professor at Mississippi University for Women. He writes occasional columns in The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. His email address is [email protected].
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