Global War on Terrorism Is Killing Mankind: Why Soldiers Commit Suicide?
06 January 2014
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja
We should be saddened but not shocked when we see the
broken men and women return from battles overseas. We
should be angry with those who send them to suffer and
die in unnecessary wars. We should be angry with those
who send them to kill so many people overseas for no
purpose whatsoever. We should be afraid of the
consequences of such a foolish and dangerous foreign
policy. We should demand an end to the abuse of
military members and a return to a foreign policy that
promotes peace and prosperity instead of war and
poverty.
(Congressman Ron Paul comments when Daniel Somers
wrote the last letter: "The Death of Daniel Somers."
Information Clearing House, 6/24/ 2013).
War is darkness – man killing man- overshadowing human
consciousness of the self and the spirit – fighting
soldiers driven to political indoctrination of
"ennobling enmity" and wired to instigated emotional
madness, forced to animalistic behavior and end-up
losing the balanced material and spiritual
manifestation of the nature of human originality. War
means planned deaths and destruction of all that is
holistic and progressively imagined by the human
emancipation for the larger good of the mankind.
Global war on terrorism is outcome of the few dreadful
mindsets of those who are universally hated and feared
by the global community. The contemporary politicians
lack the realization of the hard facts of logic and
moral foresight. The sensation of political power
removes fear and accountability and the warlords get
embolden to commit unchallenged cruelty and crimes
against the people just to comfort their sadistic ego
and to claim success at the cost of ruthlessness and
barbarity spearheading human degeneration and
continued viciousness across all spectrums of human
affairs. Throughout history, warmongering sucked-out
all the positive human thinking, talents and abilities
to progress and peaceful co-existence. Who will know
better than the Europeans fighting the Two World Wars
with invincible armies and killing more than 20
million people just to safeguard superior ethnicity,
flags and borders? American-led global war on
terrorism and all those allied to this sinister scheme
of things are overwhelmingly occupied in anti-human
cruelty against themselves and others in a global
context. The problem rests with those politicians who
set policy agenda and make major decision lacking
knowledge and practical understanding of short and
long terms consequences of their own thinking and
actions. To contemporary ego maniacs like George Bush,
Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and now Obama and the historic
Ivan the Terrible of Russia, torture and killings
bring psychological satisfaction and enjoyable acts of
sadistic pleasure to a favorite perversion. Common
masses are duped to believe by the affiliated news
media's propaganda that war is a necessity to protect
the national interest and security without any
rational choice. After more than a decade, the war on
terrorism appears unstoppable and unending. Its real
victims and causalities are the ordinary people – the
present and future generations entangled in a cruel
web of ripple effects and undefined rationality of the
war. Those combat soldiers who were pushed to such
animalistic behaviors on the front-line – man killing
man without any enmity and reason, are the real
victims of the few insane politicians.
North American and West European combat forces and
societal thinking reflect ambiguous and varied
stonewalls erected by the war machine industries as if
people are not the victims and that in an advanced
technological age, machines fight machines in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The hidden truth becomes reality when
every day large numbers of war veterans commit
suicides and internet news make it public. According
to Congressman Ron Paul ("The Death of Daniel Somers."
Information Clearing House, 6/24/ 2013): "The numbers
sadly tell the story: more military suicides than
combat deaths in 2012, some 22 military veterans take
their lives every day." The US Army News (Rick Maze:
"18 Veterans Commit suicide each day": 4/26/2010),
reported that 18-25 war veterans commit suicide every
day and noted "Troubling new data show there are an
average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans
who are receiving some type of treatment from the
Veterans Affairs Department……. Suicide attempts by
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains a key area of
concern. In fiscal 2009, there were 1,621 suicide
attempts by men and 247 by women who served in Iraq or
Afghanistan, with 94 men and four women dying."
This week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBC
reported the suicidal deaths of 4 Canadian soldiers –
the veterans of Afghanistan War. It is a painful story
telling to common folks explains the CBC television
news reporting on 12/4/2013, that some 42 Canadian war
veterans have taken their lives since 2011 to 2012 and
a total of 129 since the armed forces were sent to
Afghanistan. Rationality fails to substantiate the
reported 158 Canadians troops lost life in US-led war
in Afghanistan when Canada is not at war with
Afghanistan. The poverty-stricken Afghans were not the
people to ever challenge or pose any threat of
violence and security to America, Canada or Europe.
Often the combat soldiers and their victims do not
know why and what are they fighting for? America and
its paid allies did not go to Afghanistan or Iraq for
peace, freedom or democracy. They invaded to take
control of the oil and gas pipelines to be managed by
the American enterprises in which the warlords had
vested interests. Be it the ideology or the
nationalism being the focal point of human insanity as
was the case of the Two World Wars, combat soldiers
forced to fight against their own very nature – The
Nature of Things based on which God created the human
beings.
Human consciousness enjoins a synchronized balanced of
material and spiritual life but killing others is an
affront to continuity of the self within the
interwoven compound of human life. Overwhelming
materialistic powers, advanced technology and rigid
expert determination often stall approaches to
understand the reality of human life composed of
material and spiritual balance and the imperatives of
freedom of critical thought and Divine knowledge to
articulate a better future. Life is not an invention
of human mind or machines but God is the creator of
all living things: Life, Time, Universe and Earth and
its sustainable supporting system - immensity of
factors constituting the scope of self-realization of
human life. Could the reality of life and death be
realized by human thinking, instruments and
approaches? During the 2011 London annual war memorial
parade, the last surviving First World War British
veteran age 111 years made it known on BBC news camera
that "he did not know why he fought in the war and war
made no sense to him." With broken hearts, wounded
minds and tarnished bodies, when combat soldiers
return to homeland, they confront another challenge of
survival – the ripple and constantly haunting images
of the inhuman cruelty of man against man. None of
post war syndrome treatment (PTSD) can cure or
sideline such first-hand real life experiences asking
for rational answers why and what for were they
fighting and killing innocent peoples? All politicians
are self-centered; they have no knowledge and
understanding of the human nature as they have not
fought on any real war fronts or created anything
durable except amplifying the self and re-election
ambitions. Greed and wickedness knows no ending.
Politics is a game of pretension on stage, not a
connection to reality of life-making and
life-supporting endeavors.
Daniel Somers ("War Criminals
Bush and Blair Claim Another Victim -
"I Am Sorry That It Has Come to
This": A Soldier's Last Words." Information Clearing
House: 6/24/2013), an American war veteran of
Operation Iraqi Freedom 2004-2005 and then again
2006-2007, was 30 years old and suffered greatly from
PTSD and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and
several other war-related conditions. On June 10,
2013, Daniel Somers wrote the following letter to his
family before taking his life.
"I really have been trying to hang on, for more than a
decade now. Each day has been a testament to the
extent to which I cared, suffering unspeakable horror
as quietly as possible so that you could feel as
though I was still here for you. In truth, I was
nothing more than a prop, filling space so that my
absence would not be noted. In truth, I have already
been absent for a long, long time………The simple truth
is this: during my first deployment, I was made to
participate in things, the enormity of which is hard
to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity……….To
force me to do these things and then participate in
the ensuing cover up is more than any government has
the right to demand. Then, the same government has
turned around and abandoned me….. And for what? Bush's
religious lunacy? Cheney's ever growing fortune and
that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy
lives for……. My body has become nothing but a cage, a
source of pain and constant problems. The illness I
have has caused me pain that not even the strongest
medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day,
every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in
my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a
wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror,
unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with
all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple
things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly
impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry…….Thus, I am
left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to
be at peace, too damaged to be at war. This is what
brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide,
but a mercy killing. I know how to kill, and I know
how to do it so that there is no pain whatsoever. It
was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I
am free. I feel no more pain. I have no more
nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations."
American politicians no longer enjoy
moral and intellectual leadership but claim it and act
like surrogated mothers to the war-lobbyists and
pundits of the major military-industrial complex.
America needs a stern challenger and that is what is
missing. The global warlords continue to divide and
rule the mankind. The sensation of political and
material power drives them to commit untold crimes
against the very humanity of which they are a part
within the living Universe. War is not peace and peace
will not emerge out of the broken hearts and dreams of
One Humanity. But contrary to the brutal perceptions
and actions of the US and former Europeans
imperialists, the international community is informed,
mature, and enjoys the moral and intellectual capacity
to know and understand the facts of life and to
challenge the politically imperiled insensitivity to
universal accord and unity of the mankind against
brutality of the Terrorism of Wars that unites them
with a common fate more than divides them by any token
of adversity and separate national identities.
Politicians waging wars against the
mankind are not the competent people to answer vital
issues of moral and spiritual values and significance
affecting the soldiers and on the growing epidemic of
combat soldiers committing suicides. Fighting soldiers
and the common people are the victim of delusional and
vengeful hatred of the few global warlords who have
vested corporate interests in the oil and gas supplies
coming out of the Muslim world. All troops are
indoctrinated with mythology of animosity to fight the
unknown enemies. While on the war front, they lose
rational consciousness by targeting and killing the
innocents - men, women and children as are the
instances in Afghanistan and Iraq and daily drone
attacks on innocent Pakistani civilians – a
cold-blooded murder game of the warriors. It is
probable some governments and secret agencies could be
using drug formulas to enhance the invisible crush for
fighting and enmity. Those fighting soldiers - men of
conscience lose unity of the human consciousness-
unity of material and spiritual balanced
characteristic– fair and foul. It is a tragic
conjuncture of inner revolt of human consciousness for
a crime that is not part of the human nature and not
visible to scientifically expert minds – the doctors
who simply identify mental health issues of those
suspected of syndrome to commit suicide. These are the
net causalities of man's war against man. The real
reasons are hardly mentioned in expert reports.
Science and machines cannot comprehend the intricate
balance between material and spiritual life and inner
consciousness of the self- the human. Politicians who
entangle the human beings into warmongering are void
of the knowledge of Unity of Human Self - an all
embracing sanctity of sacred life created by God:
time, material, spiritual, thought, life and purpose
of life - the ultimate source of all individual life
and human unity. Politicians and concerned social
scientists and military strategists perceive the
broken hearts and minds of returning soldiers as they
want to see it and they do not wish to see the reality
as it persists.
Daniel Somers letter tells us all: "My mind is a
wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror,
unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with
all of the medications the doctors dare give. ….. I
can not laugh or cry…….Thus, I am left with basically
nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too
damaged to be at war. This is what brought me to my
actual final mission." The war-torn human
consciousness needs spiritual and moral enhancement
support to come out of the self-inflicted tragic and
inhuman experience of killing other human beings.
Politicians and society that drives soldiers to the
madness of war fronts to kill others and get killed
have no sense of moral responsibility to facilitation
of remedial human help to console and motivate the
entrenched life - the wounded inner soul of the combat
soldiers. Pills alone do not remove spiritual
stagnation but scholars of the Divine religious
knowledge and wisdom could help the fractured human
soul and body in moment of self- endured crisis for
survival and sustainable future-making. All
experiences are immediate and individual. Others see
the prevalent reality differently with overwhelming
societal and political expediency. Nazism and Fascism
did not grow out of the nowhere but to a large extent
were supported and propagated by the then European and
North American academia, news media, businesses and
politicians. During the WW2, helpless common people,
Jews and Gypsies were targeted by the extremists and
global warlords and now Muslims are seen as the eye of
the storm. The political warriors and the
military-industrial complex have not learnt anything
from the pages of living history.
All beginnings have an end.
Throughout history warlords were subject to time and
place, not for ever. Hitler and Mussolini were
democratically elected but drove the humanity to
terrible consequences of their own insanity. The
contemporary warlords need to see the mirror and the
urgency of a Navigational Change, if they have the
moral and intellectual capacity to THINK and ACT and
to spare the mankind from further catastrophic
tragedies. Can America revitalize its originality of
thinking, moral and intellectual values and people's
interests-based system of political governance for a
peaceful co-existence and future-making in relation to
the global humanity?
With 17 trillion dollars in
budgetary deficit, approximately three millions Iraqi
civilians massacred by the US led bogus wars on
terrorism, 20,000 or more American killed and many
times more wounded, and almost one million Afghan
civilians killed and displaced, and millions of
wounded American and disabled veterans causality of
the two bogus wars on Muslims are surviving on mere
food stamps and neglected drug addicted corridors;
continued daily US drone attacks on innocent Pakistani
civilians, 18-25 US war veterans daily committing
suicides, insane politicians acting in egoistic
behaviors, leaders without lead in the society
point-out to more dreadful things to happen to America
- it could soon be replaced by another morally and
economically competent nation or group of small
nations in global politics. Strangely enough in a
knowledge-based age, American politicians are not
mindful of this historical and unstoppable phenomenon
of change. The living Universe and American politics
appear to be set on a direct clash course. America
does not appear to be on a path of harmony with the
rest of the global community. In situations of
adversity and crises, competent leaders extend moral
and intellectual security to the people and represent
hope and optimism for a navigational change and
future-making, not egoistic political agenda and
shutdown of the government and irrational behaviors to
the interests of the people who elected them to
govern. On the 10th anniversary of the Iraqi genocide,
there were no statements issued by the Obama
administration or apologies by British politicians.
Tom Ingelhardt ("The 12th Anniversary of American
Cowardice What You Don't Know Can Hurt You."
Information Clearing House: 3.28.2013), sums up the
paradox of contemporary global warfare and how the
history shall judge the warlords?
"We should already know more than
enough to be horrified by the state of our American
world. It should disturb us deeply that a government
of, by, and for the war-makers, intelligence
operatives, bureaucrats, privatizing mercenary
corporations, surveillers, torturers, and assassins is
thriving in Washington. As for the people — that's us
— in these last years, we largely weren't there, even
as the very idea of a government of, by, and for us
bit the dust, and our leaders felt increasingly
unconstrained when committing acts of shame in our
name. So perhaps the last overlooked anniversary of
these years might be the 12th anniversary of American
cowardice. You can choose the exact date yourself;
anytime this fall will do. At that moment, Americans
should feel free to celebrate a time when, for our
"safety," and in a state of anger and paralyzing fear,
we gave up the democratic ghost."
"Among the many truths in that still-to-be-written
secret history of our American world would be this: we
the people have no idea just how, in these years,
we've hurt ourselves."
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja
specializes in global security, peace and conflict
resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western
comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of
several publications including the latest: Global
Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in
Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany,
May 2012)
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