The Cost of War: When Payment Hurts Everyone
The cost of war is not limited to the battlefield or warring nations; the debt remains long after the last rocket is fired, and the graves are covered with grass.
“Once the fire of hate lights up people's hearts, there is nothing that can stop it.” Shortly after Alex Taylor made that statement in the dystopian anime, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, chaos broke between human and hybrid populations, leading to death and destruction on both sides.
But this piece is not about a video game animation. Yet, the anime sheds light on the growing conflict in the Middle East. A conflict that is morphing into a religious and racial war. A war that threatens to spread across the world, affecting Europe’s streets, America’s colleges and offices, Africa’s neighborhoods, and Arab’s sharies.
The conflict has triggered protests, clashes, and violence in various countries, especially in the US and Europe, where Jews and Muslims continue to experience more antisemitism and Islamophobia. Synagogues and Jewish centers in some US cities were smeared with antisemitic words and symbols, and many Muslims faced increasing danger. The FBI warned of more threats to Jewish and Muslim communities, and possible terror attacks on US soil.
In Illinois, a landlord viciously stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim boy multiple times to death and injured his mother, allegedly because of their Muslim faith. It was reported that the murderous criminal was triggered by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. A conflict about 6,320 miles away from Illinois has caused the death of an innocent child.
In the UK, antisemitic hate crimes against Jewish people increased by 1,350%, and hate crimes against Muslims rose 140% since the Gaza conflict began. Across Europe, the growing tide of antisemitism surges, targeting Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions.
In many Arab countries, protesters showed their support for Gaza and hostility towards Israel. But some protests turned violent as they clashed with security forces or tried to get to the Israeli or US embassies. Apart from the protests, Hezbollah and other militant groups are striking Israel from different sides, risking a bigger war.
Since October 7, when Hamas launched a heinous surprise attack on Israel that left a trail of unspeakable horror, the scope of death, destruction and displacement could surpass previous wars in the region for years. In just two weeks, the war has claimed over 6,000 lives on both sides, injured thousands more, and displaced over a million people, leading to a humanitarian crisis.
The war has divided many people. Mostly, people who pick sides do not know the crisis’s intricacies or only look at the history of the last 75 years. This conflict stems from the commitment of neighboring countries to annihilate another group of people. Beyond territorial disputes and religious ideologies, the cancer of hate that infests generation after generation continues to fester amid propaganda and a shower of rockets.
Just like the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that has resulted in thousands of deaths, millions of displaced people, and widespread destruction of infrastructure, the Israel-Hamas war is growing to be a humanitarian crisis of a pandemic portion. While more than 2 million Gazans are in dire need of humanitarian aid, the terrorist group that lit the fire of destruction on October 7 continues to fan the embers of war, provoking more violence.
The war between Israel and Hamas is on day 16. But like all wars, nobody wins. One side may suffer more damage, but the conflict’s price lasts long after the craters and smoke are gone. War causes death, ruin, sorrow, and suffering for everyone. War does not solve any problem; it creates one. War is not worth it; it is too expensive for all.
As history has shown, wars can be avoided. One could say that without the October 7 attack, Gaza would not be the battlefield that it is now. I also know that others could pick a different date to show the complex causes of the conflict. But the point is that leaders who start wars choose death. They could also choose life.
War and violence have harmed our world for too long. We need to find peaceful solutions for our problems. We need to treat one another as humans. We need to foster respect and harmony among different faiths and cultures. The world does not need more war. The world needs more peace. As the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “We must act now and stop the nightmare.”