THE FEAR AND REALITY OF WAR

March 11, 2023 Opinion

World events are slowly deteriorating to where the possibility of wars and armed conflicts are just around the corner. There is no mistaking the signs cropping up everywhere portending a grimmer situation of the world stage where superpower states are vying for domination of other states both
from an economical and military standpoint. Nowhere is this more evident and clearly defined than in Europe where Russia continues to pummel Ukraine into submission to bring back what some believed is the notion of President Vladimir Putin of restoring the glory of an “Imperial Russia”.

War has arrived in Europe and countries who are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are trying their best to support Ukraine in the hope that the armed conflagration will not spread and spillover into their territorial jurisdictions. On the one side we have NATO, which is a political and military alliance, with thirty member countries, and on the
other side there is Russia which is clearly allied with China, Iran and North Korea, with the latter countries covertly and overtly supporting the former.

Armaments and military supplies and equipment are continually being delivered and expended at an exponential rate by both Russia and Ukraine as they try to outdo and outmaneuver each other in
the battlefield. This is the reality of war for both countries right now and if cooler heads do not find
an immediate solution to the conflict it might yet escalate into something that the rest of the world would not even dare to consider much less imagine and that is the specter of another world war.

Closer to home, China continues to flaunt and flex its military might in the Asian region particularly against its neighbors in the South China sea.  It has become allegedly more hostile and aggressive in patrolling the South China sea which it claims as its territory in its entirety. There is no mistaking the intent of China in expanding its influence both militarily and economically in the region and it is fully aware that no one can stop its grand scheme of expanding its territory by whatever means necessary, because of course it is a military superpower.

The only thing standing in the way of China is obviously another military superpower which is the United States of America, and that is why even as many continue to be focused on the events happening in Europe the Asian region is likewise experiencing many unsettling events at present that even a slight miscue, unintended and perhaps even by accident might ignite another conflict that would involve several countries in the region. All because military superpowers such as China, Russia and the U.S. of A. have finally decided to discard their meekness and reveal and display their vaunted military prowess. This is the fear and reality of war that is now in front of us.

Those with more guns and money, like the superpowers, get to decide the future of other countries, and the latter whether it decides to or not may not have any other choice but to side with whatever superpower it thinks has its best interests in mind. Staying in the middle or becoming neutral as a country might seem like a good idea but like Japan which had forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation it is now compelled by the necessity of the times to change its view and has started arming itself more in preparation of any armed conflict. Like the saying goes “the best defense is a good offense”.