I had an interesting debate with a family member a few days ago. For some reason we were discussing the heinousness of crimes against women and children, and I felt the need to bring up the twin elephants in the room. Those would be the two most atrocious acts of mass violence against civilians committed thus far in the 21st century: the American invasion of Iraq, and the Russian invasion of Syria. Between the two of them, over a million women and children were slain in the most brutal of manners, with multitudes more having been driven to homelessness, fleeing their lands for the West, where many have subsequently been enslaved.
My family member did not take kindly to my honesty though, and argued that the crimes against humanity carried out by global powers in the Middle East were "not all that personal" in comparison to the types of crimes which find their way onto television screens in the early morning hours. And when I assured them that, yes, war does see such crimes committed, as well as infinitely more horrific acts of barbarity than even the most battle-hardened officer of the law could scarcely envision, our conversation came to an abrupt and dismissive end.
I still however maintain the righteousness of the point I was making, with the conviction that nine tenths of the world would agree with me. The American assault upon Iraq was one of the most uniquely important events in human history, in that it saw the youngest civilization in the world invading and occupying the oldest, with such a convoluted cassus belli as to make a sane person's head spin. In simple terms, it was like a young teenager mugging an elderly man on a busy street in broad daylight. Lost in the moment, it must have seemed like the easiest of crimes, yet with time it shall also become the most costly, for all future generations will instantly recognize its inherently thuggish villainy.
And yet, nearly seventeen years to the day since those fateful months in the Spring of 2003, with those left standing having had ample time to reflect upon the evil that was perpetrated, very little has changed for the better. The world has learned nothing whatsoever from the past. It all leaves me wondering: who if anyone will even be alive twenty years from now to contemplate the mistakes we are all still making? Who if anyone will tell the woeful tale of modern civilization's precipitous fall from its dizzying heights of splendor and success? As we enter an era of change that we have proven ourselves to be wholly ill equipped and completely unprepared for, will recorded history even so much as survive the coming calamities? Or as with ancient days, will the stories now in writing be passed down solely by keen minds and word of mouth?
Only time will tell.
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