Work, that curse of humanity that fulfils its initial consideration of producing sweat. In today’s world, you’re lucky to find one in any form. This is why doctors have to abandon the stethoscope to drive and engineers have to become receptionists.
If you are lucky to find one, you constantly bless your God by whatever ‘G’ it is spelt. So when a man or woman has to go to pay their bills, put food on the table and meet other requirements of life and living, the last thing they think about is death. Nobody goes to work to die. No, we all hope it hits us at home, as they say’ surrounded by family and loved ones.’
So, imagine the plight of those Iranian fathers or mothers who went to work yesterday in the facilities attacked by America. It was bad enough that, like prophets of doom, a pro-Israeli lobby had predicted the seven wars in five years. Wars that would affect Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya and Iraq (Wesley Clarkson, 2003, Al Jazeera interview).
All the states mentioned are Muslim populated and one after the other, were hit with dodgy dossiers, lies, subterfuge and pure chicanery by the sowers of the lovely tree of life – democracy. Iran the last of the seven tried everything to avoid being hit. Of course its leaders shout death to the great Satan, but it kept fulfilling all the requirements and ultimatums given by the world police.
Netanyahu a man loathed by some of his own but beloved for his murderous rhetoric had been lying his head off that Iran was two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon since 1992 keeps at it, like his friend, Taco-2,3 weeks. Days lead to years and no evidence is produced because where the ‘chosen’ feel offended, no evidence is needed.
Unilaterally, without any warning and no authorization from the United Nations, created to ensure the existence and safety of Israel, they attacked Iran, targeting its elites, its commanders and its scientists. America’s leaders cheered on.
Iran retaliated, giving its secretive attacker a bloody nose. Of course, Netanyahu cried to its sworn defender, America to help obliterate the Iranian leadership. America played dumb while preparing for war. It asked Iran to end the war.
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Wait a minute, they didn’t start the ‘war’, it was brought to their doorsteps without provocation. They were not the aggressors here. They have suffered enough, years of sanctions in which even essential medical supplies were denied their sick.
Then nature complicated matters with an earthquake and Tehran bled, but like Gaza, it bled in dignity.
The rest of humanity will return to the grind on Monday, hoping that like them, we will not walk on the day that the road is hungry.
Yesterday’s strikes were stealthy, bearing no semblance to the requirements of modern warfare or even time tested rules of valour. It was, at best cowardly. Now, the world waits, with bated breath where, when and how the Mullah’s of Tehran would use their own stealth to retaliate.
Watching the entire saga from a ‘safe’ country, this writer is shocked and appalled by the sequence of events. He has no dogs in this ‘war’ but just how to explain this to children who are born and fed on the diet that democracy is better than any other form of government. That dialogue is better than war and that valour requires following one’s own rules of combat and that sneaky attacks violate them.
This writer is not a Muslim, but this is not about religion or faith. If it were, this writer, who professes Christianity would be sitting on the fence or rejoicing that the enemy of his faith are being given a bloody nose. It is about the notion of justice, equity and fair play. The principle that all wo(men) are created equal and endowed with the right, especially to life and the pursuit of happiness.
This writer weeps for Iran as he wept for Benue, Borno, Kaduna or even Afganistan. Because no human being deserves to be treated as if they are disposable, like trash, as if they don’t matter. Whether they be Nigerians stranded or enslaved in Libya and other Arab world or poor Palestinian children shot and killed by Israeli snipers as they attempt to eat their first meal. Either they are Israeli women and children abducted on October 7 or Ukrainian children suffering the consequences of the same subtlety that pitched their nation to war against its brother Russia.
Is this what justice is? Is this how to plant the seeds of democracy, this watering of it by the blood of the innocent. After all, Israeli leaders are holed up in safety. While Israel was suffering retaliation from its unprovoked attack on Iran, Netanyahu’s greatest sadness was how his son missed his wedding on Saturday. Trump and his friends have access to the best protection American money can buy, and except the ‘allied’ forces decide otherwise, the Ayatollah is safe in his bunker.
The one that have to suffer for the consequences of the chess games being played on human life are those Iranians, unable perhaps today, to retrieve the charred body of their beloved. They will have to carry the scars and the emptiness of losing a breadwinner, with only the memories they last shared for life. The rest of humanity will return to the grind on Monday, hoping that like them, we will not walk on the day that the road is hungry.
Where is justice in all these?
