Energized By Hatred
What is it about we human beings? We are imbued with intelligence, the ability to discern truth and reality. We are capable of making sound decisions, we have free choice in what we choose to do, yet we succumb, time and again to our baser instincts, our self-afflicting passions of suspicion and hatred of the other. We are none of us very much different from one another, sharing the most basic of human characteristics and attributes.Yet we look upon one another with suspicion and miserable hatred. We lose our level-headedness, our ability to be reasonable and become a mob of fanatical haters determined to wreak havoc on those whom we impress upon ourselves are ready to do the same - and worse - to us. We become a rabid rabble of impassioned fools, denying common sense and human decency.
Small groups of radicals who consider themselves active representatives of a larger community whom it is felt have been somehow wronged, or denied privileges due to them, or withheld from that which is rightfully theirs become a guerrilla army - terrorists who seek to destroy the peace of mind of their collectively-perceived enemies, inflicting terror upon their populations.
Which in turn results in that population becoming enraged, exhorting their own military to expunge the presence of their tormentors.
Just what has happened between the PKK, representing the broader sovereigntist interests of Kurdistan, and the sovereign country of Turkey. Locating themselves as guerrillas do, in inaccessible geographies they torment their perceived enemies by inflicting gadfly wounds upon them. In the case of the PKK, ensconced in the mountains of Iraq bordering Turkey, murdering thousands of Turkish citizens as well as soldiers.
Now, in response to the actions of these 5,000 PKK terrorists, Turkey has assembled an army of one hundred thousand troops, along with fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks and mortars on the border with northern Iraq. Still, the odds aren't in favour of the regular Turkish army despite its numbers and its armaments, because a regular army is at a disadvantage fighting a hit-and-strike guerrilla group familiar with its own geography and capable of melting into it post-attack.
And when an army finds itself incapable of mounting an effective offence, in the process of which it sustains many casualties and deaths it becomes an enraged collective. The innocent people living in the mountains, in border towns become suspect and as a result suffer consequences they have little earned. They're not able to call off the actions of the PKK, nor, it would appear, is the Kurdistan administrative government.
There are so many countries of the world bedevilled by insurgent forces comprised of ethnic or tribal, political or religious groups which feel themselves entitled to a portion of a geography - part of our inherited territorial imperative - and responsible for many of the conflicts in the world today: Sierra Leone, Spain, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Russia, Lebanon, India, Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan.
Vibrant vitriol toward one another. Searing hatred toward those whose inheritance and aspiration is at deviance with their own. Vile suspicion, leading to opposition, leading to violence. Dread of civil contact leading to collapse of civilization. Complete alienation, revenge, conflict. The costs in human lives immense. Why?
If we were moved to give a little to gain a lot, would it help? Human nature. A little rarely suffices. We all of us want it all. Which seems to be why negotiations so rarely result in a surcease of hostilities. We really are abject failures.
Labels: Human Fallibility, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, October 28, 2007
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