Celebrating WW1 with more wars!

On 28 July, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia through a telegraph-the first and last time war was declared via written communication, rather than by direct, raw action.  I do not want to go into the full historical details now but I do not think that war was on the agenda of the index parties (that is what we learnt from Ebola-mania!) or the secondary contacts (the various warring alliance partners). What happened was that Duke Franz Ferdinandez of Austria was assassinated by Yugoslav nationalists. Ultimatum and alliances followed and then, the First World War (WW1). It was a very gruesome and bloody war that lasted for 4 years. At least, 16m died, including our forefathers who were drafted into a war they did not understand; they were just fighting for the British Empire!  The German, Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires together with their grandeur and much of their civilization were destroyed and replaced with smaller states. Thus, an assassination by nationalists (militants, separatists or militias in today’s language) internationalized what ought to have been a local or at worst a regional affair and that ended in WW1

One hundred years later, it appears that history is about to repeat itself. There is no WW3 (at least, not yet!) but the whole world is at war and as it was in 1914, people are deliberately or accidently internationalizing local issues. Of course in a global, networked and interconnected environment, there are no strict localities again because what happens anywhere happens everywhere else. That was how Sawyer Nigerianised Ebola and that was how the mean disease has been exported to US, Europe and is now intimidating the whole world. Anyway, as at 28/7/14, 100 years  after the onset of WW1,  Ukraine, Gaza, Libya, Egypt, Syria, CAR, Nigeria and  Iraq were at total war and the rest of the world is involved, as proponents, opponents, or even as referees. And it has the same features: internationalization of apparently local affairs, alliances, international implications and so on.

Today, it is Ukraine separatists that shot down a Malaysian international flight, with 298 on board but 200 of them were Dutch Nationals. They also initially refused access to interested parties who wanted to investigate the crash. In the same Eastern Ukraine, 9 Nigerian students, a CNN journalist and British media personnel have also been kidnapped just as they had kidnapped some international observers earlier. As I write this on 29/8/14, Russia is accused of being directly involved in the fighting (after a successful annexation of Crimea) and there is a flurry of activities in the world with emergency sessions by the United Nations Security Council, NATO and European Union foreign Ministers! Ukraine, which is obviously outmanned, outgunned and out foxed by Russian is, in a desperate effort at self-preservation, considering formerly joining NATO, which will give NATO an automatic right to respond in kind!

But it is not only in Ukraine that local issues are being internationalized and the world is being pushed to the brink. In Syria, 43 UN staff have been kidnapped by Islamic oriented militants while 75 UN peace keepers are under siege by the same group. The fighters raise the laughable accusation that the Syrian government is using UN personnel to camouflage its forces. As this is going on, 3m Syrians, about 50 percent of the population has become refugees, causing social, economic and security challenges for those countries and unprecedented global humanitarian crises.  There is total chaos in Libya which is descending into anarchy and civil war. After days of war of all against all, Alqueda linked militants had captured  Benghazi, and converted the area into a caliphate on 1/8/14.The crises spill over to its neigbours and is complicated by the activities of Jihadists who are operating across the region. Apparently, the whole Arab Spring has sprout anarchy and instability!

Before then, Israel had pounded Gaza as if to live up to the prophecy of Balaam that it ‘is like a mighty lion; it does not rest until it has torn and devoured’’ (Numbers, 22:23). And even though a ceasefire has just been patched up after 50 days, nobody can guarantee peace in the region especially, with the activities of ISIS, which had declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and given Christians in that area the ultimatum: convert or be slaughtered. The US which has decided against direct military involvement (a person stung by bees flees at the sight of tsetse flies!) has carried out air-strikes to halt ISIS advances and this has further internationalized and complicated the crises

In Nigeria, Boko Haram has been on rampage and is obviously acting in concert with al-shabab and linking the entire neighbourhood especially, Chad and Cameroun. It has allegedly carved out a caliphate from Borno State and in a situation in which Nigerian Soldiers on strategic maneuver ended up in Cameroun, nobody knows what to expect. Meanwhile, Al-shabab is entrenched in Somalia and easily extends its tentacles to Kenya. Before all this, most parts of the world have been boiling and the ubiquitous US drones have been striking at will, wherever and whenever. It appears that the declarations in The Book are coming to pass: There will be great tribulation that has never been seen since the beginning of t world. Nations will rise against nations and kingdoms will rise against kingdoms. There will be pestilence and earthquakes in various places… awful horror. Suffering, especially for pregnant and nursing mothers (Mt: 24,7, 15-2)

As we celebrate the centenary of WW1, the world is at war with groups, nations and coalitions fighting against each other. Nobody has a global war on the cards but already, the nature of WW3 is evident. It will be a war of all against all, in which everybody will attack everybody without clear cut order and direction. And if it starts, it will only stop when everybody is tired of fighting or when there is no more anybody to fight against. Those who have ears, let them hear!,,

 Ik Muo