War Never Changes

I’m not one to delve into the matters of politics or religion as these can be such volatile hot potatoes I generally steer clear.  I remain somewhat ignorant of such matters so try to avoid debate as I have nothing of value to discuss but since the tragic events in Paris and a variety of other terrorist plans/attacks prior and since, I have formed what could be a highly controversial opinion.

While the tragedies in Paris are vile and devastating, I believe that the media coverage was absurd.  Now this isn’t a rant about how other events were supposedly less covered – what I mean is, the media has played into the hands of those responsible for these dire acts.  By broadcasting such heavy coverage, ‘experts’ answering the same questions time and again and adding nothing of value, creating a bias in some respects but generally providing the terrorists with a “highlight reel” of their activity.  By having a media black out it would have worked out similar to that of a bully not getting the response they want/expect – it creates confusion and uncertainty about what is going on.

By broadcasting the aftermath, horrific interviews with survivors and then the coverage of France’s retaliation the media have provided ISIS with more fuel for their propaganda and allowed them to expand and recruit many more to their cause.  They’d have been as well putting up a Jihadi Uncle Sam saying “THEY WANT YOU”.  We all know or have seen the impact of bombings – history has taught us that many innocent people are killed or fatally wounded in such acts and by responding to acts of violence and savagery with further violence and savagery the aftermath then paints France as the villains for what has happened to innocent women and children.  While our TV stations are filled with scenes of the Paris attacks, theirs is no doubt filled with scenes of the tragedies as a result of the retaliation meaning that the innocent folks in Syria and elsewhere feel more for ISIS’ cause as opposed to “The Allies”.  And then of course you have the most recent issues between Russia and Turkey…

I get why the media covers it as we’d all be asking why they weren’t if it stayed off of the news but the destructive power of the media and social media is almost a terrorist threat in itself.  Nowadays, we either believe everything we read or see or we question and seek facts over fiction.  Sadly most of us fall victim to the pitfalls of taking a glance at a headline or caption and believe it to be true.  Take a picture from Google Images of a particular political figurehead and add some text and you have a quote that people believe is true.  Take pictures from years ago and add a caption or a blurb about it to make it relevant now and people will believe it without question.  This behaviour and attitude in society now fuels groups like Britain First and other undesirables in a similar brainwashing fashion to the Neo Nazis in American History X.

I watched a video over on Huff Post from Isis and, despite me being against what they’re doing and what they have done, the video as Hollywood stylings that are pretty impressive.  The key thing here is, imagine you have been caught in the cross-fire from the West’s retaliations and you see this…this would be pretty inspiring and paints a different picture of the West compared to what our media and governments are telling us.  We know there’s a lot of money in war, but how correct are the facts that ISIS have?  How do they know?  How well have they hit the nail on the head with their statistics?

We could possibly be standing on the brink of annihilation and where there is cause for rational thought and togetherness we are going gung-ho into a situation that could set us on the collision course that every civilisation has seen coming.  The dates may be wrong but the outcome is the same.  This situation transcends colour, race, wealth, religion, gender…it boils down to just the core human nature yet human nature within certain groups build it up to be about THOSE things because, as a collective we have to categorise and pigeonhole things.  We can only comprehend things when they have a label and it’s easier to label Muslims/Islam for an act done in Allah’s name than it is to see the true picture that a segment of a religious following may be “bad” but there are good ones too.   Look at all the atrocities over the centuries in the name of Christ yet we haven’t tried to annihilate all Christians, why?

When I was a kid, art imitated life – stories and comics I read were inspired or based on historical events like WWII and so on – but then, in the late 80s, the works of the likes of Alan Moore and co seem to be coming true; it was almost like they were the prophets of my generation and life is now imitating art.  You could go so far as to take The Walking Dead, remove the zombies and it would stand true to where we are; various groups fighting for what they believe to be right, doing anything to survive and allowing the perceptions of particular events to twist and turn your mind and turn on your fellow man.  We can’t all be friends, but you don’t have to be friends to co-exist – look at relationships where the love has gone but they remain in the same house and share their lives together but don’t get involved in each others’ business.

We’re living in a world that is now based on childish sentiment – you did it first so I hit back.  You just hit me so I will hit you.  A dangerous game of tit for tat in which no one truly wins because it will all in in nuclear bombs and one faction may be wiped out but it’s the survivors who have to deal with the fallout.  If global warming is a huge issue now, imagine what it would be like when radiation hits.  If there’s one thing I’ve learnt as an on-looker it’s that war…war never changes.