Dr Khaled Hroub
Once a war breaks out it leads itself. It rebels against those who launched it, becomes independent of its planners and the surrounding environment, and the strong desires to stop it. It loads itself with strange and formidable energy to continue.
The idea of war is such that it begins, spreads and continues to affect all that is around it. This remains one of the amazing secrets of human civilisation.
On the one hand, the story of war seems an idea and practice with clear characteristics, specific beginnings and expected endings. In any case, the opinion against or to avoid war is uniform; it has been considered as a last resort. Almost everyone agrees on its spitefulness and the enormity of its expenses, and that we should not be dragged into it. However on the other hand, this charming witch stands in the middle of history as being the most important driving force, influencer of destiny and the biggest mocker of humanity including the thinkers.
At some point in history, there were peaceful circumstances pointing that it is possible for crazy war to retreat and make room for peace and rationality. It is probable that the interpretation of peoples, governments and politicians on the ground regarding the horror and ruthlessness of war, makes it rise up to defend its existence and continuity during the same space and time, where its existence is threatened.
Iran has its wars and battles based on strategic thinking of men in the past that was practically supposed to provoke the idea of regional influence and control, and the extension of dominance. Iranian wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are all certainly subjected to precise calculations as believed by its planners, thinking that the results of their wars are well calculated and can be managed according to the desired goals.
Accordingly, the ambiguity of the Yemeni war of coalition against the Houthis and its clear legitimacy, planning and results, is no different as things may seem accurately calculated, the results are guaranteed, and the path is well-defined.
My lengthy introduction simply implies that our region stands on the brink of great danger, the risk of a severe and long bloody war between Iranians and Arabs by importing all past grudges and rejuvenating religious and sectarian instincts, in order for people to enter into a miserable tunnel of blood that we may know how to escape from the first time but not to stop.
We do not wish to see a bloody future. Therefore, we must use reason to stop any intuitions of war and the lure of influence and power. Our region is currently standing at an intersection that has written on it “the future of the relationship between Arabs and Iranians,”. It then splits into two tracks, one of which is bloody and leads into religious, sectarian, authoritarian and destructive war.
Arabs, Iran and Turkey need today more than ever a “comprehensive regional summit” that should last for weeks. Its goal is to recover the regional stance to co-exist and promote peace between countries and peoples, for fear of being dragged into the path of a fearsome war.
This war trail is ready and sliding in it is easy and seductive, but no one knows its results. If we use the Iran-Iraq War as a scale, it will probably not be an exaggeration to say that the damned regional war that we are about to engage in may go on for a century.
There is more than urgent need today to have sensible and discreet armies, and not a military with loud voices, in order to establish wise policies that lead to peace and avoid the catastrophic scenario that is waiting for us at our doorsteps.
Whoever thinks otherwise should unravel the charms of war and reveal its mysterious secrets that puzzled philosophers and thinkers, and provide answers to the following arcane questions: How can we end wars and guarantee their results?
The writer is a columnist and academician.
