As we reflect upon the anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Gaza-based organization Hamas on southern Israel that left more than 1,100 people dead and hundreds more taken hostage in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history, and the subsequent retaliation by Israel that has devastated Gaza and southern Lebanon while killing many thousands of Palestinian civilians along with combatants, the futility of retribution is amply demonstrated.
The events of October 7, which began with a massive rocket and drone assault on Israeli communities, have since escalated into increased conflicts in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and now resulted in a direct conflict between two Middle Eastern superpowers, Iran and Israel. Currently, the world is holding its breath and awaiting an inevitable Israeli response to the hundreds of ballistic missiles launched at their country by Iran. A regional conflict is rapidly spiraling out of control and could well engulf the globe.
Israel has long been known to harbour a nuclear arsenal, estimated by some as being approximately 90 weapons—while others suggest perhaps as many as 300 warheads in their stockpile. Iran has been pursuing a nuclear arms capability for decades, although there is no evidence, as of yet, that country has succeeded in building such weapons. That particular genie has not seen the outside of its bottle in almost 80 years, but if there is a likely place where nuclear war could once again raise its demonic head, it is the Middle East.
The Baby Boom generation has lived most of its life under the shadow of the Cold War and is keenly aware that the daily potential for global nuclear annihilation ebbed and flowed with the rhetoric of the world’s superpowers. For all sides, a scenario was only held in check by its unthinkable and existential consequences for humanity. Too many times brinkmanship edged us closer to that doom and simple human or mechanical error more than once threatened to take us over the edge.
For a brief moment in time it seemed that threat had diminished, at least in terms of deliberate action by either side—only to soon be replaced by an even greater potential for nuclear Armageddon.
During the Cold War, the conflict seemed to be between two irreconcilable ideologies—capitalism and communism. Now, those ideologies have been replaced by the oil and water of fascism and democracy—and we can harken back to the 1930s to see the potential results of that interaction.
Now the globe stands on the brink of a clash between the super-egos of two madmen, no wait, we have to consider three now—each bent on the goal of making their respective nations “great again.” That all three are actually currently “great” enough in the eyes of the rest of humanity, thank you kindly, does not enter into the equation.
A tried-and-true path to power has always lay in stocking fear and distrust of the “other,” demonizing and dehumanizing the outsider in order to distract or cast blame for internal failures in domestic policy on anyone but those whose responsibility it is to deal with the issues.
Humanity has expanded to ridiculous levels of population and in its march to world domination has wiped out countless species. Mother Nature (or God if you so choose) has built in mechanisms meant to control such expansion, as herbivore populations explode, predator populations expand to control their numbers, as the herbivore populations desist, so too do the numbers of predators who prey upon them. Humans have tossed that mechanism out of the equation.
Perhaps humanity’s hubris and tribalistic nature is Mother Nature’s way of ensuring a terminal limit to our expanding numbers.
Unless the world’s population learns to step back from the brink, the logical consequences of our baser natures will bring a new mass extinction through our actions. These things rarely happen in an instant, but until (or if?) we learn to end the spiral of hatred, the potential is all too real.
Canada, at least in recent decades, has been a beacon of sanity in a world so often gone mad. No wonder our nation is listed as the most desirable destination for the world’s dispossessed. From attempting to address past transgressions upon Indigenous populations, to settling our regional cleavages in our mutual provincial and federal legislatures and at the ballot box, we are literally the envy of the world.
Currently, there are those in this nation who would change that approach, demonizing immigrants, the poor or the rich, for political gain. It is a path the world provides plenty of examples of why we need to turn away from.
Neither side in any of the world’s current conflicts has legitimately said it would stand down, enter a ceasefire—but until they do, humanity’s very existence hangs by a thread. Let us not feed that fire.
