Global Conflicts, Time and Humanity

In all ages wicked men tried to plot Against God’s Way, but they never Succeeded and were covered with shame 
The righteous see good in God’s Word, and their goal is the Good Great teachers were sent to all nations, to warn against Evil And guide to the Right.

The penalty for Evil comes in many unexpected Ways, for Evil is against Nature.
And all Nature proclaims God’s Glory And humbly serves Him, the Lord Supreme.
— The Qur’an: 16: 26-50 (condensed message)
“The world is a dangerous place to live,” warned Albert Einstein, “not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
Have We, the People Ignored the Impulse of Time for Change, Peace, and Future-Making?
Are we human beings intelligent enough to think rationally and be reasonable to avoid catastrophic conflicts leading to our extinction? The raging conflicts between Russia and NATO, the EU and Ukraine, and their spill-over impacts across the globe, are dehumanizing our perceptions and actions to make us redundant as rational beings. Time and history, no matter how you define them, are not on our side as we the so-called intelligent beings cannot learn from the consequences of our own wrong thinking. The failure of global leadership to see the overwhelming interest of humanity for peace is a driving impulse for war economies, pursuing egoistic interests and militarization. We have come to realize that politics is a game of pretension and always remains problematic. Leaders hosting conferences for action-reaction military manoeuvres are treacherous, cynical and deceitful in their ideas and ideals and to the public interests they claim to serve. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ignorance, indifference to human interests in sustenance, security and peaceful co-existence, and arrogance against the very mankind on whose existence the world enjoins all the attractions of lifelines, beauty and appreciation are at greater risk of extinction. Isaac Newton viewed time as an element of the universe’s built-in ticking clock, and Albert Einstein saw time as a perplexed passing phenomenon of circumstance and environment being part of the nature of things. But the 21st-century leaders denied the inner eye of recognizing Time and the Nature of Things to mislead humanity and make war a new normal with unthinkable consequences.
A reflective snapshot of a critical moment in time pulse and movement of history reveals the absence of reasoned dialogue for the prevention of the ongoing conflict causing massive human casualties, displacement of millions of Ukrainian civilian refugees across Europe, destruction of essential civic infrastructures and furious competitive edge for success in an ugly war between Russia, the West and Ukraine. To glance ahead at the emerging horrifying events coming out of the Russia-Ukraine war fronts, We the People of global humanity must call for an immediate halt to all war machines and lingering suspicion of one-sided peace and triumph. The sudden and inexplicable plunge into the insanity of war will not produce any military or psychological gains for violent assumptions plagued with hatred, bias and false claims and counterclaims of military superiority, defeats and occupation.
With knowledge-based, 21st-century human communications improving global collaboration, we are not moving in the right direction – the one that human logic and truth spell out for our conduct in peaceful relationships. The impulse and actions for cruelty and sadistic behaviour are increasingly sending alarming trends for the present and future generations to be informed of explicit wickedness and resulting failure in global affairs. As humans, we are not thinking or moving toward the unity of mankind to be at peace and harmony being the chief creation of God. Unless we are overwhelmed philosophically to imagine that we are something else other than humans populating the Earth by chance.
Russia, NATO, the EU and Ukraine are Victims of Wrong Thinking
We the People are witnessing a planned scheme to exterminate humanity with superior weapons hitting targeted civilian towns and daily bloodbaths as a new normal. Have we not learned any lessons from the European nationalistic wars of the First and Second World Wars? We the Humanity continue to argue if wars have become part of the new normal – unknown and unthinkable to human civilizations and rational thinking. We the People are entrapped by the dirty politics of the few. It needs a formidable challenge to rethink the continuity of the current tragedy in Ukraine.
Military successes achieved by ruthlessness and viciousness lead to the degeneration of human societies. After five months, the advanced war machines continue to bombard human habitats, killing and displacing millions of innocent civilians and making millions flee to foreign lands. NATO and the EU are trying to bridge the gaps in perceptions and strategic plans by sending weapons and money to boost Ukraine’s capacity to face the superior Russian machines and plans.  The perpetuated chaos and nationalistic ideals of the few are leading to collapsed civilizations and the resumption of Dark Ages. Could wars ever be the source of conflict resolution or peacemaking?  No matter how time exists in a frozen intellect, Reason will haunt human thought if war is a prelude to peace-making. What are the so-called intelligent leaders of NATO, America or the EU waiting for? Are America, the EU and NATO waiting and watching how Russia and Ukraine will end up in this cruel insanity of war? Or what advanced weaponry is being used by Russia to annihilate another neighbour?  Is Ukraine a testing ground for any futuristic planning and administration of more insane conflicts?  Surely, men who are universally hated and feared are active in this embittered insanity – revulsion against reason and against a helpless nation and people. Why can’t the Russian, NATO and EU leaders meet face to face for a dialogue to ceasefire and peace-making? Do the political advisors and war strategists lack rational thinking and education for peace-making?
Is NATO being managed by the wrong people who lived in the distant past and perhaps post WW2 historic culture is still alive and flourishing? What about the crux of EU’s nationalism and ethnicities for a unity of minds for peace – Is there any glimpse of hope for change and new reasoned relationships between America, Russia and West Europeans? The future of violence and nationalistic resentment looks embedded into the distorted strategic necessities of the current affairs, be it the argument of Russia or America-led NATO and/or the EU on its own. Perhaps, President Putin and the Western leaders live in conflict time zones being unable to see the horizon of time, peace and One Humanity. The waking consciousness and wisdom would demand that Russia, America and NATO and the EU – all active actors in this perplexing game should critically analyze their strengths and weaknesses, know the people around themselves, and should realize that global humanity is watching them if they will act wisely for peace or demonstrate abhorrent and ruthless behaviour for a peaceful resolution of the current multiple problems leading to disastrous consequences for all the living mankind.
Towards being Solution-oriented and Not being Conflict-oriented
Russia and its leaders must realize the humane urgency to agree to an immediate ceasefire and try to resolve the issues through peaceful dialogue, and certainly not by the conquest of Ukraine. Any violations of mutual relationship will have volcanic consequences to dehumanizing the civic Russian principles and values. When noble ideals are misinterpreted, it could drain out all the good qualities of people and leaders. Political reasoning is a shared enterprise within the global systems of governance which America, Russia and NATO and the EU failed to observe.  The sanctity of peace and values of human life will encompass open-mindedness and readiness to listen and learn from each other concerns and experience peace, harmony and viable neighborly relationships. What if President Putin, President Biden and the EU leaders would meet in person and hold dialogue for peace-making and conflict resolution? The violent assumptions of NATO outreach to Eastern Europe and outrageous hypothesis of military confrontations will lead nowhere – certainly not to peace-making or conflict resolution. Who could gain in these mindless and extravagant ideas of power and military warfare – Certainly None?
America, Europe and NATO’s historic record is plagued with violence and extravagant ideas to have invaded and killed millions and millions across the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Lacking the rationality of a just war, they have killed and displaced millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Syria. Their claims of piety and credibility for the good are full of lingering suspicion and discard to be the official bearers of peace and security of the world. The need is urgent to foster a peaceful dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, America and NATO, or else a lack of rational imagination and action could destroy the national freedom and sovereignty of Ukraine. We the People draw rational results from what we see and what we hear; therefore, we are different, we are responsible and we cannot act or live like animals. There is a moral sense of spirituality and humanity to co-exist in harmony with the rest of all creations on this Earth.
The unchallenging TRUTH arising from the emerging conflicts and leadership failure call for new THINKING and New People of ideas and ideals to reject the violent assumptions of militarization and egoistic triumphs by acts of genocidal plans. We the People of the globe ask the world’s conscientious leaders to avoid the coming epicenter of cataclysm. Listen to the voices of reason for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Stop the acceleration of military confrontations between Russia, NATO, America, the EU and others. At the edge of REASON, war is anti-human.
Was Alexander Pope (“An Essay on Man”), more imaginative about the interest of mankind and had knowledge, vision and understanding of human nature, spiritual values and search for truth and peace in a quest for Change and Reason?
Of Man what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Through worlds unnumber’d though the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own
Then, in the scale of reas’ning life, ’tis plain
There must be, somewhere, such rank as Man;
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Dr. Mahboob Khawaja specializes in international affairs — global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany.