By Michael L. Falk

January 09, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  Throughout the history of mankind, war has been the one dominant factor in defining our existence on this planet. It never ends. Its monumental costs in terms of lives, dollars and human suffering has been a consistent but yet, all too often disregarded blight on humanity.

The killing of one another has remained a shameful pillar of our species. Yet, shame has seldom been a factor in how we deal with each other. History clearly shows that the relentless murder of each other is, in fact, the true nature of our civilization. We’ve developed any number of convenient rationalizations for disrespecting the dignity of all human life to the extent that killing, for whatever reason, has sadly become the accepted norm. Just consider the propaganda of justification for an untold body count of mostly innocent civilians caught up in power struggles. Killing is as common as living and we seldom see the true horror in it. We’ve been emotionally anesthetized to the tragic loss of human life by sanitized media scenes of detached reality.

Despite our many advances that for the most part have been purely technological, the manner in which we treat each other is still in the dark ages. The wanton killing of one another is made even more egregious by the destruction of countries, cities, villages and displacement of millions of refugees who’ve barely managed to survive the bloodshed.

The cold reality we’ve so conveniently air brushed into acceptance is that war, in all its forms, is simply attrition by the greater body count or, to be more blunt, which side can kill more human beings (i.e. sons, fathers, daughters, mothers, brothers, sisters, babies, grandparents, families, etc.). Is this wanton destruction worth the objective? Is the quest for power more important than the permanent loss of another human being?

The sanctity of life is belied by the callous manner in which we so willingly allow it to be taken.