Calling our war “senseless” is good insult
5 min readBy Opoka Christopher Arop, Juba, South Sudan
July 28, 2015 (SSB) — For a people that are so proud and pomp with pride; hearing foreigners call our conflict “senseless” has been a disturbing pill to swallow. I had expected some army Generals and senior government and opposition politicians to posit some epic rants about this predisposition. I never for once thought this day would pass, when our gallant “liberators” would sink as low, and embrace as a fact that our or “their” war has been “senseless” indeed. And “senseless” in every demeaning and belittling interpretation you can make of the word.
There has been little or none whatsoever of a thread of protestation from both the government and the rebel, in government and outside government. I say this and attempt to generalize the word rebel, because I have now conceded that we are all rebels in one way or another and in every way at the end. We have reached a time in our short history where, ideas alone can send you to the gallows faster than convictions for poorly orchestrated staged coup, by people who were both premised to kill each other, that fateful December 2013; many years earlier or in 2014, 2015 and of course in the many years to come. We are all rebel, and we must be proud, at the very least, those of us, that are labeled rebel, for our ideas now, and perhaps later for our actions and the actions of those that are triggered by our writings and speeches.
I have been asked by some people to demonstrate my loyalty to this country South Sudan. Because, I had considered those questioning my loyalty as “ignorant” and “senseless” in the field of nationalism; I often withheld by bitter responses. I rested my sulk and preyed upon an opportunity for stupid nationalism. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I have chosen this moment to demonstrate my nationalism. I am in pains that our government and rebels have failed to defend this conflict and in the same vein allowed people with little knowledge and depth of our and my love for this country to insult our brutal inhumanity to one another, and gone ahead to label our heroic defense of whatever little ideals we have in way of a free and democratic people, by calling us “senseless” in the process.
How dare they call our conflict “senseless”? Are wars ever sensible in the first place? And have any sensible people gone to war anyway? Give me one country that has waged a sensible war and sensibly killed innocent lives, and I will accept that my country take the crown for “senseless” massacres. At the very least, we must tell ourselves repeatedly that there is some meaning in our evil designs. We must at the very least have some satanic forces on our sides, to give some meaning to this war. We must have something in the way of reason. We mustn’t allow our country, people and war to be reduced to senselessness. What would this make of our country and people, and army and liberators and brave warriors and corrupt government officials? Surely there must be some reason for this conflict!
Look at the conflict critically, and you will see too many facts that make it the most sensible conflict of our times. This conflict has been premised on the need for revenge….is this sense? Isn’t there sense in the fact that the rich, affluent Dinka and Nuer intellectuals as well as the uneducated, illiterates, poor from the same tribes and regions find themselves butchering each other and butchering the country in the process? There must be some sense. Even if not for the sake of settling old scores, even if to dislodge the village champion! In the process, when the dust settles, hopefully (another sensible anecdote) the Dinka and Nuer will have found their rightful places, be they at the village, boma, payam, county, state and national government levels of social interaction and stratification.
I thought looking at what many people have called our war senseless would ring a few bells, beyond the sarcasm I am weaving. Stephen O’Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs had this to say “I am deeply shocked by what I have seen. Innocent civilians are bearing the brunt of this brutal war.” O’Brien concluded that our war was senseless.
It gets better. “The details of the worsening violence against children are unspeakable,” the director of Unicef, Anthony Lake, said in a statement this week. “Survivors report that boys have been castrated and left to bleed to death. Girls as young as 8 have been gang raped and murdered. Children have been tied together before their attackers slit their throats. Others have been thrown into burning buildings.” This forced our “South Sudan People’s Liberation Army” “SPLA” Spokesman Col. Philip Aguer to acknowledge that the conflict was pointless: “This is a senseless war,” he said.
How can there be no sense is our level of violence? Raping a grown woman is one thing, evil as it is, but gang raping girls as young as 8 years old is achieving a new record and setting the standards higher. It demonstrates that these actions are calculated, planned, practiced over time and rated. So please, do not say our war is “senseless”. It is in fact a very sensible war. It is a sensible killing. It is a sensible deviation from the real issues affecting the people of this country. It is a sensible shift from the failures by both parties. It is the perfect war as a means to an end.
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