WHO IS, AND WHO IS NOT FIGHTING A SENSELESS WAR?
5 min readBy KON Joseph LEEK, Juba, South Sudan
August 23, 2015 (SSB) — Almost everyone including top government officials says the above phrase in any public gathering in an attempt to pass the blame on the rebels.
To them, the rebels deserve a full blame of the on-going conflict. And so are the rebels in the other front or campaign of words – are struggling to make the government responsible for the crises not knowing that, when the war started, it started as the government fighting its self before they divided in to two antagonistic parties (the SPLM-IG and IO) – where the current members in government claimed the coup attempt from the current rebels. A claim rejected by the later as being familiarized by the former.
Now, it has become a blame game where many top government officials in any gathering or function make phrases like, “this is a meaningless war!”, “we are fighting a senseless war!” and so on, and so forth
Are they certainly sure that they (we) are fighting a senseless war? And so, all the number that died and still dying in the army as well as the civilians died for nothing except if not that they were/are fighting a senseless war?
Thus, is there no reason at all for this war? Should the main reason for it be its “meaninglessness” and “senselessness”? If so, why do you guys go to Addisababa for? What do you go to negotiate then?
Isn’t this phrase (meaningless/senseless war) an equivalent of a story of a man that was kicked by a donkey and responded by kicking back the donkey which made the people around concluded that the man was thinking exactly like the donkey?
Isn’t the phrase corresponding a story of a man whose eyes were spit on by a lunatic who then acted in respond by spitting back to his (lunatic’s) eyes, something that surprised the spectators who then concluded him a lunatic too for thinking like him (lunatic).
We need to understand the irony of some words or else they back-fire. If the war which is generally blamed on Riek for causing it, and indeed is, is senseless and meaningless then why are we fighting?
If the rebels are senseless for starting this meaningless war, then why are we fighting? If the war is senseless, then its starter(s) is/are senseless too and I wonder where that (senselessness and meaninglessness) leaves the responder(s) (government).
I know someone somewhere is already thinking that I am rebelliously speaking but it is good sometimes not to be a victim of your own words. That is to talk till you contradict yourself unknowingly, hence it is healthier for one to be informed by he who loves him that, ‘sir, you are sailing far away from our right point’. If he says “what” (Our polite way of pardoning someone), then call a spade a spade, not a big spoon – by saying, ‘sir, your statement is contradicting and you are confusing us’. This is what I am doing.
Riek himself ransacked my hometown several times directly and indirectly, there is no way I can hide under his umbrella though he can sometimes be accorded some truth despite being a lunatic, war maniac, a blood sucker, trickster, charlatan, liar and a womanizer
But where the government I supports and voted is unable to express the “reasons” of the war and resort by concluding that the war is senseless and meaningless will also make us conclude that, “its participants are senseless and meaningless too”.
What we clearly know is that the war is not senseless or meaningless as claimed by some government officials. It is a called for “war”. Riek hunted for it, and I guess he expected it. It deserved to be fought, because there was a forceful take-over trial by Riek who would have illegally ruled the country against the will/choice of the people had he succeeded. So the people of the Republic of South Sudan have a right to stand up against the constitution’s invaders and defend it
Another reason being the killing he has committed on the civilians of Greater Upper Nile and exiling of his own people into refugee camps in foreign countries – the very people whom he would have requested to vote for him in elections had he not attempted the coupe and resorted to peaceful and democratic mean of power transfer.
With the above few and many others, why should someone somewhere still think that the war which is being fought is senseless? What is senseless is an imposed peace by the foreign powers to resolve it.
The war should not always be justified when we are fighting the Arabs, but anything that comes around to jeopardize our independence, freedom and rights is also calling for a deserving war.
Pump some sense of senselessness of this war into our brains before walking around and make such phrases. That phrase alone without other ingredients is not convincing enough
You know, when we say sense; connection between the subject and the object should comply and should connect with the ideology.
And to explain your “sense”, you should have a better language of expression, where a “reason” should be relative with your claim or else, if not, someone somewhere may conclude that, “your claim has no SENSE in term of LOGIC
That phrase was once said by one person who knew what he was saying and is now said a thousand times by hundred people who do not know what they are/were saying until it becomes unique no more, it just becomes a most boring-to-tears cliché– because we love to take up things wrongly instead of first learning their insights.
We very much duel our minds in “common sense, assumptions and emotions” not knowing that we are no longer there (world of common sense, assumptions and emotions). We now live in the world of principles/rules not common sense, Research not Assumption and Reasons not Emotions
The writer is a commentator on contemporary South Sudan, and can be reached on j.konleek@gmail.com & 0927777006
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