Why We Should Immediately Stop the Senseless War in South Sudan
6 min readBy Benjamin Guarken Chiman, Juba, South Sudan
February 17, 2018 (SSB) — War by definition, is a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state whereas, senseless, simply means, being unconscious of comatose. The world wars that have been fought many times were either justifiable or were simple being fought with comatose minds.
Many leaders resort to war as last option when either table negotiation or mediation fails. Sometimes, these kinds might be accepted to be called justifiable wars. However, some leaders drive their nations to war with other nations or with herself, maybe through internal influences or external influences. This type of war qualifies to be generously termed a senseless war, the war without benefits the war brought about by being comatose of ideas or leadership strategies.
Many wise leaders or Politicians on varies occasions tend always to avoid wars as much as possible so that bitter war consequences are never tasted by themselves or by their fellow citizens. Nonetheless, this contemplation always requires experiences or free minds from all kinds of world’s vinegars!
The senseless wars that have been fought over centuries and that of South Sudan in particular, are being fought at the expenses of citizen’s lives so that certain politicians protect their seats and corruption takes it peaceful course. Human life has become an exchange note for seats allocations to the greedy politicians.
Our politicians are more poisonous than black cobras! Maurizio Giorgelli once wrote, “I publicly confess to be one of those stupid pacifists who do understand all the risks we run if we do not bomb people all the years for all the possible reasons. The reason why I evolved as a pacifist is that I do not believe that you can trust any politician who despises human life. I think that such politician is dangerous for me too. If he has no remorse in killing thousands and thousands of people…. will he feel remorse in messing up about health, food, drugs etc.”
The war ragging on in South sudan is not tribal as the media is misleading the nation. It’s all about dangerous politicians enriching their tummies through public resources, yet it’s being termed as a senseless war.
World War One was the first major war that was fought mainly in Europe, and parts of Asia. The war lasted from July 28th, 1914 to November 11th, 1928. World War One Was a Senseless War because major historical debate still rages about who has the ultimate responsibility for the outbreak of war. Austria and are Germany usually stared at as the main culprits.
However unlike World War Two there is no one easily identifiable bad guy! Though the truth is always looked up for, some of the main long-term causes that are identified by historians to have ignited the war were the system of alliances/ rivalry between the powers, militarism, nationalism, crisis before 1914, the Eastern Question or Balkans and the existing domestic political factors. Those constituted the basis of that senseless war.
In my view, I think, the factors that lead to the senseless war in South Sudan were, lack of true alliances, tribal affiliations, presidential amnesties, integrations of Militia groups, different levels of education in the SPLM/A, Garang’s boys phenomenon and corruption to be the main ingredients among others. Those factors lead to the ‘December crisis’ of 2013.
In fact, nobody anticipated that, should the SPLM party went to war with herself should her party members opted to show of muscles as an answer to the than high tensions during the (LC) Libration Council meeting, would it take more than a week. It was thought people would celebrate in bars as usual. But a senseless war sometimes never ends overnight.
The world war one had the same assumptions; most of the Great Powers took to trenches during the July crisis with underlying assumptions or beliefs that ‘if war did break out it would be a short one’. Many in Britain felt that the war would be over by Christmas.
However, wise leaders and few predicted the bloodiest war so far seen in history that would lead to: The abdication of the Tsar and a Communist revolution in Russia, The fall of the Kaiser’s regime in Germany, The collapse of Austria-Hungary, The end of the Turkish Empire.
Our politicians are either ignorance to the past or they never appreciate the past. Otherwise, the current senseless war was avoidable in south Sudan if the outcomes of war were wisely evaluated.
Even so, in South Sudan my nation, many warnings were visible but no leader cared. As predicted by few, the SPLM slipped and split into faltering fragments, the economy dwindled, and citizens got killed and desperately displaced in thousands. Yet this was being called a senseless war. Many examples could be cited to what is meant by a senselessness war in my nation.
One of this was the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the Shortest War in History (August 27, 1896) When a pro-British former sultan of Zanzibar, Hamad bin Thuwaini died on August 25, 1896, his nephew Khalid bin Barghash took power in Zanzibar (currently, Tanzania). However, the British authorities preferred Hamud bin Muhammed, son-in-law of first Sultan of Zanzibar as Hamud was more sympathetic to British interests.
This provoked Khalid to fight the British authorities. According to Guinness Book of World Records, the Anglo-Zanzibar War was the shortest war in history with the duration of the war being between 38 minutes and 45 minutes where more than 500 soldiers of Khalid were killed with only one British sailor being wounded. I think this was a senseless war fought for no benefit or strategy.
In the same way, many lives were lost in July 2016 at J1 in South Sudan. One of the wise but also a senseless war was between the United States and Britain, Decade-Long Dual Occupation of San Juan Islands Known as ‘Pig War’ (June 15, 1859 to 1874) It was a war that saw no human casualties and no shots exchanged between the belligerents. It was rather a confrontation between the British Empire and the United States over the boundary and occupation of San Juan Islands.
The confrontations was believed to have been caused by an American man who shot a pig that belonged to a British man. It was said that, a British Navy received orders to strike the American soldiers on the island, but the wise British Rear Admiral Robert Baynes refused, saying that it was foolish enough for two great nations to engage in a war over a dispute about a pig.
In conclusion, reaching the level of political maturity is yet to be realized in few more decades to come in south Sudan. Learning from world wars should guide future actions rather than premature decrees. It will also require remorseful politicians to give a nation like South Sudan and new hope of maturity.
Putting the lives of our citizens will have to be exogenous injected into the DNA of our future leaders rather than expecting it to be through experiences because young leaders seems to have been seriously deformed and traumatized by old politicians. The senseless war being fought by the government and the rebels is something uncalled for.
The power struggled in Addis Ababa peace talk will never bring a lasting or a durable peace unless durable minds are taken to Addis Ababa to bring a durable peace. The war if senseless should never be fought. It should be avoided as far as possible. We, the People of south Sudan have suffered enough to suffer gain!
You can reach the author via his email: Guarken Chiman <guarken@gmail.com>
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