War is a Dinosaur
COVID-19, and worldwide ‘I can’t breathe’ protests, against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police threaten to incinerate the word ‘enemy’.
Who is the enemy if the virus transcends physical and ideological borders and equally kills people in New York and Beijing? George Floyd was an African American, so why did New Zealand attract all those people to protest his death?
Nurses nurse patients back to health. Farmers grow food. The military protects what it regards as its own and kills enemies. Enemies are people who don’t look like military commanders, eat like them, raise kids like them or worship like them.
Killing is their job description. That is what the military does, although presidents and prime ministers never use the word ‘kill’ when they justify attacking another country.
Their speeches are peppered with words like patriotism, defence of democracy or protection of ‘our’ borders. The internet has made territorial borders obsolete. Freelancing COVID-19 and protests generated by George Floyd’s killing are proof of that.
No borders no enemies. The military needs enemies otherwise war becomes a dinosaur. Borders are concrete, visible. Borders are electrified fences with powerful lights. They have men with dogs. Borders are also natural, like rivers and mountains.
The internet floats over all that and lands on the billions of people through their phones and computers. They interpret images their own way. They don’t see ‘enemies’ military strategists analyze all the time.
Instead, they are going through COVID-19 pain like the country they fought against in World War 2. They see George Floyd treated like an animal and killed like one and they wonder, who will be next?
Therefore, countries planning wars against neighbours or ‘enemies’ across the sea should suspend them, and deal with internal wars against their own citizens.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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