OF THE WARS OF BLOOD AND BLOOD
These days a relatively small country, with ten million inhabitants, is celebrating at the same time 77 years of existence and its Yom Hazikaron, a day of remembrance of the fallen in war and victims of terrorism. Israel has not lived a single day of peace in these 77 years. Also, on May 9, we are celebrating the 82nd anniversary of the end of World War II. And thanks to the Tsar of Russia, Putin, the Russian attacks on Ukraine will stop in honor of the great Russian victory in that war.
With Ukraine we have, according to the ACLED Institute, ten areas of crisis in the world, where every second people die. For Brazilians, who knew the last conflict in their territory in the Paraguayan War, 150 years ago, today only the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine are known. The others, as in the Sahel, Miramar, Sudan and others, is a TV mirage. Until the past 50 years of the end of the Vietnam War, where the United States lost a large number of soldiers, they are mere Globo's reports. From time to time refugees appear, such as those from Lebanon or Afghanistan, to remind us that this exists and that, as if by divine grace, we are out. Immune.
War, of which I am the son, survivor, leaves traumas for the rest of my life. There is no conflict, war, even cybernetics, that does not leave deep sequelae in people. Numbers are numbers, but they always involve people. It's blood everywhere, death, injuries and material losses. Even in internal conflicts, such as wars between criminals in countries like Mexico and even Brazil.
There are economic aspects, such as those of Ukraine, which today spends 40% of its GDP for war purposes. Or technological development for defense purposes, which end up benefiting society as a whole. Paradoxically, not before helping to kill everyone. Remember the movie Oppenheimer about the atomic bomb. And military spending is, as in the US, with its one trillion dollars, followed by China, with a third of this amount, the engine of economic existence.
And let's not forget that while some lose, even in today's tariff war, others win. Or territories, or, like Argentina in the Second World War, which had only benefits that it then lost, due to poor peace management.
The world, as it is, does not live without conflicts. Even with the United Nations, founded to avoid these conflicts and today in a deep existential crisis, we can't live if they are.
Statesmen, when they visit other countries, bow before a monument to the unknown soldier. Let's applaud and join all those who fight for peace, and bow before an unknown soldier, who may be his son, his brother. Just say Shalom. And be happy that we are in Brazil, only benefiting from the tariff war and with the question: to defend peace, you have to be prepared for war. Are we?