Lessons in Suffering 1

War. The extension of diplomacy, where soldiers fight a conflict instead of diplomats. A war can't end without diplomats. A war can start many times without diplomats though, especially when started by ruthless people, like Hitler.

What is war? Look it up in an encyclopedia if you want to know. What is more interesting is what war does to human life. This article tries to describe the effects of war on human life and it's heavy reading. You are being warned.

About thousand years ago, the Catholic Church organized crusades to free Jerusalem from Muslim occupation. When the first crusader armies finally reached Jerusalem, they killed everyone in the city. And with everyone it means man, woman and child. Can you imagine yourself to take a sword, place it on the chest of a crying baby and push until the baby is dead? Can you stand the blood seeping from the baby's wound? The terrifying screams of a baby in mortal danger and the pain you are causing? Or what about killing a woman, heavily pregnant, and pushing your sword through her belly? Also this woman screams in mortal danger and the terrible pain of being penetrated by a sword, killing her baby and her self... slowly! Can you look that woman in the eye while you are killing her?

That was thousand years ago, Christians killing Muslims. Men killing men, women and children!

This barbarism was not the first time and sadly not the last time. 800 Years ago barbarians from Mongolia, a country in the far east, wiped out several civilizations and they slaughtered men, women, children and any animals in many settlements and cities. They managed to slaughter about 80 million people!

What about the first World War? That war started differently then usual. Two war parties, positioned opposite each other, built trenches to defend themselves successfully against attacks from each other. This led to a stalemate, which could not be accepted and both war parties were investigating and researching ways to break the impasse, this stalemate.

Soldiers lived for months in the trenches, never coming out, never washed themselves, never change uniforms. Their feet were so much swollen, they could not remove their boots.

The smell of thousands of unwashed bodies was unbearable. The number of soldiers who died in the trenches was beyond count; the life of a fly was worth more then a human life. The stench of the dead bodies was unbelievable strong. Unknown by many, the seeds were planted for the next slaughter. Many soldiers died because of infectious diseases, which would be repeated after the war in an even bigger scale, when the survivers returned to their homes.

The first time in known human history, humankind applied industry to produce masses of the most terrifying methods of human destruction in the most sadistical ways of suffering.

That first World War was the war, where hellish destruction rained down on the soldiers in the trenches. The never ending artillery fired grenades with small steel balls, which caused the most inhuman wounds with body parts ripped from their bodies, holes in their faces, bellies, limps and they were still alive! Thousands of soldiers suffered this! They fired grenades with gas, which caused death after hours of the most intense suffering imaginable. It caused the number of cripples for life between the wounded soldiers to grow dramatically. They used new weapons, which were called flame throwers, which let thousands be burned alive and they were luckier then those who survived, because those were driven mad because of the pain.

In that war, the Germans used the Zeppelins to bomb London to kill citizens only. In this way, they killed thousands and maimed tens of thousands more.

After slaughtering millions of soldiers and civilians, the first World War ended finally. The diplomats were finalizing the bloodiest conflict in the history of humankind.

What not many people realize is that after this war, millions continued to die in diseases and genocides.

The Turkey's empire was defeated by England and France, who was foolish enough fighting for the German empire. England and France played the foundation of the current conflict, by defining new territories and creating new nations to governing their areas of influence.

Then the second World War started.

The unbelievable scenes of thousands being slaughtered were being repeated, except now millions were being slaughtered. Many countries were being involved in the first World War, but in the second one, almost each country in the world was involved in this terrible war.

The industrial use of weapons reached high numbers, never been seen, and the war ended with the use of the biggest weapons of destruction, the atomic bomb. After 60 million death worldwide, and the introduction of weapons of mass destruction, a new era was born.

Those terrifying weapons were being used to avoid mass conflict, the avoidance of a third World War. Again there were two main sides, this time the communists and allies, mainly countries from Europe, Far East and America. None of the sides could start a war without being utterly destroyed. This period was called the Cold War and was characterized by the weapon race. It ended with the collapse of communism without a shot fired.

A period of peace made the world a better place. Instead of wars, slaughter and mass killings, there was a boost in technology and globalization. But hidden for most of us, the killings got started again. Most of it in Africa.

Suddenly, the key point in history occurred with the mega terror attack on America, the 9/11. The war on terror had begun. The rise of the Islamic Extremism occurred and spread throughout the world and 10 million people were again slaughtered... in silence. The killings were mainly in Africa, some in the Middle East and the rest in Asia.

America was the remaining superpower, and was strongly involved in fighting the Islamic Extremists. The problem with those extremists were that you never can wipe them out completely, because they don't form conventional armies, but a bunch of barbarians, hiding between populations. They use terror tactics to spread anarchy, death and destruction.

The heritage from the nation building in the Middle East and Africa by the superpowers from the past came active and multiple nations turned out failed states. Its citizens being slaughtered by the thousands, leaving the survivers behind in hate and despair. The perfect feeding ground for extremism.

Some countries like Iraq and Afghanistan went too far and became countries actively supporting terror and were invaded by the allies under the leadership of America. The results were more hate and more failed states.

This period of multiple conflicts since 9/11 cost the world 10 million death.

The first World War was mainly fought in Europe and Africa, later the Middle East became involved. The second World War was being fought all over the world. In both wars, Europe was burning. Now slowly the Middle East is burning.

In the middle of the conflict in the Middle East is Iran. That country supports terrorism as well, and it is attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction, the atomic bomb. If they succeed, that would protect them against invasion, like what happened with Iraq. Against Iran, we see the Gulf states with Saudi Arabia as the leader, and a third party called the Islamic State.

The problem with the Islamic State is that they are a country for Islamic Extremists. Under the flag of True Islamism, they spread the implementation of their revived Islam, which was in use a thousand years ago.

Iran is very nervous about the Islamic State and increases its efforts to expand its influence in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is doing the same, but is not so successful. The strategies used by Iran and Saudi Arabia is supporting certain Islamic Extremists active in the enemy states and they avoid direct conflict with each other. That strategy is also used by other states, like Qatar and America. The IS though is using direct violence to replace Syria and Iraq.

The IS is attracting many Islamic extremists from all over the world. Their strategies on the battle fields are very successful. It's very hard to confront the IS by conventional armies. Their second strategy is the strategy of propaganda. The IS is using the social media to increase their support base, where everyone can see how people are being executed by beheading their victims.

In France and Belgium terror attacks occurred, which are linked with the IS. The fear of the IS worldwide is a  fact and growing.

America, under the leadership of President Obama adopted the strategy of no new conflicts and ending the existing conflicts by pulling out their troops.

Europe invested too much in social aspects of their nations and they downgraded their armies. They are not in the position of new military conflicts.

Continue to read part 2 of the article.