Losers, losers, and losers...
More war. Now Israel-Iran. How far will this spiral of global warfare go? Mercè Rodoreda wrote in the prologue to her novel. How much, how much war, the last one he wrote: "A war serves to make everyone lose." And then, sooner or later, another comes to avenge the dead. And so on and so forth. Violence generates hatred and violence. It is the tragic spiral of human history. There is also a happy, collaborative spiral, where life and death intertwine to continue generating life, as happens in nature. War is a failure of natural human life. The human condition, the awareness of being alive and searching for meaning in existence, is a double-edged sword: it makes us gods and demons, it gives us a power that is both fabulous and terrible. Love and war. Eros and Thanatos. How can we sublimate the self-destructive instinct? Politics, sports, art, money, religion... How many things have we invented that have often turned against us, recovering our bastard instincts?
Netanyahu's Israel remains mired in a whirlpool of fear and aggression. It feels like the prime minister is like an out-of-control teenager, doped up with violence, magnifying his enemies and firing wildly at everyone in his path. The brutality in Gaza has only fueled his military epic. He has attacked Lebanon (the areas controlled by Hezbollah), Syria (with bombing raids even in Damascus and Aleppo), Yemen (in response to the Houthis), and Iran. The ayatollahs' regime is certainly not run by nuns of charity; it has long threatened to acquire nuclear weapons and has fueled Israel's enemies. But this new "preemptive offensive" by Tel Aviv against Tehran could light a dangerous fuse. Last July, in Netanyahu's previous show of force, the response was measured. Now Iran will go further.
"A war is meant to make everyone lose." Since the Spanish Civil War, the testing ground for World War II, we know that the victims are primarily civilians. Missiles fall on cities. Drones supposedly seek out specific enemies, but they take "collateral damage" for granted. No matter how sophisticated it is, war is always war, indiscriminate death, brutality, amorality. Gaza is a disgrace to humanity. The world is becoming more insecure and ferocious by the minute. The dynamic of general rearmament portends the worst. The ultranationalist testosterone of Netanyahu, Putin, Trump, and company is lethal. Multilateral diplomacy, with all its weaknesses and hypocrisies, is giving way to the crude language of war: trade war and literal war. We all lose.
The Russian population is bearing the cost—in human lives and loss of living standards—of a war against Ukraine that was supposed to be a walk in the park. Of course, the disaster is even more evident and cruel in Ukraine, the country under attack. More or less the same thing is happening with the population of the Middle East (including the Israelis, but especially the Palestinians, of course). Trump's absurd and volatile tariff war is already beginning to harm Americans' living standards in particular. Europe's rearmament to confront the danger of Russian expansionism seems inevitable on the one hand, and on the other, it's pushing us toward the abyss: but with the US desertion, we can't leave Ukraine alone, can we? The dilemma is hellish.
Netanyahu, who never stops proactively attacking, always claims to be acting in self-defense. Everyone defends themselves; that is, everyone attacks. In this unbridled context, how long will it take for China to take over Taiwan? Perhaps not. But warmongering has taken over politics. It's evident in the aggressive rhetoric, in the polarization of public opinion. Moderation is for cowards. Dialectics are for friends and enemies. Dialogue? There's only irrational, emotional, sectarian confrontation. No water for the rival; they must be skinned by all means. Just look at the mud in Madrid. With the independence movement defeated, now the PP-Vox are at war with the PSOE. Once again, we'll all lose.