It’s right to remember the dead of 1939-45. But keep the anger about current wars too

The Guardian

Around the globe, conflict is spreading – but it’s too often going ignored. Are we simply overwhelmed by the scale of it?

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A funeral ceremony for people killed in a US airstrike on a marketplace in Sanaa, Yemen, 23 April 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Victims of Nazi atrocities will be remembered at ceremonies next week marking the end of the second world war in Europe. (...)

The dead of 1939-45 should never be forgotten. But we should also be mindful to count the dead of 2025. To know that in years to come, we will remember, record and honour victims of today’s recurring atrocities. (...)

When confronted by such horrors, silence is unacceptable. Silence is complicity. To remain silent is to suggest nothing has been learned from the past. (...)

Why is this carnage tolerated, even normalised? One proffered reason is the complexity and number of conflicts – the most since 1945. The total has doubled in the past five years. More than 300 million people need humanitarian aid and protection. Yet the UN system, frequently paralysed by major power rivalries, is failing. Its authority is scorned, its envoys sidelined, its peacekeepers attacked, in Lebanon and elsewhere. It is critically under resourced. (...)

People in wealthier, more stable countries appear overwhelmed by the vast extent and sheer awfulness of global breakdown. Anecdotally, many say that faced by relentless tsunamis of upsetting news they simply “switch off”. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they feel powerless. Natural disasters still prompt generous responses. (...)

But man-made “forever wars”, and complicated ethnic and religious conflicts in, say, Afghanistan, Syria or Somalia are harder to engage with. (...)

War and conflict are products, not causes, of current world disorder, which is primarily political in origin. Spreading instability stems, partly at least, from political fragmentation, from the ongoing rejection of globalisation and an agreed international rulebook. A rising tide of authoritarian rightwing populism, ultra-nationalism, me-first economics, xenophobic prejudice and fear of difference – as well as an enervating loss of faith, trust and moral purpose – contribute to this depleted sense of connection. (...)

Politically, militarily and morally atrocious behaviour is spreading like a virus, and draws ever closer to home.

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Tags: #english #second world war #wwII #holocaust #yemen #gaza #israel #palestine #palestinians #genicide #war crimes #torture #haiti #Democratic Republic of the Congo #DRC #congo #myanmar #afghanistan, #syria #somalia #sudan