I
am a noun. Check your online dictionary
and you’ll find that I am a useful noun.
Indeed, I am a necessary noun in these times of arrogance and aggression
and not just originating from verbal (meaning ‘from verb’) quarters. That’s always been the case, come to think of
it. But these are aggressive days of
the missile kind. In such a reality my
worth naturally is enhanced. It’s best
to get a hang of who I am so let’s go with definitions.
Defense.
The act of defending against attack, danger or injury. A means or method of defending or
protecting. In sports it refers to the
act or an instance of defending a championship against a challenger. In law it is an argument in support or justification
of something. There’s a serious element
to it too: It refers
to the military, governmental, and industrial complex, especially as it
authorizes and manages weaponry production.
There
is an antonym too. Well, antonyms,
really: harm, injury, capitulation, flight, hurt, betrayal, desertion and
surrender.
I
am a noun that is confused. Here’s my
confusion. Just the other day some
morons decided it was fun or expedient to harm some people. The idiots were associated with the
Palestinian organization called Hamas and the victims were citizens of
Israel. That set the ball rolling. I was thrown this way and that, up and down.
It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride since then. Since then it’s all been about me. The noun.
Defense.
People
have used my name like they never have before. Well, not really, for whenever
someone wants to justify any kind of aggression they pick me as a kind of
shield. It’s the same with words like
democracy, peace, justice and freedom.
Lots of crimes including those against humanity have been committed in
our names. But these days it’s all about
me. Defense.
A
man called Benjamin Netanyahu has, in my name, vowed to ‘do whatever is
necessary’. Now ‘whatever necessary’ is
a codeword for unleashing anything from bullet to chemical weapons, noxious and
poisonous gases and even the atom bomb, history is full of examples. Netanyahu’s pals in Washington have more or
less endorsed the man’s position. Again
in my name. Defense.
Now
for my confusion. In my name things have
been done that harmful and injurious.
People have been killed in my name.
The death count has passed 200 I heard.
That’s ‘defense’? That’s me? I can’t recognize myself in the mirror, sorry
in the text voice-cut transcripts, any more.
Who am I?
Then,
if that weren’t enough, outfits people by those who make their living peddling
peace, justice, freedom, rights and such, people who abhor and cry and scream
against violence, injury, conflict etc., are to be brought under an authority
set up in my name. A ministry in
fact. The Ministry of Defense. Not in Israel, but here in Sri Lanka.
Is
that to defend those valiant and ‘blameless’ people from the horrors of this
world? Or is it to defend the ministry
and whatever it stands for FROM those same people? Is it something that’s
neither or something that is made of bits of both? Whatever it is, I am confused. I am defense.
I feel defenseless.
*All this in a parallel universe
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