The Red Apples (part 105)

The Red Apples (part 105)
„Let us all be reminded of the facts of the past. Let me venture into an important side aspect,“ sat Oliver Odhiambo comfortably on the blanket and the grass. „When around one hundred years ago Europeans downsized their armies and cut defense spending time fast approached they reversed their decision. The Ukraine-Russia war and the military tensions in the Middle East and the threats of China to annex independent Taiwan led to an increase in weapons production. All European states called more men and women to join the army.

The end of the Cold War saw an end to militarization in Europe and other conflicts around the world pumped up weapons production again. The level that new deadly arsenal production and the increased ratio to national GDP skyrocketed to before unimaginably high. Such a production put pressure on the whole national system. No politicians wanted to be labeled as false prophets having wasted precious national assets.

This self-created pressure as the Europeans were not in immediate danger of being attacked but thought in their imaginations to get ready for any possible scenario caused the pressure of stimulating a conflict to make use of the weapons and weapons production lines. Just this new scenario created behind the scenes gradually conflicts which later saw many people dead and misplaced. Make love, not war people ignore the reality of life and the reality of history. Throughout mankind, such ideas have always existed especially in times when mothers held their wounded children in their arms seeing them passing on before them.“

„Balance of power to prevent war! Could this be a positive attitude?“ asked Irene moving forward. She placed her blanket right in front of the professor. The night was chilly. The campfire burnt down to ashes. All sausages were eaten. The bottles of wine were empty. Only one open pack of crisps that no one wanted to finish off.

„We all remember the NATO double treaty formulated by the French President of that time and the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. In public over and over again propagated as a strategy to balance the nuclear arsenal of NATO and the Warsaw Pact in reality it was intended to bring down the Soviet Union…which it did. At that time it was obvious the Soviet Union would collapse only these two men wanted to speed up the process. In the cause of that the economic and political costs created never justified the means decide for. If they had waited for a generation longer staying in their shoes the collapse would have been far more beneficial to the West and possibly avoided unwanted aftershocks that were predictable at that time.“

Irene intervened and challenged her professor by saying: „ But there you have it professor. By increasing the nuclear arsenal with more cruise missiles and Pershing two rockets for the West to stand on the same platform as the East peace in the West was ensured. Oh yes, Yugoslavia was a different story I forgot.“

„The nuclear arsenal on both sides was so intense and high in numbers, “counter-struck Oliver Odhiambo,“ mankind would have been eradicated several times from the face of the earth already. Any additional rocket would never have stabilized the fragile peace in Europe. A nuclear war cannot be compared to a conventional war as a nuclear conflict is an automatic chain reaction and eliminates the entire human race.

A conventional war on the other side be it face-to-face combat or killing people with drones from the comfort of your home or an underground bunker with a good cup of coffee and a piece of cake by your side while seeing on a screen how people die by the decision of your hand can sooner or later be stopped. These wars are under the radar of a nuclear war.“

Irene was not completely convinced of the words she was hearing still having sweet and pink dreams in her heart: „So…professor…you want to tell us…the future elite of this country and us young people of the world that fundamental changes always happen to be it in the shape of a country and the political changes when needed or wanted…and that all this happens with force…not by voting or negotiation…not in a peaceful manner?“

„History is history and runs the race based on its narrative and principles never by what we wish and hope for. It sounds like a trumpet for the ostrich to stick his head into the hot sand or as a constant challenge for us to extend times of peace for as long as possible and find a mechanism to end military conflicts as soon as possible. We must be grateful for peaceful times. Just because we live in the twenty-second century does not mean we can be so ignorant or arrogant to believe the laws of history no longer apply to us.“

„I…I do not want to believe it!“ declared Irene while the rest of the students got up and cleaned the place. „With all due respect…professor…I will not believe it. There must be another way out.“ She gripped a large blue bag and put the dirty plates and cups into it. Wine bottles and soft drink packages she put in a different bag. Mustard jars laid in the grass. She picked them up. Irene rolled the blankets together they had taken from the dormitories. The picnic tables got folded again.

Oliver Odhiambo concluded:“ Where ever the human being is walking on earth he leaves a mess behind after passing through for the next generation to pick up the mess.“ He looked at Irene from the side realizing she was not impressed by his words of wisdom.