Tag Archives: war

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How can war still exist?

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There’s so much talk of war, and war crimes right now – discussion about who has visited what horror upon whom, and whether such horrors are legal. It makes my heart shrink into my bones.

Why do questions like these still have to exist?

How can we claim to be ‘playing fair’ at all when we bring death and destruction to another? How can any of us walk tall when others are ripped apart by loss, and their homes cratered with corpses? Where is the honour in deliberately obliterating the hope and livelihoods of millions caught up in the storm of our actions? Where is the pride in shredding the souls of others, in stamping bootnails and bombs into generations of families? What is the justification for any form of warfare, regardless of whether it is legal or not?

Surely there is none, for we know in the deepest layers of our common humanity that the cruelty and violence of war should be banished from all lands for all times, for the sake of us all.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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“…nightmare upon nightmare …”

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This morning, while driving along an average road on an ordinary day, I heard the testimony of three women caught up in the tragedy exploding between Gaza and Israel. The emotion in their voices was as raw as an open wound.

The first to be interviewed was a female journalist. When asked how she felt about her role in such a situation, she described a deep sense of responsibility. She said her role was to bear witness, to report what she found. It was she who described the situation as “… nightmare upon nightmare …”.

The second interview was with a grandmother whose community and family had been attacked. She said the knowledge of how close she had come to losing her own grandchildren had switched her peaceful DNA to one that fully supported Israel’s army. Voice shaking with grief she then spoke of her anguish at not knowing the whereabouts of her friends.

The third interview was from a video recording with a mother in Gaza where bombs were falling. The interview had been adapted for radio. She tried to describe the view from her apartment, the devastation, and went to open a window on to her neighbourhood to do so, but could not see anything and started to cough. “I cannot breathe …” she said.

I drove on – the agony in the voices stretching ahead of me down the ordinary road.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023