“For what can war but endless war still breed?”
– From Sonnet 15 by John Milton
Every day, we encounter images of people dying, starving, fleeing home and losing hope. Every day, we see children looking for the dead. Or children’s dead bodies strewn across hospitals and cities. Every day, we hear sirens on television and phone screens. They have disclaimers saying, “sensitive content,” and we hear and see and scroll on.
Every day, we forget that there are endless wars...
Israel has declared it a zero-sum game when it comes to Palestine and in the ruins of places bombed, you can see the destruction that war brings. Ukraine continues to be bombed.
Modern warfare is a complicated affair with many interests intersecting. Africa seems to be forever in a state of war.
How do wars begin and how do they end? How do we define the ending? What happens in the aftermath?
Why do we live in a prolonged state of war? What does that living account for, as an audience, a participant and a perpetrator? What happens to those who suffer? How do we tell their stories? How does one return to a besieged place? How long can one flee their homeland? What does it do to us? Does numbness begin with it?
These are questions that we who write and read grapple with in this anniversary issue—'War and Peace'.
