This is war

What is war?
In the human psyche
it is the fatal flaw,
a perversion of the human mind
turning the morally sighted
morally blind.

War is
the profoundest disrespect
for the sanctity of human life,
the ultimate in racism
and malevolent discrimination.

War is the realm
of the psychopathic leader,
paranoia and collective insanity
the practised liar,
the organiser of public deception.

War means
the derision of dissent,
the sidelining and silencing of dissent,
the corruption of the media.

The makers of arms,
the puppet-masters
triumph,
war’s only winners.
Unchallenged,
obscure,
they rejoice in secret.

Politicians smooth-talk
the planned propaganda line
every time,
glib answers from unruffled
plausible men,
apparently educated,
apparently intelligent,
justifying the destruction of humanity
as an unfortunate necessity
or an act of self-defence.

War is cruelty, horror, pain, suffering,
destruction and monstrous theft,
a negation of civilisation,
the ultimate in criminality,
the ultimate obscenity,
the ultimate crime against humanity,

a self-defeating
leap into the abyss.

David Roberts
2015
Revised 2024