This is a 618-word essay that immerses you in the horrors of war with a peaceful escape.
By Promod Puri
Let me speak out of the box, and from the heart, about a word we rarely associate with power and strength: SURRENDER
Not the kind found in treaties or headlines, but a deeper, nobler surrender, one that overpowers ego and pride.
It is in this submission of humility that a sane and livable world can emerge. It is here that suffering can stop, not someday, but immediately.
From Israel, Iran, to Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan, to other known war zones, to forgotten ones, the carnage continues. Cities are levelled. Futures erased.
For what?
If war were truly a path to peace, then history would’ve been a utopia by now.
Let me step into reality!
In today’s wars, the decision-makers, the ones who fan the flames, rarely step into the fire. Leaders call for blood while staying miles away from battles. They walk away unscathed. The people do not. Mothers do not. Children do not.
The truth is that modern war has no frontlines.
The battlegrounds are cities. Missiles hit houses and dense apartments, not bunkers. Bombs find schools, not soldiers. Power plants, not platoons. Water supplies, not weapons.
In wars, humanity gets crushed, people die, and collapsed buildings transform into graves.
Continuous strikes and the thunder of missiles and bombs make the citizens homeless and refugees in moments; millions desperately seek shelter elsewhere.
Worst of all, when we momentarily grasp the feelings of an innocent child gazing at the rolling scene of devastation, destruction, and death. If asked, “Do you know or understand all this, and why is the war around?” The answer is naive: “No!”
At least for the sake of a tender, ignorant child representing the next generation inhabiting the planet Earth, the call of humanity seeks an immediate stop to the brutal war, even if it means surrendering.
Children have rights, too, that include their survival and future.
And what about the birds, animals and environment!
In the urban infernos, nationalism, patriotism, martyrdoms, and heroism become hollow slogans, distorted projections that glorify horror and dress death in medals.
And then comes the cost.
Not just lives lost, but generations scarred. Not just homes destroyed, but hope. And in a world armed with nuclear stockpiles, chemical arsenals, and cyber weapons, the aftermath may not even leave us with a world to rebuild.
War is not a necessary evil; it is an unnecessary catastrophe. It’s a manufactured tragedy. A crime against humanity, camouflaged in flags and anthems. Yes, a bonanza for the armed industry and the oil companies.
Do we need to wait for more wars to realize what we already know?
Let us not glorify war, nor normalize it. Here we seek something bizarre but anti-war. It’s surrender!
Surrendering sounds like defeat.
But in this defeat lies the victory, a liberation from the horrors of war.
Surrender is an ethical and moral imperative that blocks the right to kill on a massive scale.
Wars, after all, are crimes against humanity.
One brave heart must raise the white flag to end the bloodshed and genocide.
Wars must end. And if surrender makes it, let it be.
Surrender egos, pride, and delusions of military glory for the sake of peace, for the sake of our planet, and for the generations who deserve better.
Let the nations at war raise the white flag.
Late Pope Francis very wisely said: “I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates.”
Promod Puri.com 