My World’s Chemical Romance

[Peace Mural Foundation]

War is not an answer, it’s a problem. It somehow manages to bring out the wickedness and destructiveness in everyone, far worse than anything we see they are capable of in our regular lives. And that is saying something.

War is a place where the stories of horror and the purely grotesque take place; Where the place a person was born is worth more than life itself.

There is no holding back. There is no mercy.

 MURDER  BY HUONG 50”x95” - Acrylic on canvas- 2003

It’s no-holds-barred when your life and the lives of everyone you do and don’t know in your country are on the line. But is all really fair in love and war?

Chemical warfare started in World War I with the German and French armies. The Germans would open canisters of chlorine upwind and let the prevailing winds spread the poisonous damage to the opposing armies. The French army concocted their own chemical weapon by modifying artillery munitions with phosgene and using tear gas. And this was only the beginning for what was termed “The Chemists War.” This led to it becoming the most deadly war up to that point in history, and still one of the most deadly to this day.

War destroys peace. Without peace, there is no liberty. And if there is no liberty, why are we at war?

A hundred years of research and later technological advancements lgets us to where we are on this perilous day. With the 12th anniversary of 9/11 having just passed, we must reflect on what we have learned.

Chemical weapons hijack our own most important characteristic: our humanity. Without this unique characteristic, we are nothing more than animals. Or maybe we’re worse than animals, because animals don’t kill each other by the hundreds of thousands.

War makes us monsters.

 Birds in War by HUONG 50”x95” - Mixed media- 2003

When even the children of the most hardened men―leaders and generals of the world’s armies―decide that a weapon is too inhumane for them to use, it has gone too far. When death isn’t just death anymore, and science and ingenuity somehow become cross-contaminated with evil and greed, the line has to be drawn. We cannot allow genocide. But neither can we fight fire with fire.

Cities, countrysides, and fields all across Europe and Asia hold the scars from war and these malicious devices In fact, the remnants of chemical weapons poured into the Baltic Ocean still occasionally wash up on shore. These are consequences that span more than a lifetime; they span generations.

Unfortunately, it’s not only armies who have seen these weapons. Millions of civilians have fallen victim to them, with many countries desperately resorting to chemical weapons during warfare and civil unrest. Thankfully, chemical weapons have become very unpopular over time as more and more countries come to agreement to not use them. The terrifying scenes from their onslaughts are usually enough to move even the most menacing countries.

This is why we cannot let evil prevail. We cannot let terrorists, either organizations or whole governments, murder others with such vile intent. Regardless of their innocence, no one deserves that ill fate. We must oppose those who threaten the sovereignty of life, including those who want to go to war for it. War would simply exacerbate the situation, and in such a volatile area as Syria, it would only cause more mayhem and destruction.

 

Fear by HUONG 26”x38” - Oil on canvas- 2003

Peace will never be obtained through war. If peace is what we all want, we will have to achieve it through peace. Because, As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”

Bryan Palacio