Innocence is no Defence – Gaza and others, by Peter Polack

“Innocence is no Defence”: it is a term familiar to defence attorneys in a criminal trial where the accused is facing protracted incarceration prior to delivery of a verdict by the court that has a greater application in the wider world, writes Peter Polack.

When leaders are selected by democratic vote, or otherwise, as is the case of Hamas in Gaza, Putin in Russia, Assad in Syria or many such others, the population has made themselves subject to the wild ideas or oppression of their de facto leadership.

Western concepts of removal by disgrace, no confidence motions, resignations or recall petitions are notably absent from vast swathes of the world. The cruel implementation of these erratic decisions always leads to conflict, death and mass harm.

It has been some time since these types of malefactors ended up at the end of a rope on a lamp post, against a wall or in a drainage pipe a la Mussolini, Ceausescu and Gaddafi.

The clock is ticking.

Amongst the crying, wailing and display of dead children by a population subjected to the most reckless behavior there is very little understanding or sense of their own responsibility for the road that brought them to this point.

All the brave men could not, should not, have died in Russia, Gaza, Syria, Iran or Nicaragua.

Someone can hold leadership accountable for their actions, either by ballot or bullet. There is not a shortage of either.

More screaming, more protests, more news will not change this dynamic.

For sure, the United Nations and their affiliates are shouting into the mass silence of no confidence.

No amount of statements from those upon high prevented a single bullet or bomb in Ukraine or Gaza.

The booming quiet of the UN on the 7^th October atrocity is perhaps the swan song of a failed institution.

The responsibility ultimately lies with we the people.

If some generations will turn off their video games or refrain from swiping on their phones there could be some hope for the future.

Influencers or celebrities will have no part in the future with faux measured utterances devoid of depth;  instead they merely fulfil their true destiny as clowns in the circus, a fleeting distraction.

Perhaps the answer lies not only in sanction and economic deprivation but the wide scale removal of diplomats increasingly obsolete in a world beset by uncontained conflict.

In the extended conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza, propped up by many third parties actions and inactions, the answer could lie in the closing of borders.

Hanging on for peace talks has not worked.

The world has to become more black or white. Media outlets giving space to autocratic spokespersons without fact checking or journalistic investigations are the worst offenders.

They are, however, just a click away from registering your disgust.

If the independent and realistic assessment is that conflict has not only spread but gathered steam then the responsibility lies in the hands of the wider population, not the inner supplicants, to effect change one body at a time.

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Read also: Ahmad Kahalot, Gaza hospital director, admits Hamas turned hospitals into military facilities

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Peter Polack is the author of The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2018).He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013) and his latest book entitled Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 will be published by McFarland in 2024.

 https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Polack/e/B00BX13VUQ

Previously on EU Today:

Palestinians “have substantially less than before the mindless 7th October attack,” writes Peter Polack – https://eutoday.net

Cayman Islands: Treatment of Cuban Refugees a Crime Against Humanity? Peter Polack – https://eutoday.net

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