The Tragedy of War

AT THE Imperial War Museum in London, England, visitors are intrigued by a unique clock and digital counter. This clock does not keep time. Its purpose is to help people grasp the magnitude of a central feature of this century—war. As the hand of the clock rotates, the counter adds another number to its tally every 3.31 seconds. Each number represents a man, woman, or child who has died as a result of war during the 20th century.

The counter began its work in June 1989. At midnight on December 31, 1999, the counting will end. It will then register one hundred million, a conservative estimate of the number of those who have died in war during the past 100 years.

Imagine—one hundred million people! That is more than double the population of England. Yet, that statistic reveals nothing about the terror and pain experienced by the victims. Neither does it describe the suffering of the loved ones of those who died—the countless millions of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, widows and orphans. What the statistic does tell us is this: Ours has been by far the most destructive century in all human history; its savagery is unparalleled.

The history of the 20th century also shows to what extent humans have become expert in the craft of killing. Throughout history the development of new weapons went slowly until the 20th century, which has produced an avalanche of weapons. When the first world war began in 1914, the armies of Europe included men on horseback, armed with lances. Today, with the help of satellite sensors and computerized guidance systems, missiles can deliver death to any part of the earth, with astonishing accuracy. The intervening years have seen the development and perfecting of guns, tanks, submarines, warplanes, biological and chemical weapons and, of course, “the bomb.”

Ironically, mankind has become so good at making war that war is now a game that humanity can no longer afford to play. Like the fictional story of Frankenstein, in which a monster destroys its maker, war threatens to destroy those who gave it such great power. Can this monster be controlled or abolished? The following articles will examine this question.

[Picture Credit Lines on page 3]

U.S. National Archives photo

U.S. Coast Guard photo

By Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum