War as a fairytale

the neverending story of murder, maiming and mayhem in pursuit of a Kingdom.

Once upon a time in a faraway land a group of people, followers of a religion, called Juiz decided to turn their fairy tales into a reality by creating their own country. It was very inconvenient not having a country and as exceptional humans, they deserved one.

They joined forces with another tribe called Ziobigs. These people did not follow the religion, in fact they rejected it completely and its God, but they had ancestors who did and so they qualified as superior humans. And the fairytale of the Juiz was so useful for their Ziobig plan to create great power for themselves because it was a source of money and colonists.

To do this they needed to take someone else’s country but since they knew they were superior as humans and the people living in this distant land, Palestia, were subhuman and of no importance, they had no problem with such a plan. And, they told themselves, it was not really theft because their religious writings were full of references to this distant land and even more important, their God had taken time out from the Godjob to play realtor and to give them Palestia. It did not matter that their God was not the God of most people in the land, because they knew their God was the only God and they had been chosen by God because they were exceptional humans.

The Palestians, little more than cockroaches as far as the now combined, tribe of Jionists was concerned, would be exterminated or expelled, apart from a few compliant and useful slaves. Even if they had been humans, which they were not, this was not important because it was nothing compared to the suffering of Juiz over thousands of years, who were the only victims in all of human history. Nothing could ever compare to their suffering and indeed, no comparison should ever be made. Only anti-Juiz would do that and that was bigotry and persecution.

Some Juiz were concerned because they worried the Palestians might have great power, even dragons. But their leaders dismissed their fears saying that, given their superior intelligence, there was no weapon the natives could have which could ever defeat them. So, they sharpened their swords, polished their shields, tidied their uniforms and went off to the distant land to do battle waving their already fraying flags of self-righteousness.

Although there were a few Juiz, a brave-hearted and noble few, who thought it might all end badly and that exterminating people was not good. But their voices were silenced, some permanently.

”Someone needs to do something about fixing those flags, “said the General.

The troops laughed at his words. The invasion and conquest of Palestia worked well with nearly half of the people living there exterminated or expelled. And over time, by creating more wars, the Jionists were able to take all of the country and tell everyone it belonged to them, because some of them had lived there long, long, long ago. A lot of people did believe this story but most did not actually care about faraway Palestine or its people.

The Jionists named their colony Ditzrael after a mythical tribe, talked about by religious fiction writers long ago. They were very pleased with themselves because they had demonstrated their superiority as humans. They were going to try to be nice to the natives they told themselves, sometimes. Well, maybe, if they behaved themselves and never challenged the authority of their colonial military occupation rulers.

But everyone knew, the natives were stupid, did not love their children as the Jionists did and neither did they have morals as the Jionists did, or any sort of civilized practices as the Jionists did. And if they were going to force the Jionists to kill their children, then that would be their fault and they would have no-one to blame but themselves. How evil must subhumans be to force real humans to kill their children? That was a question forever on the minds of the Ditzraelis. Well, maybe not forever, but often.

Fairytales are very powerful when people believe them utterly and are convinced they are real. The Jionist fairytale had been around for a very long time and it was hardwired into the mentality of the Jionists, who, because they could never be wrong as superior humans, had no need to question it. Some wondered if there might be problems but they felt sure and safe in the knowledge they could never be wrong or do wrong and so such silly thoughts were quickly packed up with the fraying flags. After all, new flags can be easily made even if they appeared to fray very, very quickly. If they had time off from war and ruling the natives they could get someone to find a more durable material for their flags of self-righteousness. But, places to go, people to kill, bombs to drop, bullets to send took all of their time.

For a time it almost looked as if they had succeeded in taking Palestia for themselves and the natives knew their place. But apparently even subhumans get tired of being treated like filth and within a few decades of being subjected to a truly sadistic and savagely bestial colonial rule, the natives became restless.

Because the Jionist Ditzraelis knew that these natives were not really human, they ignored their protests and killed or imprisoned and tortured any who misbehaved. This included children. But that was okay because the natives did not love their children as the Jionists loved their children and they had used them as human shields and therefore they were responsible when they died. In truth, people who do not love their children and who use them as human shields should be killed, the Jionists all agreed.

The Ditzraelis were particularly frightened when the children threw stones at their huge tanks and punishment for such a crime, which they said threatened all of them and their State, was severe. I mean even a pebble might drop down into a tank and scratch a soldier inside. You cannot be too careful as a colonial ruler.

Needless to say this did not go down well with the natives either. And that was really strange because everyone knew the Palestians did not love their children as the Jionists loved their children. It was probably some instinctive insect response the Jionists told themselves. Even a cockroach will run if you try to crush it, and leave their babies behind.

But the natives began to organise more violent resistance. So the Jionists organised more violent punishment. But, it seemed, no matter how many of the subhumans they murdered, how many of their homes they stole and gave to Jionists, or demolished, the resistance continued.

The Jionists knew this was because the natives as subhumans were really very stupid. Surely they could see how superior their colonial rulers were and that their future was to be compliant slaves or dead. Why would they keep fighting? They concluded very quickly there was no alternative but to punish them harder - murder, rape, torture, imprisonment, demolished houses to make sure the message got through that their land no longer belonged to them and they had no right to resist.

So many natives to squish it really got exhausting and the Jionists resented them even more for making them spend all that effort killing them. What a mess it made when they had better things to do than fight the irritating natives who should not still be there anyway.

And so the story played out with increasing savagery from the superior humans against the subhuman natives, who never learned the lesson they were being given, and therefore deserved to die in the most horrible of ways. Or to suffer until they left the land which no longer belonged to them. In fact had never belonged to them because those few Juiz wandering around the place thousands of years ago, gave all Juiz today the right to claim Palestia.

”How many of their children will they force us to kill”, said the General shaking her head?

”They do seem to have a lot of children, said the Army Chief. “Although there is an economy of scale in that they require less bombs and bullets to be dealt with. More a bit of whipper-snippering with kids than mowing the grass.”

”Someone replace those flags, they are fraying badly,” shouted the General as he rubbed away at the blood on his trousers which went all the way up to his knees.

Did the fairytale have a happy ending? We don’t know yet but we can only hope it does in the name of justice, rule of law, democracy, human rights and common human decency.

And who knows, perhaps the Palestians can summon up some dragons after all.

NB: Names have been changed to protect the guilty.