It has been approximately 100,000 years that modern human beings first evolved in the Earth. Along with the pace of time, human civilization has been diversified into different racial, ethnic and language groups. This disintegration has lead people to live in a myriad of culture which is considerably different from each other, in most of the ways. The hodgepodge of various culture, race, and language has created complex and factious human societies.

From the beginning of human existence, people have been entailed in various conflicts. Now it has deeply rooted in human civilization. These days many historians are arguing about the relationship between human civilization and the war. In an attempt to reveal the mystery, Azat Gat set some questions in his book, “War in Human Civilization.” He has asked if the war was a declining phenomenon or simply a mediator altering the structure of human society. If we take a closer look at a history of mankind everything becomes transparent. No matter for what purpose it was fought, consequent always remains against the people.

For example, let’s have a glance into the causes of the Iraq War which is going on, beginning from March 20, 2003. The key basis for the attack presented by the U.S. President George W. Bush and alliance supporters was the claim that “Iraq possessed and was actively developing Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) in violation of a 1991 agreement” (Iraq & WMD, par. 1). Though this war was fought for the good of people, it couldn’t follow the sole mission for what it was fought. Nevertheless, like other wars, it seemed devastating to the Iraqi people and to the entire world. Till now, millions of people have died and other millions of them are injured, homeless and forced to live an insecure and miserable life.

Since the beginning of the war, people have been arguing about its morality. There are some people who believe that war is good for human society and is the best way to defend their nation against the enemy. According to them, war helps to sweep over factors causing bad influence to the people or the country. “Wars have often been thought of as purifying the nation’s polluted blood by virtue of a sacrificial rite identical to the rites of human sacrifice so common in early historical periods”. Apart from this, some people have a strong notion that war is the finest approach to demonstrate the power, military, and prosperity. Like, the American Civil War (1861 ‑1865) helped to bring out the prevailing slavery system in southern America to an end.

On the contrary, other group views war as undesirable and morally problematic. These people consider that people are obligated to face unusual circumstances due to war. Even more, pacifist, take war as a naturally immoral and against the will of human beings. But instead of coming up with a new approach to deal with the situation both of these divergent groups are steadfast in their position just carrying on what they are doing.

The onset of war has proved to be a turning point in the history of mankind. It has brought about a bad fate in people’s life. People have been affected physically, mentally and socially. With these things on hand, it has completely changed the facade of the world. Regardless of people continuous resistant to the war they have been directly or indirectly obliged to be a part of it.

For example, before America was involved in World War I, many Americans were putting pressure on the government not to jump into the war. Ignoring people’s request it got involved in the war in 1917. Once it dived into the gory battlefield, not only America, but the entire world suffered a great loss. About 40 million people, including civil and army, lost their life and the world went through a deep recession for a long period of time. Later, all these factors led to national post-war trauma.

It seems obvious that human beings have a long-term relationship with wars. Even though no one knows how many wars have been fought, how many people have died and how much wealth has been lost; we have a rough idea that the world has lost a lot because of wars. We don’t have to go back to the beginning of human civilization to justify it. We can take examples of WW I, WW II, Korean War, Iraq war and many more. In fact, modern wars have seemed to be even more destructive than that of ancient wars because of the recent introduction of nuclear weapons.

We know that it is never too late to do something good. Even though we have failed in the past days we can do better in the days to come and achieve our goal of maintaining peace in the world. According to Gore, “It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump”. “Yes”, it will really be shameful if we cannot preserve our cultures, values, and existence and let the upcoming generations enjoy it. Before wars put mankind into an end we must stop them and maintain peace. So, we must unite to spread the feeling of brotherhood globally and stride towards peace.