War, what is it good for?

Some readers will be old enough to remember The Temptations and their 1968 Motown song War, which posed that eternal question.

Their answer was “Absolutely nothing.” And when Vietnam War veteran Edwin Starr released his 1970 version of War, it reached No 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It remains one of the most popular protest songs ever recorded.

We teenagers sang the chorus that spoke so perfectly to the times we were in. It was a war protest song that called for world peace and is as pertinent today as it was five decades ago. The message that, “War can't give life/It can only take it away” seems to have been lost, however, on those who conduct it without realising that war itself is the enemy.

Thinking about songs while such terrible wars are being waged between Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and Russia and all the other constant bloody coups and skirmishes in Africa and Asia might seem indulgent, but for all its terror war is a reality and it has spawned a music of its own.

Military music played by defence force bands exists in every country probably. Diverse cultures almost definitely have war songs and special chants, if not specific war instruments, like we do. Drums, for example, are universal war instruments intended to march to, to whip up military fervour or to terrify the enemy; and bugles are synonymous with war. The echo of The Last Post belongs on a battlefield, although we, lucky ones, have only ever heard it at military funerals and in remembrance.

Listening to a random dozen national anthems, one is struck by the fact that they are nearly all militaristic and recall freedoms and self-determination that have been won in battle.

Our upbeat anthem, on the other hand, is blissfully free of recollected violence, although “we pledge our lives” to TT, which means we would lay down our lives for it. Hopefully, that mass resolve will never have to be tested in battle.

This weekend, though, I doubt there is any music to be heard in the Gaza Strip or in the nightclubs of Tel Aviv. And, for many, an open-air music festival will never again be a joyous occasion.

The anti-war sentiments expressed in War would not go down well at this point either with Arabs or Jews caught up in the shock and pain of the sudden turn of events that will change their lives forever.

Judging from the exchanges in a chat group I belong to, fire and brimstone are what is needed.

The total destruction of Gaza and its people, with those who survive the Israeli massacre being sent pouring into Egypt and other Arab states, ando Palestinian life spared unnecessarily, are the main recommendations.

Well, we have been here before over the last few millennia and centuries in many countries and it has not led to a permanent solution, so maybe we need to understand that murdering and exiling our enemies is only a temporary fix.

A confusing question to pose is, why did Hamas start a war in which it could never hope for victory? Winning could never have been their intention or even their hope. They used bulldozers to crash through perimeter fences Israel built to contain 21,000 Palestinians to each square mile of Gaza, and they used motorbikes and hang-gliders to enter Israel. No tanks and no aircraft to take on the most formidable armed forces in the Levant. The Israeli reserve army alone outnumbers Hamas soldiers by 10:1.

Every engagement in war must have an objective and those who use it to achieve an end must know how to terminate it and also have a plan for what happens when fighting stops.

In the case of this obscene war in Gaza it is hard to perceive any positive outcome for the Palestinians. If the intention was to bring attention to their chronic maltreatment by Israel, Hamas lost all moral advantage in slaughtering 1,000 or so Israelis as they slept or played. Taking old women and children as hostages and fodder for further slaughter is reprehensible to anyone except perhaps the emotionally damaged families of the many murdered Palestinians who have been protesting Israel's illegal occupation of their territory for several decades.

No peace will follow this war for Israel either. PM Netanyahu vows to turn Gaza into a memory, but the memory of the last 75 years won't fade for its enemy and there is the distinct possibility that such retribution will cause even more war, now and into the distant future. Hamas is dedicated to recovering all historic Palestinian territory, and the Palestine leadership is moribund, with factions supported by rival Middle Eastern interests.

The losers are the ordinary Palestinians, 40 per cent of whom in Gaza are under age 15.