Rashid A Mughal
IN wars and battles, we define victors as those who defeat the opposing army due to multiple reasons: Superior fighting skills, better war weapons, number of soldiers (manpower), fighting tactics and above all the courage and spirit. All these factors combined make a great and invincible army of Victors. But in some cases attacking opponents by cheating and going back on promises also brings victory to rivals as happened in the battle of Troy when Greeks defeated Trojans by hiding themselves in Trojan Horse. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse which they gifted to Trojans and hid a select force of men inside, including Odysseus. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the 10 year war and were Victors.
History is replete with instances where pacts, treaties, agreements were signed but were revoked ,defied and not honoured by major countries of the world. In the last century, Hitler, who rose to power by exploiting the deep discontent of Germans with his oratory, violated the Treaty of Versailles, which was, in his opinion, insulting to Germans. In a number of ways he defied the treaty. He re-militarized Rhineland and in 1936 marched 22,000 troops into the Rhineland. Although this was also in violation of the treaty, no one reacted to Hitler’s actions. He rebuilt German Army and in 1935 restarted the conscription in Germany and built up Germany Air Force and Navy. Even though these things were in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, no one acted against Hitler because they were trying to practise policies of appeasement. As per the Treaty of Versailles Germany had to pay 6.6 billion pounds over 66 years to pay for damages caused by the war as reparations which he stopped paying and put the money back into the German economy. Again, no one did anything in order to keep peace. He made an alliance with Austria to become a larger and more powerful nation. Although this led to retaliation, no one did anything at the moment when the alliance was being made. As per Treaty of Versailles Germany was not to invade another country yet he invaded Poland in the fall of 1939.
No one reacted to any of the things mentioned above. It wasn’t until Hitler signed a treaty with the Soviet Union a little after the annexation of Poland when the British and French declared war on Germany. It was basically the pride of Germans which was badly hurt in the Treaty of Versailles and which Hitler successfully exploited and rode on the wave of victories, initially, but made a grave mistake of attacking Russia which over-stretched his resources and ultimately he lost the World War-II. It was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).Civilian deaths totalled 50-55 million. Military deaths from all causes totalled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about five million prisoners of war. The government of the Russian Federation in the 1990s published an estimate of Soviet Union losses at 26.6 million, including 8 to 9 million due to famine and disease. These losses are for the territory of the USSR in the borders of 1946–1991, including territories annexed in 1939-40. The People’s Republic of China as of 2005 estimated the number of Chinese casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 at 20 million dead and 15 million wounded.
Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) and three million Jews were victims of German Occupation policies and Japanese government as of 2005 put the number of Japanese deaths at 3.1 million. This colossal loss of human lives was only due to madness of a lunatic person who was egoist to the core with little respect for humanity. Had Hitler adhered to the treaty and adopted path of conciliation rather than confrontation perhaps the world would have been saved human lives, lost in millions.
One of the dangerous consequences of violating the Iran deal is a loss of credibility for the US, say critics of Donald Trump’s decision including former President Barack Obama. Iran and all other parties have respected the deal’s terms, they point out, making the US look like an unreliable international partner. Well, the US is an unreliable international partner—and it has long been one, even before the current administration pulled out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Paris agreement on climate change, and threatened to end NAFTA. History is dotted with treaties that the US has signed but not ratified, signed and then unsigned, and even refused to sign after pushing everyone else to sign. Capriciousness about international treaties is an old US tradition. It starts with the country’s very creation: hundreds of treaties signed with Native American tribes that were either broken, or not ratified. Today, the US is one of the countries to have ratified the fewest number of international human rights treaties—of the 18 agreements passed by the UN, America has only ratified five.
— The writer is former DG (Emigration) and consultant ILO, IOM.
