From Lidice to Minab: lessons remain ignored

On 24 March, dozens of women marched barefoot on the streets of Rome. These were mothers from Gaza and Israel who lost their children or relatives in the conflict. Their message—Residents of Israel and Gaza are children of Adam and Eve and despite animosity, all they need is peace.

These women met Pope Leo the next day. However, it’s not clear whether he made any appeal to Europe or the US for global peace. I wonder when and where he will next have a chance to wield his moral authority.

We are living in the times of dwarf leaders. The society prior to and just after World War 2 was much better. It was shaped by giants like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela whose actions and words carried a lot of weight and relevance around the world. They kept the world alert and alive by first awakening themselves.

Let me share an example of the Vietnam War. It was 8 June 1972. Dozens of children were running for safety after the US bombing in Vietnam’s Trang Bang region. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc was in the centre running stark naked. The whole world woke up to a rude shock the next day when her photo appeared on the front pages of the newspapers. Public took to the streets denouncing the then US president Richard Nixon who had to pass an order to stop the war.

Since then a lot of water has flown in the rivers around the world and both nature and human behaviour have witnessed phenomenal degradation. The US citizens are angry but not hitting the streets. Peace lovers are paralyzed. The US-Israeli bombing of Iran since 28 February killed 170 girls and teachers in Iran’s Minab City but it failed to move people anywhere in the world.

The Western media may block it out, but the tragedies of Lidice (Czechoslovakia) and Minab will haunt humanity for centuries. Our purposeful blindness can’t hoodwink history.

The Lidice Massacre was ordered by Hitler after a Nazi officer was killed in 1942. Nazi forces sprang into action and lined up all the 173 men in the Czech village and shot them point blank. Women and children were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Majority of them were gassed but some of the children were housed with Nazi families to Aryanise them. Eighty two statues of those unfortunate children stand as a haunting reminder of the hollowness of our concerns.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine is already in its fifth year. Thousands of school children, women and men have allegedly been sold in human trafficking.

So far, close to 400,000 people have died in both the nations. Similarly, in Gaza, a Lancet report in February states that close to 75,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

There may be some reasons to attack Ukraine and Gaza but the attack on Iran is a living testimony to political lies and deceit. After destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, why have Trump and Netanyahu attacked the country again? Their feeble arguments can’t deny the fact that they are caught in their own trap. Iran is no Gaza. Persian civilization is one of the oldest in the world. You can’t just obliterate them from the face of the Earth. Iran isn’t just doggedly fighting but has created a real scare for the global economy. Who has the upper hand in the present conflict? Who’s winning it? What will the winner gain after victory? What fate will the vanquished suffer?

More important than these questions is a disturbing fact. After the initial positivity, the rise of the US as the sole superpower since 1991 has become detrimental to global peace. Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Venezuela and now Iran’s destruction are a sad reminder of this fact. The US pulls off such stunts as its military and economic power is almost unchallenged. At the end of the Vietnam War in 1973 the US economy stood at $3.5 trillion. It was more than twice as big as that of Japan. Today, the difference is six times. This asymmetry has made the US presidents reckless and arrogant.

This is the reason people don’t care. This barbaric aspect of human civilization should scare us all.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.