War-Mongering By Social Media Influencers More Dangerous For The Country
By S. Arshad, New Age Islam
30 April 2025
TV Anchors And Vloggers In India And Pakistan Are Using Abusive Language Against Each Other.
Main Points:
1. They are creating an atmosphere of hatred and confrontation.
2. The social media influencers are egging on their respective governments to start the war.
3. They have no idea of the price of a modern age war.
4. Modern age wars have proved inconclusive and more devastating.
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Pahalgam terrorist attack on 22 April 2025 claiming 26 innocent lives has caused heightened tension between India and Pakistan. There are reports of exchange of firing across the borders and the possibility of a full-fledged war is very high. Since social media and YouTube is more popular in the 21st century, social media influencers have become very active on the Pahalgam issue and on the potential Indo-Pak war. TV anchors and Vloggers on both sides of the border have engaged in fanning nationalist feelings beyond moral and ethical limits, abusing the leaders of the rival countries. They are fuming and exhorting their governments to attack and destroy the 'enemy' country. Little do they realise that the modern warfare is not like the wars of the 60s or 70s or even of the last decades of the 20th century. Even the Gulf War of the 90s was very devastating. It killed innocent civilians more than the soldiers and destroyed many cities and towns, blowing a hard blow to its economy and changing their political landscape for ever.
The most striking and scary aspect of a modern war is that it is easy to start but difficult to bring the war to a logical end in a short period of time. Indo-Pak wars of the past and the Arab -Israel War were short lived with conclusive outcomes but Russia-Ukraine war raging for the last three years and the Israel-Hamas war going on for the last 18 months do not seem to end in near future because of powerful weapons of mass destruction easily available to all the parties. Ukraine has been giving a tough fight to a world power Russia while a militant outfit Hamas has been fighting a nuclear power Israel aided and funded by the US, the UK and other European countries.
When the war lingers on for years, it causes other problems for the warring countries. The war causes fatigue, low morale and psychological trauma to the soldiers. Long wars also cause shortage of soldiers because of high casualties on both sides. These problems are being observed in Russia Ukraine war and Israel Hamas war. Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have refused to fight because of fatigue. Due to shortage of soldiers, Russia even forced some Indian citizens to join its army. Similarly, due to the prolonged Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli soldiers also refused to fight any longer and Israeli youth refused to join the war. This compelled the Israeli government to force the orthodox Jews exempted from joining the army to join the war.
Apart from these problems faced by long fighting armies, the modern wars don't distinguish between civilians and soldiers. The aim of every army is not to kill only the soldiers of the 'enemy' country and to destroy its military capabilities but also to kill more and more civilians and destroy more and more cities and towns along with infrastructure and its civic amenities to starve its citizens. Israel has committed the same crime against the people of Gaza during its war with Hamas. The presence of the nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs also presents the threat of triggering a nuclear war. But the fanatic TV anchors and YouTube influencers seem to be oblivious of this dangerous aspect of modern wars and think that when an India-Pakistan war will kick off, they will watch it on their TV sets sitting cosily on their sofas and sipping coffee and their lives will remain unaffected.
Though India and Pakistan together have the biggest population on earth and so their armies will not face shortage of soldiers, but the countries being nuclear powers will always run the risk of a nuclear war being triggered off. As the war between them may stretch from days to months to years, the financial costs and the death and destruction that will ensue will take them back by to a century in terms of growth. Innocent civilians on both sides including women and children will bear the brunt of the war.
Both India and Pakistan have economic problems and will not be able to afford a war, leave alone a long war. Any war between them will ruin their economy as well as the social fabric as communal harmony will receive a severe blow. Communal forces in India have already started fanning communal tensions on social media. A lady Vlogger said on her YouTube channel that the Pahalgam attack was not against India but against Hindus and held the entire Muslim population responsible for that. She was not unaware of the fact that the Pakistani terrorists were involved in the massacre and a brave Kashmiri Muslim poney rider Syed Adil Hussain Shah literally fought the terrorists and tried to snatch a terrorist's rifle to save Hindu terrorists and was shot dead by him. Another Kashmiri man Nazakat Ali risked his life to save a family of eleven including two children of Chhattisgarh from terrorists. The lady ignored this aspect with the obvious purpose of fanning communal tensions when tensions between India and Pakistan are high and war may kick off any moment.
Therefore, both the governments should issue directives to TV anchors and youtube influencers on their language and content while discussing sensitive issues and take action against inflammatory, illegal and communal remarks made by them.
Pakistan is going through a grave economic crisis and was nearing bankruptcy before the IMF bailed it out temporarily. Apart from it, Balochistan uprising and TTP terrorism has dealt a severe blow to its army as well as its economy. It has admittedly supported terrorism for three decades to receive billions of dollars from the US. Due to this, Pakistan has emerged as a centre of terrorism. It has harboured and funded terrorists and terrorist organisations only to destabilize India but could not harm it much. To the contrary, terrorism has destroyed its economy and has become a threat to its own unity and security.
The war hysteria created by Pakistani TV anchors and social media influencers is only an attempt to put up a brave face at the behest of the Pak army though the reality is that its economy does not permit it to undertake any misadventure vis a vis India. The internal situation of the Pak army has come to the fore and the chaos, vulnerability and inefficacy of the Pakistani forces have become visible to the world. According to an internal report of the Pak army, 250 army officers and 2500 soldiers from Karachi have resigned in the last three days and a similar number of soldiers and army officers of Quetta have also resigned or left the army. Another report says that the Pak army does not have enough diesels for running tanks and fifty percent of its air force fighter jets are unfit to fly and take part in operations. The morale of the soldiers of the Pak army is at all time low.
According to famous activist of PoK, Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, on social media, the common people have expressed their disdain for the Pak army officers, particularly Asim Munir and want India to rid them of these tyrant army officers who have made life hell for them. They want war only to see these 'haramkhors' perish.
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza also gave the important information in his vlog that Pakistan army chief Asim Munir, another senior army officers Asim Malik And Ahmad Bukhari have shifted their families abroad. The word is also doing the rounds that Asim Munir has been hiding somewhere for the last five days. This demonstrates the fear and chaos in Pakistan amid the tension on borders. In such a situation, Indian defence analysts have the view that in case of a war, Pakistan will not be able to fight against India for more than five days. The only consolation it has got is China's support but how far it will stand with Pakistan is only to be seen as China does not interfere in the affairs of other countries leave alone fighting along with a country. The recent example is Russia-Ukraine war where it did not take active part in the war despite its support to Russia.
Therefore, it's time Pakistan changed its policy towards India and shun its policy of harbouring and supporting terrorism. India and Pakistan should jointly build a mechanism to fight terrorism and try to find solutions to their problems through peaceful means, not in the battlefield. If a war breaks out between India and Pakistan, it will only benefit China, the US, Turkey and Israel as they will sell weapons worth billions to them while India and Pakistan will sink deeper in economic crisis and will take centuries to recover from it.
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S. Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/war-mongering-social-media-country/d/135372
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