A long dismal July!

One's heart bleed with the rest of Pakistan at the recent calamities in Islamabad and elsewhere; we are dumbfound by the turn of events and wonder how far will this madness go. An illigitimate government, and a self-appointed gang of terrorists has mocked the name of our religion and has brought unprecedented shame on this country!
Between these two evils are the lost daughters and sons of mostly poverty stricken Pakistanis and Afghanis who, in their naievetie, had probably only dreamt of a path to eternal salvation via the ironically-named Red Mosque! The average Pakistani/Muslim is sick of politics in the name of religion and in the name of saving Pakistan. Those lost children were but the unfortuate pawns in this dirty game
I reminisce of the peaceful past...when people practiced their own religious beliefs without being too worried about their neighbors' beliefs. All one's effort was on savig one's own soul and bringing up one's own children the right way with the right values; not many took it upon themselves to save the souls of others perforce. And now---thanks to the Afghan debacle--- we have woven such a web of absolute destruction for ourselves, the Phonix will not rise from its ashes in our own lifetimes.
I can't be an optimist anymore, no matter how much I try!
To think, only a couple of years ago, at the turn of the century, while welcoming the new century, the new year, I had told Shilpa, "Wars shall be an obsolete concept soon. This will be a century of world peace."
How ignorant I was!
I had hoped armies and weapons will become redundant because we are living in a true age of global enlightenment. I did not remember the truth learnt from "Lord of the Flies." The beast does not sleep far from the veneer of civilized humanity; the savage always lurks in the dark shadows surrounding a flimsy light. East or West, the savage, the beast, only waits for the opportunity to force its way out again, and destroy the fabric of our beings and then our societies.
These are such depressing days...I am staying home to mourn the loss of innocence.