Never again, again: 89 seconds to midnight
After the Holocaust, when six million Jews and millions of others were exterminated by a genocidal regime, the world made a promise: never again would we let hatred escalate into mass murder. Never again would civilians be slaughtered while governments stand by. Never again would we turn genocide into bureaucracy. But here we are. Again and again.
The Doomsday Clock now stands at 89 seconds to midnight—the closest we've ever been to global catastrophe. That's not a metaphor. That's nuclear scientists, war analysts, and climate experts saying: we are seconds away from ending the world as we know it. And still, we do nothing.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Gaza is being obliterated. Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed. At least 15,000 of them are children. The bombs keep falling. The excuses keep coming. Israel continues its assault, calling it self-defence, while wiping out entire families in their sleep. Aid is blocked. Hospitals are bombed. International law is mocked in real time.
Iran has entered the conflict directly. The region is no longer at risk of war. It is at war. A regional one, with global consequences. Iran and Israel are escalating in real time, pulling allies, proxies, and entire populations into the crossfire. The red lines everyone thought were there? Already crossed. The silence from global powers? Deafening. This is no longer about political alliances. This is about war crimes unfolding live.
Amidst this, President Donald Trump stepped onto the stage. After the US launched airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Trump hailed the attacks as "a spectacular military success," declaring that "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated." He didn't stop there. In his national address, he warned: "There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days."
Describing Iran as "the bully of the Middle East," Trump asserted, "Iran, bully of the Middle East, must now make peace." He even offered Iran an ultimatum: "If they do not make peace, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier."
Let's be crystal clear: this is direct military escalation, sanctioned by a US president. Trump has crossed the threshold from political threat to operational violence, stoking a war spiral that could trigger a global conflagration.
And yet, Western governments can't seem to find their voice. The same countries that had lectured the world on "rules-based order" in Ukraine were suddenly unsure when it came to Gaza. The same world that rushed to defend Kyiv keep dragging its feet on Rafah. The hypocrisy isn't just frustrating. It's fatal.
Meanwhile, Sudan is collapsing. Over 14 million displaced. Civil war. Famine. Ethnic cleansing. And no one's paying attention. Congo is bleeding. Myanmar is disappearing. Yemen is starving. Ukraine is still at war. And yet we scroll past all of it as if it's background noise. This is organised abandonment.
And the cost isn't just human. It's planetary. A mass coral bleaching event is killing off 84 percent of the world's reefs. Climate refugees are closing in on the number of those fleeing war. The oceans are boiling. Forests are burning. But governments are still pouring billions into weapons instead of survival. They're fuelling wars while the planet can't breathe.
Let's stop pretending this is normal. Let's stop dressing up civilian massacres as military operations. Let's stop justifying collective punishment with political talking points. Let's stop calculating "acceptable losses" as if human lives are numbers on a spreadsheet. We have seen what war does. We've lived through it. We've buried generations because of it.
But now we're so desensitised, we treat war like it's seasonal. A headline one week, a talking point the next, then gone. Gaza today, Sudan tomorrow, Iran-Israel the day after—just names on a screen until it's your city, your family, your child under the rubble. Let's be clear: this is not a failure of policy. It's a collapse of conscience. Where is the international community that once put Nazis on trial? That drafted human rights conventions? That meant it when it said "never again"?
Gone. Replaced by governments that issue statements, delay ceasefires, and send more weapons. So, let's say it plainly: we are witnessing genocide in Gaza. We are watching a regional war erupt between Iran and Israel, which has extended to the US. We are closer to nuclear conflict than we've ever been in human history. And most of the world is standing by and doing nothing. This is not complicated. This is not nuanced. This is not strategic ambiguity.
This is failure. Of leadership. Of morality. Of everything we claimed to stand for after the last world war. We said, "never again." What we meant was: never again, unless it's politically inconvenient. Never again, unless the victims are brown. Never again, unless we're profiting from it.
The Doomsday Clock says 89 seconds. Not 89 years. Not 89 days. We are out of time. And out of excuses.
So, say it again. But mean it this time. Never again. Not this war. Not this silence. Not this time.
Barrister Noshin Nawal is an activist, feminist, and a columnist for The Daily Star. She can be reached at [email protected].
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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