The title of today’s post is also the title of the 23rd episode of the original “Star Trek,” which first aired on the 23rd day of February, 1967, a synchronistic coincidence (is that an oxymoron?) that could not be ignored. The Wikipedia page devoted to this installment opens with the following description. “In the episode, the crew of the Enterprise visits a planet engaged in a completely computer-simulated war with a neighboring planet, but the casualties, including the Enterprise‘s crew, are supposed to be real.”
My recollection of this 58-year-old relic from the birth of a television, movie and computer game franchise that continues to produce new additions to this day was triggered by an article in the Wall Street Journal in response to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s call for a more fit and less hirsute military. It quotes former Air Force secretary Frank Kendell’s assessment of the value of brains over brawn in a 21st century military.
Modern warfare, particularly against a peer competitor, will be much more about skillfully applying cutting-edge technology and managing complex weapon systems under stress than about physical strength. We need the nation’s best brains as much if not far more than we need people who can do push-ups.
“Cutting edge technology” is exactly what Captain James Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise encounter when they arrive at the scene of a 500-year-long war between two planets–Eminiar VII and Vendikar–in the NGC 321 star cluster. Again, from the Wikipedia description of the 1967 program:
During a supposed attack by Vendikar, [Eminiar ambassador] Anan 7 explains that the war is conducted as a computer simulation, and that the Enterprise has been “destroyed” in the attack. The two planets have a treaty, according to which they must kill the “victims” of every simulated attack. The crew are therefore expected to report to Eminiar’s disintegration chambers for execution.
The up-side of the treaty is obvious. The horrors of an actual war have been eliminated. There are no mutilated bodies and each planet’s infrastructure as well as its historical and cultural artifacts remain in tact. The down-side? Sterilization of combat between the opponents removes any incentive to resolve the five-centuries-old conflict.
Unfortunately, this Star Trek episode was a case of art imitating life. As early as the 1950s, the United States, Russia and China were developing what was generically referred to as a neutron bomb, “a specialized type of nuclear weapon that would produce minimal blast and heat but would release large amounts of lethal radiation.” (Source: Britannica.COM) In plain English, a neutron bomb was designed to maximize fatalities with a minimum of structural damage. To date, no nation as deployed such a weapon or even perfected a deliver system.
Which brings me to this week’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. In sharp contrast to the hostilities between Vendikar and Eminiar VII, one could argue it was a combination of the brutality of Hamas on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s choice of response that precipitated the ceasefire in just over two years. The horrors of war, especially when so many of the victims are innocents who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulted in international denunciation of both combatants and pressure to quickly end the conflict.
However, death and destruction are not new to this miniscule slice of global real estate which is home to Israelis and Palestinians. If it has continued despite the evolution of the tools of wars from rifles to tanks to rockets to drones, why should anyone believe the latest recess in a 77-year conflict will be any more than just that?
If ever there was a place on earth to contemplate “a taste of Armageddon,” it is Tel Megiddo, an archeological dig dating back to 500 BCE. It was the inspiration for James Michener’s book The Source, a fictional chronicle of the multiple civilizations which occupied these strategic crossroads for trade and military advantage between Tel Aviv, Israel and Damascus, Syria. A biblical prophecy identifies the Plains of Megiddo as the site of the final battle, i.e. Armageddon, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.
As you can see from the above photograph, the panoramic view is one of pastoral calm. Yet it is less than 75 miles away from Tel Aviv, Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Therefore, as I recall the two occasions on which I looked over the landscape from Tel Megiddo, I find it increasingly difficult to pick sides, wondering who is the light and who is the darkness. Rather, I ponder whether both Israelis and Palestinians can be on the same side. Will they see this location as a future crossroads for peace orchestrated by two forces of light or Armageddon carried out by two forces of darkness?
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP