AT this moment armed conflicts are taking place on all continents apart from North America and Antarctica. We live in a world in which war has become an accepted fact of life.

Homo sapiens is the only species on the planet that deliberately kills its own in huge numbers —and with the grisliest cruelty. All other animals may battle over territory or to obtain a mate, but they rarely kill; their battles are more ritualistic, simply driving the vanquished away.

They are satisfied with the territory or the mate they have or the food they have gathered, they are not driven to want excess. On the other hand, humans are driven invariably by greed and go to war for more land, food, and wealth than they need. Why?

Since time immemorial humans have waged war on each other. The Greeks, celebrated for their sophisticated civilisation, their philosophers, poets and architects, waged almost continuous and bloody wars with their neighbours, rather than learning to live in amity with them. The Romans waged imperial wars of conquest over centuries.

During the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, between 450 and 1066, the island people were not only waging continuous war against each other but were ravaged and plundered by the invading Vikings year after year in bloodthirsty and vicious battles, massacring tens of thousands.

What with famines and plagues as well, it is amazing that anyone was left alive on this island of ours.

During the late Middle Ages (1337-1453) there was the hundred years’ war between Britain and France — a century of almost non-stop conflict. The thirty years’ war, from 1618 to 1648, was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history.

All these wars were accompanied by the most savage retribution, the use of torture, and maiming as tools of conflict. Humans seem to take a delight in gratuitous violence meted out to their fellows. And we are still waging such wars today.

There was great hope before the outbreak of WWI when the Socialist International pledged not to support the drive to war — why should workers of one country fight workers in another on behalf of their capitalist masters, it was argued.

That pledge was very readily discarded, triggering a jingoist nationalism that infected the minds of almost everyone, including socialists.

In the wake of the horrendous mass killings in WWI and the destruction and genocide during WWII, the United Nations was set up in 1945, in an attempt to prevent wars in the future.

In its preamble, the UN Charter states: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

That laudable aim rings increasingly hollow today. The organisation itself and its aims have been sidelined by a powerful and bullying United States, supported by its supine Nato allies.

Why is there not a stronger worldwide movement against war and the weapons industries? And why is there not more pressure to reinvigorate the United Nations as a peace-keeping force?

Wars and the preparation for war eat up enormous amounts of human energy, talent, and irreplaceable raw materials; it destroys civilisations and infrastructure. Without all past wars, our world could veritably be an earthly paradise, building on the achievements of each generation rather than destroying them as we have done.

Today, capitalism is one of the chief motors of war — but the resort to war throughout history cannot be blamed on capitalism. It may not conform to a traditional Marxist interpretation of history, but it does seem as if we humans have a rogue gene in our make-up which drives us to war.

How else can we explain it? Would that also explain the obsession (particularly of young boys) with war games and videos about war?

Today, we have ongoing wars throughout the world: Ethiopia, Ukraine, Kashmir, Myanmar, Sudan, Afghanistan, central Africa and the Middle East.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), sales of arms and military services by the industry’s 100 largest companies totalled $531 billion in 2020 — an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms compared with the previous year.

British manufacturers exported £11bn worth of arms during 2019 — the second-highest figure on record. According to Department of International Trade figures, British exports also exceeded those of Russia and France for the second year in a row, placing Britain number two in the global rankings behind the US.

Large defence companies are seeing their share prices rocket as investors anticipate the impact of the war on profits. Thales shares have risen by 35 per cent since the invasion, while BAE Systems shares are up 32 per cent. Lockheed Martin has seen an increase of 14 per cent and AeroVironment 63 per cent.

Nato countries have been sending Ukraine military equipment worth more than £6.4bn, while European countries have pledged to spend an extra £170bn on defence in the coming years. The US has already approved a $9bn spending package to replenish supplies sent to Ukraine now and in the future.

Since the invasion, at least 15 European countries have announced plans for increased defence spending. The additional commitments are worth at least £170bn, the most significant being Germany’s pledge to spend an extra £85bn in the coming years. But the EU was already spending much more than Russia on defence before the invasion of Ukraine.

Referencing that war, Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher at Sipri, asks: “Is Russia really the threat that we make it out, that you need to spend an enormous amount of money in addition to what you already spend?”

As a result of the climate crisis and widespread austerity measures, millions of families are living in abject poverty, such spending on arms is total lunacy and a massive war crime against humanity.