The Human Cost: “What is the point of it all?”
✍️ Author’s Note
This reflection connects the Crimean War of 1853–1856 with today’s conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, reminding us that while empires chase influence and armies fight over maps, it is always ordinary people who pay the highest price. The question Nikitenko asked in 1855 is the one we must still ask today.
In 1855, during the Crimean War, the tsarist censor Alexander Nikitenko asked in despair:
My God, so many victims. All at the behest of a mad will, drunk with absolute power… What is the point of it all?”
That question resounds with tragic clarity in 2025.
From Gaza to Ukraine, wars continue to consume lives while leaders speak of strategy, borders, and destiny. Eisenhower once warned of the “military-industrial complex,” but few could have foreseen a defense industry thriving on endless conflict, its profits measured in trillions while its costs are borne in blood.
Different century, same grievances. Different empires, same tragedy. And still, as Nikitenko lamented, the haunting question remains:
What is the point of it all?
Netherlands, William J J Houtzager, Aka WJJH, August, 2025
📌Blog Excerpt
From Crimea in 1855 to Ukraine and Gaza in 2025, the same haunting truth endures: empires fight for power, but it is ordinary people who bleed. History changes its maps and leaders, yet the human cost remains unchanged — and so does the question: What is the point of it all?
In what kind of world do we wish to live 