As someone who taught thousands of students at Boston University, with expertise in psychology and who originally comes from the Middle East — the region that has been war-torn decades — I felt a moral responsibility to contribute this perspective to The Daily Free Press. I would like to lay out the reasons for which I think we should criminalize all wars, regardless of the political objectives behind them or the ideologies that protect them, as acts of terrorism. Here are the reasons:

Wars destroy the environment. The pollution that occurs in the environment due to wars will affect all of us everywhere. The Earth is small. Researchers found that due to wars and the noises of explosions, birds lose their songs and abilities to communicate or mate. Animals die, and trees get burned. We can liken the effects of war to digging a hole in a room of a large ship. If someone thinks that they can dig a hole without causing the whole ship to sink, they are mistaken.

Wars cause psychological trauma. The terrors of war will leave marks on the minds of not only the ones who are in the war zone, but also on witnesses from far away. Killing another human being requires that one kills in himself something first, empathy. A lot of the propaganda that comes before or during a war aims at killing the empathy in you. Many soldiers come from wars with psychological trauma that can haunt them and their families for life. War is not a video game. In real wars people die, you smell the burning, you hear the screaming and you see the eyes of your enemies.

Wars send the wrong messages to our children. How come we care that our children do not hear a bad word on TV, while the images and actions of war as well as the destruction and killing are broadcast with pride? We are teaching our children to solve problems with violence and to use force to get what they want.

War usually affects the ones that are most at risk of abuse in society. According to the United Nations, most of the victims of war are children, women, the elderly and the poor. Wars enforce the male dominance in society, put women and children at risk for all forms of exploitation due to mobilization and poverty and destroy democracy in all of the countries involved. Governments use war as a way to silence opposition inside and outside the country.

War is a waste of resources. It is a waste of human energy and talent, a waste of money that that could have been spent on education, health or other important domestic issues and a waste of time. Wars never solve problems, they just create new ones. They only create situations on the ground that will remain as long as the force that created them exists and, the moment this force gets weaker, old and new situations arise. It is cooperation and forgiveness that allow humanity to continue despite the mistakes of war. The “losers” forgive the “winners” or they are just waiting for the right moment to retaliate.

War is a stupid, uncreative, uncivilized, backward and primitive act. It is like people solving their problems in the town by beating each other instead of going to the police. The world is just a large town and we are all citizens in this world.

All wars should be criminalized and considered acts of terrorism regardless of the agenda of those who want to start them. The United Nations should have an international police force to stop aggressors and try them publicly in the court of international law. The United Nations should be reformed. Finally, I suggest an international day of apology in which individuals and countries apologize for the wrongs they did to other nations and individuals. A new education of responsibility and creative problem-solving should be introduced in the culture, not just the education of violence, revenge and power.

We need to build our children from psychological material that is not flammable, that will not catch fire when someone comes with a good speech or smart ideology and try to start the fires of war. Look inside yourself and see what flammable material reside within you. Is it nationalism, racism, fear, anger or is it just loss of hope in your life and its meaning? Wars can create pride and meaning for a short while, but after that, one will be left with the truth: One human life is not worth more than another, and wars will not make anyone live for eternity. Justice brings peace, wars just creates lies.

Majed Ashy is a psychology lecturer at Boston University MET College and a research fellow of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School