June 2002

31 Members of Congress Thirty-one courageous members of Congress, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), are challenging the president’s unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. These representatives deserve our appreciation for taking action to prevent Mr. Bush from trampling on the Constitution in his continuing effort to undermine international law and expand US military domination. This is a critical challenge to the abuse of presidential authority. A lot is riding on it. If the president can unilaterally voids our laws, which ones will be the next to go? Perhaps the first and fourth amendments? If your congressional representative is not one of the 31 parties to this lawsuit, he or she should be asked why not and urged to join the lawsuit and support it in the Congress. Not a single US Senator has had the courage to join this lawsuit. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) initially indicated his...

TFF is so much more than a website. Here we tell you about ongoing projects and what is planned. We offer insights into the daily operations of TFF and how we preserve our intellectual freedom. We are not ashamed to tell you that we need US$4 from you… Chances are that you associate TFF with its website. But TFF is more than virtual reality; we live quite an active real life, too. We are approaching the middle of the year, midsummer, and humanity lives in increasingly troubled times. It’s important to us that you know what TFF does for a better world. The highlights below reflect what goes on at the headquarter in Lund, Sweden. That is, what the two founders are doing. But the foundation has a network of some sixty associates around the world who do similar things: teach courses, do research, do peace work in war zones,...

And its Aftermath: Three Discourses USA, the West and the Rest after September 11/October 7, 2001: a Midterm Report (1) 1. Three Discourses: Terrorism, State Terrorism and Retaliation There seem to be three discourses, competing for attention, to come to grips with September 11 (terrorism in New York/Washington, killing about 3,000) and October 7 2001+ (state terrorism in Afghanistan, killing about 5,000) (2), summarized in the Table. The first is the terrorist discourse. Inspired by fundamentalist Islam, the shahadah (“I testify that there is no God but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is his prophet”) and the sword; the flag of Saudi Arabia is a perfect symbol. To bring Allah’s justice to America is one element. Another, articulated by bin Laden, is revenge for humiliation: “What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation has been tasting this humiliation and...

Without a vote of the United States Congress and over the objections of Russia and most US allies, George W. Bush has unilaterally withdrawn the US from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, rendering it void. His withdrawal from this solemn treaty obligation became effective today, June 13, 2002. Bush’s action is being challenged in US federal court by 32 members of Congress, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI). We should be thankful that there are still members of Congress with the courage and belief in democracy to challenge such abuse of presidential power. Since becoming president, Bush has waged a campaign against international law. Withdrawal from the ABM Treaty is but one of a series of assaults he has made, including pulling out of the Kyoto Accords on Climate Change, withdrawal of the US from the treaty creating an International Criminal Court, opposing a Protocol...

We had just driven the 900 kilometres-long, desert highway from Baghdad to Amman and boarded the plane from Amman to Sweden via Paris. Having lived in a free media free-zone for two weeks during our fact-finding mission to Baghdad, we eagerly grabbed The Wall Street Journal of May 28. The top headline read, Military Strategists Favor Large Iraq Invasion Force. At Least 200,000 Troops Would Be Needed to Oust Saddam, U.S. Suggests. So, they are going to bomb, to destroy, to impose their will on Iraq, the country and the people, that we have just visited? Now that we have been there, our reaction is different than it would have been had we read that headline back home in Sweden. We met a young woman in her wheelchair in Babylon, south of Baghdad. She had just been helped by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Iraqi Ministry of Labour to...

We had just driven the 900 kilometres-long, desert highway from Baghdad to Amman and boarded the plane from Amman to Sweden via Paris. Having lived in a free media free-zone for two weeks during our fact-finding mission to Baghdad, we eagerly grabbed The Wall Street Journal of May 28. The top headline read, Military Strategists Favor Large Iraq Invasion Force. At Least 200,000 Troops Would Be Needed to Oust Saddam, U.S. Suggests. So, they are going to bomb, to destroy, to impose their will on Iraq, the country and the people, that we have just visited? Now that we have been there, our reaction is different than it would have been had we read that headline back home in Sweden. We met a young woman in her wheelchair in Babylon, south of Baghdad. She had just been helped by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Iraqi Ministry of...

THE CONFLICT WORKERS’ MISSION When tense international crises occur, we tend to react due to impulsive feelings and mainstream attitudes. Prejudice, enemy images and ideas of retaliation and revenge may thus form public opinions, and these may again become part of the escalation of violent hostilities. The conflict worker2 however has the possibility of using the methods of conflict resolution in order to stay more balanced, think more deeply and come up with sober arguments and alternatives to the use of violence. As conflict resolution is part of the nonviolent mindset, our perspective is how to promote genuine and sustainable security in this crisis.3 Security is the key word. It links to the most important and global of all Human Rights of the UN charter, namely the right to life. As conflict workers we try to rise above war propaganda, rumours, animosity and shortsighted clinging to military escalation as the only means to obtain...

The SunflowerOnline monthly newsletter of theNuclear Age Peace FoundationJune 2002 (No. 61) The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security. Back issues are available at http://www.wagingpeace.org/sf/backissues.html I N T H I S I S S U E PERSPECTIVE NUCLEAR SOUTH ASIA NUCLEAR MATTERS MISSILES & MISSILE DEFENSE NUCLEAR WASTE NUCLEAR INSANITY NUCLEAR ENERGY NAPF HAPPENINGS ACTION RESOURCES ************ PERSPECTIVE ************ Stopping a Nuclear War in South Asia Two nuclear-armed countries stand on the brink of war and the world seems paralyzed as it watches events unfolding in what seems like slow motion. It is a war that could easily escalate into a nuclear holocaust taking millions or tens of millions of lives, and virtually nothing is being done to end the standoff. The US and the UK have advised their citizens to leave the region and the UN is...