September 2002

One year later, September 11 has certainly lived up to the early claim of being a transformative moment, at least for Americans. One of the least noticed sea changes has been the abrupt shift in the past year from diplomacy to war talk as the foundation of national security. And what is most surprising about this shift is that it bears only the loosest connection with the genuine threat that continues to be directed at the well being of the nation by the deadly al Qaeda challenge. It is extraordinary that the US Government at such a time seems to be recklessly determined to wage a preemptive war against Iraq that is contrary to international law and morality, constitutionally dubious, and strategically imprudent, risking catastrophic side effects. A disturbing element in this gathering war momentum is the deeply disappointing quality of the debate on policy toward Iraq. President Bush most...

Evil should not be tolerated. Acquiescing to mass destruction is wrong. Those who love America must speak out. If we the people of the United States bomb thousands of innocent people then we become guilty of the horrors we are trying to prevent. If we use creative intelligence and diplomatic channels to limit violence, if we hold fast to those Constitutional rights which our ancestors won with imagination and courage, if we act as an inspiring member of the community of nations, then we may have a marvelous future. I do not understand why thousands of innocents should be slaughtered so that one tyrant may be removed. The goodness of one Kurdish grandmother is more precious than a thousand Husseins. Not one of my students should die! Should Charles or David or John die to satisfy George Bush’s or Saddam Hussein’s bellicosity? Both George Bush and Saddam Hussein seem to...

Peacekeeping operations, PKOs, have direct aims, mandates and consequences directed towards the de-escalation of conflict and the maintenance of peace. Such aims are usually analysed in research reports and discussed in the media. But there are also more or less intended, indirect or hidden objectives and consequences of PKOs which are seldom highlighted. More specifically, peacekeepers are transferred from a number of UN member states to the troubled area. They bring along values, norms, habits and ways of doing and organising things. In the best of cases, their training before departure creates some awareness among personnel about this type of “luggage” and how it may differ from the local values, norms, and habits in the region of operations. But, invariably, they can have a tremendous impact on local society and culture. The ways in which local people negotiate the social encounter with peacekeeping forces – a social process that brings...

George Bush may be averse to reading up on the Vietnam war, which he managed to duck, but how about recalling the famous  “rumble in the jungle” in the Congo, the heavy weight fight between the unbeatable George Foreman, none of whose opponents had lasted more than three minutes in the ring, and the up and coming, always boasting, Muhammad Ali? The fight was at 4.a.m so that the air was cooler and the American TV audience could watch it in prime time. In round two, the weaker Ali appeared to cower against the ropes and Foreman pounded him again and again, whilst Ali whispered taunts in his ear, “George, you’re not hittin'” and “George, you disappoint me”. Foreman lost his temper and his punches began to flow wild, while Ali let the spring in the ropes help him absorb those he landed. By the fifth round Foreman was exhausted...

George Bush may be averse to reading up on the Vietnam war, which he managed to duck, but how about recalling the famous  “rumble in the jungle” in the Congo, the heavy weight fight between the unbeatable George Foreman, none of whose opponents had lasted more than three minutes in the ring, and the up and coming, always boasting, Muhammad Ali? The fight was at 4.a.m so that the air was cooler and the American TV audience could watch it in prime time. In round two, the weaker Ali appeared to cower against the ropes and Foreman pounded him again and again, whilst Ali whispered taunts in his ear, “George, you’re not hittin'” and “George, you disappoint me”. Foreman lost his temper and his punches began to flow wild, while Ali let the spring in the ropes help him absorb those he landed. By the fifth round Foreman was exhausted...

The author was a member of the Danish government’s Commission on Security and Disarmament Affairs (SNU) from 1981 to 1994, served as Secretary-General of the Danish Peace Foundation 1985-1987 and wrote his PhD on Denmark’s post-1945 security policy in a global perspective, entitled Myth of Our Security (1981). Continued from PressInfo 159 Due to the influence of the American paradigm and an acquiescing research orientation, important scholarly themes have been under-prioritised in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia in the last few decades. For instance: 1) Systematic research of American society and its international role. At the same time, the Nordic countries have experts who know about every country in Europe, Africa and Asia. The US, friend and leader, was seen as easy to understand, sympathise with and as unproblematic. 2) Studies of non-violent conflict-resolution were perceived as irrelevant in the world of the old cold war and are seen...

LONDON – It was Dag Hammarskjold, the greatest of UN secretary-generals, practitioner and contemplator in one, who observed that the UN was not established to take humanity to heaven but to save it from hell. He would have been in his intellectual element wrestling with the present situation. Is it better if the US does go to war against Iraq that the UN approves it? It didn’t do the UN any good to be left on the shelf when the US and its main European allies bypassed it and decided to bomb Belgrade without a Security Council mandate. Or is it better that the U.S. goes ahead without the approval of the UN? If things go wrong with the war which well they might- Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia told the Financial Times on Tuesday that he despairs at a “racist” war that could spark communal violence across the...

Boken, Propagandans Makt,av David Barsamian och Noam Chomsky Propagandans MaktSamtal med Noam ChomskyAv David Barsamian och Noam ChomskyÖversättning: Gunnar SandinOrdfront(Utkommer i dag) Den amerikanske dissidenten Noam Chomsky kommer i veckan till Sverige och bokmässan i Göteborg, där hans besök mötts med större intresse än någon tidigare författare. På söndag blir det stor Chomsky-“gala” på Scandinavium, de vanliga seminariesalarna räckte inte alls. Chomsky är professor i lingvistik i Bosnien, knappast en karismatisk talare, snarare lågmält klok. Som språkmänniska varnar han inte minst för verbala övergrepp och falska termer, vad är “i nationens intresse”, “humanitär intervention”. Besöket är efterlängtat. Vi lever i en tid där sanningar sällan kan hävda sig mot massmedialt marknadsförda lögner, där vad som är rätt ofta avgörs med vapenmakt. Bara få vågar eller orkar ifrågasätta. Noam Chomsky hör till de outtröttliga motståndsmännen. Stora amerikanska medier recenserar eller kommenterar sällan eller aldrig det han skriver. Många söker smutskasta honom, också...

Now that President Bush has put the argument for preemptive war against Iraq before the United Nations as the centerpiece of the war against terrorism, it becomes a matter on national urgency to consider the merits and drawbacks of this position. I believe that threatening a preemptive war against Iraq represents a momentous failure of American foreign policy, whether considered from the perspective of international law, international morality, or national interest, and so does the rest of the world, including many of America’s closest allies. The evident insistence on initiating such a war in the face of this international opposition would likely lead to further anti-Americanism overseas and might even ignite a grassroots revolt against US unilateralism. It may still not be too late, but if this slide toward a disastrous war is to be averted, the American people must become quickly aroused and vocal in their opposition before it...

It took the public expression of doubts by Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser to presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush, to initiate finally a national debate on the merits of preemptive war against Iraq. Before Scowcroft spoke out it was nearly impossible to be heard above the drumbeats of war being orchestrated from the White House. Scowcroft was careful to couch his criticism in ultra-pragmatic terms relating to the dangers of undertaking such a war at this time and its likely diversion of energy from what he rightly depicts as America’s number one security priority, the continuing challenge posed by al-Qaida. Persuasively, also, Scowcroft downplays the regional threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and is highly skeptical about Iraq’s purported links to Sept. 11 or to terrorism generally. Scowcroft relies for political closure on an American call for a renewal of inspections, this time on an unrestricted (anytime, anywhere,...

LONDON – It’s ironic at best, dangerously absurd at the worst, that a year to the week after President George Bush made his initial decision to hunt down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan all the debate now is focussed on Iraq and there is barely a word on the president’s pledge to “smoke out” bin Laden. Yet no one has produced hard evidence of complicity linking Iraq with Al Qaeda. Neither is Bush visibly pulling out the stops to hunt down bin Laden in the mountains of Pakistan where he is said to be hiding out. One can only conclude that this Administration is not drawn to the boring business of stealthy slow police work. It seems to prefer what the Germans used to call a  “frischer, fröhlicher Krieg” (a short jolly war). But the Bush administration is arguably not much worse than its predecessors The fact is that bin Laden...

Most humans who have ever lived have never directly killed anyone. The global lesson of 9.11 is that we humans must learn to stop killing each other from domestic homicide to war. We must stop praying, planning, training, arming, and threatening to kill. We must stop celebrating killers and the killed and begin compassionately to recognize that they and we are victims of our failure to learn how not to kill. For just as humans can learn to kill, we can learn not to kill. Just as we are capable of killing, we are capable of not killing. But as long as readiness to kill is abroad on our planet no one will be safe in home, community, nation, region, and world. Offensive lethal ingenuity has been able to penetrate every form of lethal defense. In conflict we must make it absolutely credible to each other that we will not...