July 2003

By Walden Bello* July 27, 2003 NoteTFF advocates nonviolent struggle before anything else. We disagree with Bello’s view that “For a people under occupation, armed struggle is not one option. It is the only option.”We hope, however, that by bringing this to our readers, it will contribute to a much needed debate about the ways in which the Iraqis can liberate themselves from the occupation. In addition, many other perspectives in this article certainly merits our attention and reflection. Almost daily, we hear reports of American soldiers being picked off one by one by underground forces in Iraq. Since George W. Bush declared victory on May 1, over 30 US soldiers have died in combat. Soon, the number of Americans killed after victory will outstrip the number who died in the invasion.This speech was delivered at the UP Foundation Day Assembly on June 19, 2003) ” I would like, first...

1. Nuclear weapons were needed to defeat Japan in World War II. It is widely believed, particularly in the United States, that the use of nuclear weapons against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to defeat Japan in World War II. This is not, however, the opinion of the leading US military figures in the war, including General Dwight Eisenhower, General Omar Bradley, General Hap Arnold and Admiral William Leahy. General Eisenhower, for example, who was the Supreme Allied Commander Europe during World War II and later US president, wrote, „I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced [to Secretary of War Stimson] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use...

Oprindeligt publiceret 26. juni 2003 1. For at opfylde allerede eksisterende forpligtelser. Kernevåbenstaterne har afgivet højtidelige løfter til det internationale samfund om af forhandle redeligt for at opnå kernevåbenafrustning. De forenede Stater, Rusland, England, Frankrig og Kina accepterede denne forpligtelse, da de underskrev Ikke-Sprednings-Aftalen (NPT) og de udvidede deres løfter på NPT revisions- og udvidelseskonferencen i 1995 og igen på NPT revisionskonferencen i 2000.Indien og Pakistan, som ikke har underskrevet Ikke-Sprednings-Aftalen, har forpligtet sig til at afskaffe deres kernevåben, hvis de andre kernevåbenstater afskaffer deres. Den eneste kernevåbenstat, som ikke har afgivet et sådant løfte er Israel og de må kunne overbevises til at gøre det samme, hvis alle andre kernevåbenstater bliver enige om at afskaffe deres kernevåbenarsenaler.Den internationale Domstol i Haag (International Court of Justice), verdens højeste retsinstans afgav en udtalelse i 1996, som understregede forpligtelsen til kernevåbenafrustning: “Der eksisterer en forpligtelse til at forhandle redeligt og til at...

By Margaret Owen Widows for Peace and Reconstruction July 26, 2003 18 June 2003 Dear Senator Clinton NEEDS AND ROLES OF IRAQI WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE-BUILDING I have often heard you speak about the human rights of women and children in developing countries in general, and in countries afflicted by armed conflict specifically. I have listened to you with admiration at the Beijing Conference of 1995, and at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in previous years. Aware of your commitment to justice for women, I am writing to you on behalf of Iraqi Women in the hope that you will be able to exert your considerable influence in the US Senate to ensure their human rights at this crucial time in their history. I am the Founder of the international, UK-based NGO (with consultative status at the UN) EMPOWERING WIDOWS IN DEVELOPMENT (EWD). After...

LONDON – It is unlikely that the judicial enquiry now set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair following the apparent suicide of David Kelly, the senior expert on weapons of mass destruction, will get to the bottom of why Dr Kelly chose to die. The assumption that he was angered on the one side by a BBC report that erroneously overstated what he had said to one of its reporters or, on the other, that he felt he was being made a fall guy by the government doesn’t add up. He clearly had doubts about the government’s case for going to war, but even inside the ministry of defence he was no lone voice – many of the generals advised against going to war. As for the BBC, at worst the reporter “sexed up” what Kelly told him, a hazard anyone who deals with the press even occasionally is acutely...

LONDON – When six years ago the British lowered the Union Jack on their last remaining important colony, Hong Kong, Chris Patten, the governor, buried his face in his hands, for the entire world to see, and felt the profoundest sentiment a proud and ambitious politician could experience – failure. It was indeed a personal failure to be added to his other great misfortune, the timing of elections back home in Britain that made it impossible for him to become prime minister. But on that damp evening it was the people of Hong Kong, those who knew him well could tell, that pierced his conscience. The British had let them down. They were giving up a colony having unaccountably failed to bequeath it with a functioning democracy. In every country except Palestine in 1948- when the top British officials literally dropped the keys to their secretariat on the steps of the...

LONDON – By now it is fair to say that only the economists and newspaper headline writers are still in love with GNP (Gross National Product) as a way of measuring progress. Everyone in any country that has experienced rapid economic growth, whether it be a mature economy like the United States or Sweden or an up and coming one like Taiwan or Brazil knows from their own bitter experience that it doesn’t tell you that much about a society. It gives a kind of useful bench mark of aggregate economic momentum. But, beyond that, the more one looks at it the more misleading it can become. For most people health, security and love are the three important things in life, and how many people can put their hands on their heart and say they are sure that in their own lives these three things are eternally spoken for. Besides, income...

Inledningsanförande vid offentligt mötei Folkets hus, Helsingborg, 7 maj 2003 TFF rådgivare 3 juli 2003 Det lär finnas tre slags utbildning – INBILLAD UTBILDNING. UTBILDAD INBILLNING – OCH FOLKBILDNING! Det är med goda folkbildningsambitioner jag här tar till orda. Ett lydigt folk är förvisso bekvämare än ett olydigt. Men det är olydnaden som bevarar vår demokrati. Det är modet och viljan att ställa frågor som håller vårt politiska system vitalt. Den senaste tidens oroande världshändelser visar varför folkbildningen behövs i framtiden. Att den måste våga stå fri och modig och våga vara ett forum där praktiska demokratiska ideal råder. Där det inte är farligt att ifrågasätta makten. För visst är vi olydiga när vi samlas med plakat och slagord för att göra Sveriges och världens politiker uppmärksamma på att vi inte uppskattar att de förvandlar FN och världen till en sandlåda. I alla fall är det svårt att uppfatta det på något...

LONDON – The crisis in the Congo, and to a lesser extent in Liberia, throws into relief an issue that has long lain at the doorstep of the United Nations – whether or not to authorize the use of an almighty force and a civilian occupying administration. It is not just the Americans who have shied away from going all the way. At various times countries from all the four corners have given it short shrift. “Peacekeeping” with lightly armed troops was the compromise, which worked well when both sides arrived at the point (often after a lot of fighting) when they wanted a neutral middleman, as in the Middle East or Cyprus (where it averted a Bosnian type Christian/Muslim war), but less well where things were still on the boil, as in the Congo in the early 1960s and Rwanda in 1994. The question pressed by the widening civil wars...

If Usama bin Laden is still alive – and the indications are that he is – he must be feeling very pleased with himself, because his terrible terrorist activities are beginning to bear fruit, and his main aim of polarising the world and creating a clash of civilisations is on the point of fruition. His call to the Muslims of the world “you are either with the faithful believers or with the infidels”, seems to have been echoed by President Bush’s insistence that “you are either with us or with the terrorists.” Last summer I visited the United States after many years. I was very pleased to find that the Americans have regained their composure after the dreadful events of 11th September and that they are the same positive, optimistic, friendly and hospitable people that they have always been. At the same time, I found some signs of hardening of...

By If Usama bin Laden is still alive – and the indications are that he is – he must be feeling very pleased with himself, because his terrible terrorist activities are beginning to bear fruit, and his main aim of polarising the world and creating a clash of civilisations is on the point of fruition. His call to the Muslims of the world “you are either with the faithful believers or with the infidels”, seems to have been echoed by President Bush’s insistence that “you are either with us or with the terrorists.” Last summer I visited the United States after many years. I was very pleased to find that the Americans have regained their composure after the dreadful events of 11th September and that they are the same positive, optimistic, friendly and hospitable people that they have always been. At the same time, I found some signs of hardening...