ELIMINATION OF WAR: SACROSSANT OBLIGATION

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 28 Oct 2009

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.

    Since the early days of human existence, our earthly community has been basically characterized by violence of one kind or another. As time rolled on, the means used to destroy people became increasingly more sophisticated. Today, it’s enough to drop a few of bombs from the air to destroy the infrastructure of a city while killing mercilessly thousands of innocent people consisting mostly of women, children, the elderly and the sick.

Culture of War Mentality

    There was a time when many believed that war could be justified only under certain circumstances. This concept led to many abuses of power to the extent that Pope Benedict XVI made it clear that “war is not justified under any circumstance whatsoever.” When a government declares war, under the pretext of “national defense and national security” there is one thing for sure. They must definitely have ulterior motives, which may be the confiscation of natural resources, along with the exercise of full control over other nations.

    To this end, elite of government officials create scenarios saturated with distortions of facts and realities as to gather full support and cooperation of their population. In other words, the goal of such government officials is to indoctrinate the people through a carefully elaborated poisonous propaganda. What is often surprising lies in the fact that all this is often done in the “name of God!” Each time this is done we have blasphemy in operation. How can a good and merciful God ask some of His children to massacre His other children?

    Organized religion seems to have evolved into becoming, in many ways, an integral part of the culture of war. In fact, with the exception of perhaps Buddhism, all major religions may be characterized by their adherence to the culture of war mentality. Needless to say, the clergymen in each of such religions should be held accountable for their conspicuous silence in this regard. They hardly ever provide guidelines as to have war avoided by all means. Judaism, Christianity and Islam seem to be all entrenched in the culture of war mentality.

    Clergymen, along with humanitarian organizations, have the moral obligation not only to condemn war persistently but also to expose the possible evil intent of government officials who proclaim to be waging a war “to safeguard justice, freedom, and democracy.” Ironically, such government officials each time they decide to wage a war, the first thing they do is precisely to destroy the essence of justice, freedom and democracy. It’s enough for us to analyze the two latest brutal wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prospects for War Elimination

    In spite of the fact that wars have been going on for such a long time, is there any hope for us to really eliminate wars and make them become literally obsolete? The answer is a qualitative yes. What we need to do is simply to plan carefully a strategy and then move on to implement it properly and effectively. In the first place, we should explore the real motives that those in government had in their promotion of wars. One thing that is certain is this. As a rule, the reasons they give are most certainly to be deceitful.

    Does the government that wages wars belong to an extreme political system? Some of these extreme systems that we have observed during the 20th century may be enlisted as Nazism, communism and capitalism. In the achievement of their objectives, nothing stands on the way. The destruction of nations and the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people, amounting even to millions, are viewed merely as “collateral damage!” This is verified by the way the US capitalistic news media reports to the American people.

    What we need to do is simply to analyze the daily news given of the Iraqi and the Afghanistan wars. They enlist the hundreds and thousands of US troops killed and maimed but there is hardly ever a word about the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis that were massacred brutally by US weapons. More than one million innocent Iraqis were brutally killed or maimed for life. More than two million have now become refugees with no homes except for camps, not to mention the tens of thousands of orphans that were created.

    This has prompted Pope John Paul II to state in Mexico: “World peace will come only after two of the greatest evils of the 20th century are gone; these are communism and capitalism because they both achieve their objectives through the exploitation of people.” How can nations dare to wage a war, supposedly to bring freedom and democracy, when their very own people do not have any of these except perhaps for merely a façade? The military, as an institution, has been badly abused by a number of governments. Soldiers have been indoctrinated to follow orders blindly without ever asking questions!

    Fortunately, we always had some soldiers who resisted unjust and immoral orders, even though they risked retaliation from their officers. Nowadays, more and more members of the military are beginning to see that their political leaders often lead them to war not in the best interest of the nation but for their personal greed and hidden agenda of big corporate interests. While people elect their government officials to lead them, in practice, such officials they are led by the authorities of big corporations.

Control of Big Corporations

    Nowadays, the US government has become hostage of big corporations, which finance the election of as many government officials as they can. While government officials are expected to be literally the servants of the people who elected them, in practice they become fully subservient to big corporations that financed them. Hence, the very waging of war becomes immoral for it constitutes an abuse of power, which is criminal. In view of this, we can fully understand why wars must be eliminated from the surface of our planet permanently.

    We need to give a glance at how human conflicts that took place over the 6,000 years of recorded history were solved properly and effectively. Those problems, which were solved well to the satisfaction of all involved and concerned, were those that were solved through strong diplomacies and healthy dialogues where the welfare of all people without exception took top priority. By way of contrast, when governments resorted to war to solve human conflicts, the situation always deteriorated, became worse, in the long range.

    Over the last century many books and articles were written on the importance for all of us to eliminate wars and to create eventually a world without wars. What is encouraging is to find out numerous military officials becoming highly critical of governmental war policies. Some of them have recognized the fact that wars were often promoted because of a clear-cut abuse of power. This explains why so much has been written on this vital topic where human lives in tens of millions around the world are involved.

    In 2009, an inspiring book has been published by Alan F. Kay and Dan Smith. It is entitled: Eliminating War! Both of them spent a career in the US military. They were involved in numerous missions that enabled them to become an authority on this important topic: Elimination of War: Sacrosanct Obligation. For a limited time only, one may secure a free copy of this newly published book, Eliminating War, by contacting Alan F. Kay, P.O. Box 5190, St. Augustine, FL 32085-5190, USA, Phone 904-826-0984, E-Mail: i@alanfkay.com Those requesting a copy from outside the USA would need to pay initially just for postage.

    This newly published book deals with the sources of wars and pinpoints those who really benefit from these destructive elements. It shows how US Presidents ignore their very own government and proceed to wage wars anyway to the detriment of the United States itself. It also shows how the US uses monetary incentives to make late-teens join the military with enthusiasm. Besides, it demonstrates how the US can maintain a strong military force even by cutting the military budget substantially and close US military bases abroad.

Two Militaristic Views

    The involved book also devotes one chapter on two US military views from two who spent their lifetime in the military. One is Senator McCain, who believes that the US, once it gets into a war it should continue to fight until it “wins” the war, even if it were to take decades. The other view is by Alan F. Kay, who believes that the role and mission of the military should change to reflect doing humanitarian activities in the best interest of all people involved and concerned. This would make the military more viewed as a blessing than a curse.

    This timely book, Eliminating War, shows how non-governmental and humanitarian organizations could become directly involved in bringing about a permanent peace in the world through the complete elimination of wars. Let us keep in mind that wars, by their very nature, promote violence. And we know the rest of the story: Violence promotes violence and more violence promotes more violence. It also encourages women to become more involved in the peace process, since women by their very nature tend to be more peaceful.

    The Bush/Cheney determination to pursue wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq has drained America’s treasure. While President Bush inherited from President Clinton an $800 billion surplus, President Obama inherited from President Bush a $4 trillion deficit! When we read about empires in history we notice they all rise and fall following more or less the same pattern. The United States has now grown into an empire with military bases in 146 nations. Its pursuit of wars is now disintegrating it to the point of eventual collapse.

    Another good contribution of this same year 2009 was made by Dr. Leo Rebello from Mumbai, India. The publication of his recent book: World without Wars should become a book of reference for everyone interested in permanent world peace. This book is an anthology, which is written by several outstanding people from every walk of life and profession. Rebello has specialized in the art of natural healing that led him to give numerous lectures on this topic around the world. Since wars are viewed as the product of basically sick minds, he tried to provide natural approaches to replace all wars with a genuine peace.

    In his extensive travels around the world, in an effort to find out the real causes of wars, Rebello discovered that one of the causes for wars can be traced to man-made religions, which tended throughout history to divide people in many ways. He attributes this mostly to people’s misinterpretation of the “holy books.” He firmly believes that as long as the military continues to be an agency of violence with its brutal destruction of the infrastructure of cities and the massacre of numerous innocent people, all families should feel obligated not to let their children work for the military.

Straightening up Priorities

    Besides, no one should become share holder or director of the arms and weapons manufacturing companies, of any industry that kills mercilessly people for profit. The money made from such transactions should be viewed as blood money which is eventually cursed money. Moreover, we should not subscribe to the theory that so called over-population is a problem. We should keep in mind that in the world there is unequal geographic distribution of population due to artificial national boundaries that are set up by politicians.

    This Indian scholar figured it out that if every person where to be given 1000 square feet, the State of Texas alone, which has 161,914 square acres, that comes to seven trillion square feet, can easily accommodate seven billion people. It is really a shame that one percent of the population that consists of filthy rich people controls the resources of the entire world! Our so called population problem comes from the way the rich have been exploiting the poor. It would be ideal if there will be established an official universal language like Esperanto.

    The concept of the “just war” theory should be discarded. This theory has been promoted by psychopaths and commercial interests headed by the petrochemical-military industrial complex. This way they could find a good excuse to invade oil or mineral rich nations like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, in addition to others. Rebello stresses the fact that if a “just war” should exist, it should be against the various Mafiosi who control the world. At this stage of history, capitalism emerged to become a malignant tumor of our earthly society.

    According to the United Nations Charter on human rights, all people have a sacrosanct right to move freely anywhere in the world with no hindrances whatsoever. This means the elimination of visas becomes imperative. The deliberate prevention of people from traveling freely anywhere in the world should be viewed as criminal, like for example, the prevention of Americans from visiting their peaceful neighbor country of Cuba. No country should ever take the initiative to attack another country.

    All Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) should be destroyed. Also, we should have no more depletion of uranium or lethal hardware in space. There should be no control of space, since this is the last peace frontier that we have to enjoy and cherish. When we consider the millions of people we have in the world homeless, hungry and poor it should be viewed as criminal for governments to spend any money to colonize the moon and to reach Mars. When people are continuously oppressed they are bound to rebel sooner or later.

Health Care and Education

    In the sphere of life we should replace artificial means of healing, like the taking of drugs of any kind, with natural means of healing like eating right and doing adequate physical exercises. There should be no deadly fertilizers and pesticides. Only organic food and pro-biotic farming should be allowed. Moreover, we need to keep in mind that all creatures have a purpose. Cruel animal experiments in research laboratories should come to an end. We should develop respect for both human and animal life. They need each other.

    Every government is obligated to view its strength not in military terms but merely in proportion to the good health and sound education of its people. We have so many criminal problems because many governments do not recognize the sacrosanct right human beings have in getting free health care and free education. Besides, a method needs to be found to secure for the entire world one currency, which would make it so easy for people everywhere to deal with each other and to solve eventually so many needless problems.

    The European Union took a gigantic step in the right direction through the creation of one single currency, the euro. Moreover, we need to set ground for the eventual creation of a Federation of World States where all people will carry a World Citizen Passport by way of personal identity. The establishment of a nuclear free world, as has been advocated by US President Barack Obama and others, should not be taken lightly. Following the example of Costa Rica, every nation should become an island of peace.

    In spite of its defects, the United Nations remains the most important entity in the world to bring about a permanent world peace, to create a new world characterized by its total elimination of wars. To this end, the United Nations needs a radical reform starting with the elimination of the veto power held by five nations. For the past 60 years, these veto power nations have held the entire world as their hostage and this should stop the sooner the better. The institution of the military should change radically, from one that has been negative and destructive to one that is meant to be positive and constructive.

    In fact, some nations would be better off if they were to eliminate the military completely. Peaceful nations should be characterized by the fact that they would not allow, in the first place, any foreign military bases in their land. Those governments that allow this to happen should be viewed as weak and as hostages to the foreign nation that puts military bases there. The walls that divide people should come down as it happened between East and West Germany. Today we have one single nation which is doing well in many aspects.

Replacing Retaliation with Reconciliation

    Insane policies of retaliation should be replaced with sound policies of reconciliation. We learn from history that all nations that used retaliation as a policy in dealing with others, ended up eventually to be condemned by the rest of the world. They lost trust and were viewed even as dangerous. Although apparently victorious initially they all lost in the long range. So, in retaliation of any kind we always end up in lose-lose situation. Like Pope Pius XII said on the eve of World War II, “in a war everyone is a loser, no one a winner.”

    There has never been a country in the world that has interfered in the internal affairs of so many other nations as the United States has been doing over the past 60 years. There has never been a nation in the world that has built so many military bases as the United States, already in 146 nations. The oceans of the world are literally filled with American ships as if they literally own our entire planet. Besides, while the United States believes it has the right or prerogative to do what it wants, other nations are not expected to act similarly.

    This could be illustrated by the fact, that while this nation has well over 50,000 nuclear weapons, it has raised fuss and pandemonium about the possibility that Iran may have just one nuclear weapon. Ironically, Iran never raised fuss or pandemonium about the fact that the USA has thousands of such lethal weapons. Does this make any sense? If one nation assumes the right to have as many nuclear weapons as it wants, then every other nation on earth should have a similar sacrosanct right.

    Copies of the book, World without Wars, may be obtained from Dr. Leo Rebello, 28/552 Samata Nagar, Kandivali East, Mumbai 400 101, India, Phone: 91-22-2887-2741, E-Mail: drleorebello@gmail.com.

    We may conclude by saying that clergymen and all those responsible have the obligation to guide people to a genuine peace. They must advocate human rights as they relate to free health care and education, as well as people’s right to have their air and water free from pollution. If the money spent on weapons and wars is spent on the people’s needs, we would soon achieve peace where the very idea of war ceases to exist.

_______________________

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.

-President, International Association of Educators for World Peace, Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament.

-Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 28 Oct 2009.

Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: ELIMINATION OF WAR: SACROSSANT OBLIGATION, is included. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.

Share this article: email mastodon facebook 🔗 copy link

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Comments are closed.