March  2003 
Year 9    No.85

Editorial


The war within 

The world may yet come to remember Samuel Huntington, though not for the reasons that’ll gladden the heart of the good professor of the ‘Science of Government’. "It is my hypothesis", he wrote a decade ago, "that the fundamental source of conflict in (the) new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among
humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future".

To some it was obvious that September 11 (2001) had heralded the birth of this clash between two of the ‘seven or eight’ civilisations that Huntington had identified — Western (Christian?) and Islamic. But less than two years later, the US is no more at war with Iraq than it is at war with SELF and much of the western world. One thing is certain: the world will never be the same again for the ‘cultural fault lines separating civilizations’ are presently being redefined, literally by the day. Even as the US military bludgeon commences its ‘Operation Shock and Awe’ against Iraq, millions within America are engaged in a wrenching soul–search, asking what it might mean to be cultured, or civilised?

As we go to press, on day two of Bushmania,

l "Deeply concerned people all across the US" have launched a nationwide campaign for the impeachment of "the President, vice–President and all civil officers of the United States" on charges of "wars of aggression in defiance of the US Constitution, the UN Charter and the rule of law."

l War veterans have issued an open call to America’s top military commanders, asking them to not to forget what every soldier is taught: "We were informed of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the conviction and punishment of soldiers for following illegal orders. We were taught that we must not follow an illegal order. US military leadership must not only know and teach the obligations of international law but must respect and follow them".

l For weeks now, Charlie Liteky, a decorated Vietnam veteran, has planted himself in Baghdad along with 20 other members of the Chicago–based Iraq Peace Team waiting for the inevitable. "I’m here because I hear the children cry," says Liteky. "In my mind ... I imagine the bombing and the noise and the windows shattering and something coming down from the ceiling and children looking up and parents grabbing them and fear being transferred from parents to children."

l Having returned from six days of making people-to-people contacts at schools, hospitals and universities in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq, in early February, the four-member delegation of family members of September 11 victims has been appealing to fellow Americans: "Like much of the world, the people of Iraq have known violence entirely too long, and they long for peace."

l Bishops and scores of other prominent clergymen from the US have joined their counterparts in the UK to lend support to the anti–war statements of Pope John Paul II, describing the attack on Iraq as both "illegal" and "immoral."

The rest of the western world is no less outraged. On March 20, Reuters reported:

l Barely three hours after the first cruise missiles slammed into Baghdad… tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators staged huge marches across the world, often clashing with police as they converged on heavily guarded US embassies.

l In Italy, the three biggest trade unions staged a two-hour nationwide strike.

l Thousands of protesters, including students in large numbers, took to the streets, blocking rail stations and highways bringing traffic to a halt in many cities of Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Australia.

We share the outrage of all cultured and civilized people across the globe in denouncing the unilateral, entirely unwarranted and shockingly inhuman agenda of the Bush administration. And we salute those millions of American citizens whose thoughts are aptly summed up in the public statement of war veterans: "If the people of the world are ever to be free, there must come a time when being a citizen of the world takes precedence over being the soldier of a nation. Now is that time".

Now is the time to "seize the moment", now is the time to keep our thoughts focused on all the innocent men, women and children of Iraq condemned to a life of absolute insecurity and uncertainty as to what the next moment might mean.

Editors.


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