Sizing up the collateral damage May 22, 2003 After the first weeks of investigation, experts on the ground estimate the civilian death toll during the invasion of Iraq could have been as high as 10,000. The combination of cluster-bomb use, inaccurate artillery fire at Iraqi troops concentrated near civilian areas, and street fighting in towns throughout Iraq means that the number of civilian deaths might be as high as 10,000, say two researchers from two different teams who asked not to be identified until the evidence was clearer. A candle in the storm March, 2003 With a UN-defying war in the offing, MoveOn.org gathers signatures for an affirmation of the values of the emerging world citizenry. By joining together across countries and continents, we have emerged as a new force for peace. As we grieve for the victims of this war, we pledge to redouble our efforts to put an end to the Bush Administration's doctrine of pre-emptive attack and the reckless use of military power.  An Israeli dove's perspective March 24, 2003 Israel's venerable peacenik, Uri Avnery, offers his patented perspective on today's facts on the ground and possibilities in the air. Thomas Jefferson, one of the fathers of American democracy, once said that no country could conduct its affairs without “a decent respect for world opinion.”  Perhaps the 21st century will witness a struggle between the brute force of a mighty military-economic super-power and world public opinion, assisted now by modern technology.  "The powerful odour of mendacity" March 18, 2003 From TomPaine.com, a reality check on Bush's final ultimatum to Iraq.  "War criminals will be punished," Bush intoned, "and it will be no defense to say I was just following orders." This from a president who, in his first year in office, used the U.S. veto power at the United Nations to reject the International Criminal Court set up to prosecute war crimes (while asserting the U.S. military's right to be exempt from prosecution under international law). "The absence of politics" March 12, 2003 Gore Vidal laments the disappearance of true politics from the constitutional America he loves.  We have no political parties....We have one party - we have the party of essentially corporate America. It has two right wings, one called Democratic, one called Republican. So in the absence of politics, with a media that is easy to manipulate and, in the hands of very few people with interests in wars and oil and so on, I don't see how you get the word out, but one tries because there is nothing else to be done.  From Ground Zero's newspaper of record: no to war March 9, 2003 In an unsigned editorial, the New York Times rejects the Bush administration's arguments for war and declares it can't support an "invasion [of Iraq] without broad international support." [T]here are certain rules that everybody has to follow, one of the most important of which is that you do not invade another country for any but the most compelling of reasons. When the purpose is fuzzy, or based on questionable propositions, it's time to stop and look for other, less extreme means to achieve your goals. If war comes . . . whither the peace movement? March 8, 2003 Is there anything more peace activists can do to avert war in Iraq? And if the inevitable does happen, how will it affect the struggle for world peace and justice? An in-depth essay by activists Paul Loeb and Geov Parrish. If terrorist bombs do go off in Chicago, Des Moines, or Philadelphia. . . .most citizens are likely to feel overwhelmed with anger and fear. Just as was true after 9/11, they'll hardly be receptive to the difficult truth that America's own actions will have helped set those terrible events in motion. And that we as well have taken innocent lives, again and again. It will be hard to resist the administration's permanent evisceration of due process, the Bill of Rights, and other inconvenient nuisances. If unprepared, the peace movement risks being isolated and obliterated. Petitioning the Security Council March 6, 2003 Moveon.org's anti-war, pro-tough inspections petition, scheduled to be delivered to the Security Council on Monday, March 10, approaches its goal of 750,000 signatures. From the petition: The U.N. was created to enable peaceful alternatives to conflict. The weapons inspections under way are a perfect example of just such an alternative, and their growing success is a testament to the potential power the U.N. holds. By supporting tough inspections instead of war, you can show the world a real way to resolve conflict without bloodshed. But if you back a war, it will undermine the very premise upon which the U.N. was built.  Resigning in protest March 6, 2003 A 20-year US State Department diplomat resigns in protest over Bush's policies. [U]ntil this administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer. War is obsolete - U.S. Army Major Spring, 2003 The military and civilian health catastrophe that he witnessed during and after the first Gulf War has convinced U.S. Major Doug Rokke that modern warfare is a scourge that must be stopped. War has become obsolete, because we can’t deal with the consequences on our warriors or the environment, but more important, on the noncombatants. When you reach a point in war when the contamination and the health effects of war can’t be cleaned up because of the weapons you use, and medical care can’t be given to the soldiers who participated in the war on either side or to the civilians affected, then it’s time for peace.  'Sleepwalking through history' February 12, 2003 As the drumbeat of war rises to a crescendo, veteran congressman Robert Byrd rises in the U.S. Senate Chamber to repudiate the "dismal" record and "outrageous" pronouncements of the Bush administration and rebuke fellow senators for remaining "ominously, dreadfully silent" - for "sleepwalking through history." ... this Chamber is, for the most part, silent - ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing .....  I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country." This war is not necessary at this time.  Blix: North Dakota harbours vast nuclear arsenal  (sendup) February 5, 2003 The Security Council is on high alert since chief weapons inspector Hans Blix recently disclosed that the secluded northern state "possesses the world's most technologically advanced weapons of mass destruction, capable of reaching targets all over the world." "North Dakota, still in its cultural infancy, cannot be trusted to responsibly handle weapons of mass destruction," French President Jacques Chirac said. "We are talking about a place that doesn't even have a Thai restaurant or movie theater that shows foreign films, but still they have the resources to build thousands of warheads. Do not believe their claims of being 'The Peace Garden State.'" The General Assembly's veto February 2003 When the Security Council can no longer contain state aggression, under UN Resolution 377 the General Assembly can call an emergency session and lay down the law itself. The resolution has been used before by the United States. This time, say the legal scholars at The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), it should be used to contain the United States. CCR believes that due to the current impasse in the Security Council, Resolution 377 “Uniting for Peace” should be used to require that no military action be taken against Iraq without the explicit authority of the Security Council.  It could also mandate that the inspection regime be permitted to complete its inspections.  We believe it unlikely that the United States and Britain would ignore such a measure.  A vote by the majority of countries in the world, particularly if it were unanimous, would make the unilateral rush to war more difficult. Which country poses greatest threat to peace, asks Time Magazine January 20, 2003 In an online poll, Time Magazine's European edition asks if Iraq or North Korea pose the greatest threat to world peace in 2003 - or " ... is the biggest danger to peace closer to home?" Read the whole cover story on "Blaming America" here. Sweden provides free-speech haven for stifled Bush yes-men (satire) December 13, 2002 Inspired by George Bush's plan to spirit weapons scientists and their families out of Iraq so they can speak truthfully without fear, Sweden has created a refugee program for squelched employees of the Bush administration.  “We’ll offer U.S. bureaucrats and their families safe passage to Sweden and a secure environment from which they can speak freely and publicly to the folks back home. They can stay here at our expense until a climate of openness and honesty prevails in the Bush administration.”  From Ground Zero, a pan of Bush's Grand Plan October 7, 2002 The Bush administration's new "National Security Strategy of the United States of America" is a slippery slope of a manifesto for world domination, says Hendrik Hertzberg in The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town." The vision laid out in the Bush document is a vision of what used to be called, when we believed it to be the Soviet ambition, world domination. It's a vision of a world in which it is American policy to prevent the emergence of any rival power, whatever it stands for—a world policed and controlled by American military might....There's a name for the kind of regime in which the cops rule, answering only to themselves. It's called a police state.... "World peace" used to be such an uncontroversially good thing that Miss America contestants, even at the height of the Cold War, could safely say that they were in favor of it. Now they'll have to say, "As Miss America, I hope to help little children and work on behalf of United States world domination." It's a dismal dream, and an ignoble guide for American foreign policy. Chomsky: one year later, what have Americans learned? September 7, 2002 One year later, and most of his fellow Americans still don't get it, says foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky. Today, Americans do themselves few favours by choosing to believe that "they hate us" and "hate our freedoms." On the contrary, these are people who like Americans and admire much about the US, including its freedoms. What they hate is official policies that deny them the freedoms to which they, too, aspire. The Enemy Within July 23, 2002 The Bush administration has a new tool to lock up any American citizen and throw away the key, no questions asked. Stuart Taylor Jr. says preventative detention for possible "enemy combatants" is a necessary evil - but not this way. Even the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit raised an eyebrow at the administration's "sweeping proposition ... that, with no meaningful judicial review, any American citizen alleged to be an enemy combatant could be detained indefinitely without charges or counsel on the government's say-so."  A new dispensation for Africa July 9, 2002 With the birth of the African Union, the continent's leaders have a new set of tools for democratic self-governance, peace, and economic development. The AU, loosely modeled after the European Union, will create a pan-African parliament, a central bank, a court of justice, an African peacekeeping force, and eventually, a common currency. . . .It can step in when a country's constitutional government has been overthrown, and when there is a danger of genocide or gross human rights violations, or when the instability of one state threatens another. Israel's Refuseniks March, 2002 Escalating violence and suffering have made some Israelis more determined than ever: not to crack down on the Palestinians, but to end the occupation once and for all. When these  seasoned war veterans speak, people listen. [ The Guardian | The refuseniks' website ] We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense. [refuseniks' website] Israel's former attorney-general, Michael Ben Yair, says: "History's verdict will be that their refusal was the act that restored our moral backbone." [The Guardian] The Ache of an Aid Worker January 20, 2002 An American medical relief worker is overwhelmed by the gulf between the vital needs of the Afghan people and her ability to meet them - and touched by their gratitude nonetheless. . . . with death so near, it was she who comforted me. She thanked me for seeing her, touched my cheek and promised to pray for me. I had to ask myself who was showing whom the greater compassion and courage.  America's Distaste for Dissent January, 2002 A November poll suggests Americans favour the principles of a police state.  Wendy Kaminer laments the "ignorant bliss" that dictates so many of her fellow citizens' world view. Forty percent favor censorship of news reports about antiwar protests. (If the war is wrongly conceived or badly conducted, they apparently don't want to know about it.) More than a third favor censorship of stories criticizing the president's conduct of the war.  Unity - What the World Needs Now Winter 2001/2002 In the wake of 911, a yoga teacher's simple message. Since the tragedy of September 11, in every yoga class I teach I ask my students to sit in contemplation of unity.  During these periods, I always cry; I find it so hard to swallow the fact that we, as brothers and sisters, are so eagerly willing to kill one another. The Collateral Death Count December 10, 2001 For most Westerners, the "collateral" civilian death toll in the "War on Terrorism" is shrouded in mystery.  But at the University of New Hampshire, Professor Marc W. Herold  has been keeping  score - and he claims the numbers now rival or exceed the toll on September 11. . . . a careful analysis of published reports shows that Afghanistan has been subjected to a barbarous air bombardment, which has killed an average of 60-65 civilians per day since October 7. When the sun set on November 23, at least 3,006 Afghan civilians had died in U.S. bombing attacks. Citing Herold's research, The Guardian's Seumas Milne argues that the Pentagon's high altitude bombing campaign has spared American soldiers at the expense of Afghan civilians. From 911 to 1984 December 13, 2001 Stephanie Salter takes a satirically pessimistic look at the future of American freedom. We were so naive back then. Thank God Attorney-General-for-Life Ashcroft woke us up. He showed us how silly and dangerous our notions of privacy and constitutional rights were. Just two months into the war against the Evil Ones, he scolded a bunch of senators -- people still cared what Congress thought back then -- for scaring 'peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty.' Afghans' Ironic Attack on Fisk December 10, 2001 For 25 years he's railed against Western mistreatment of Muslims. On December 8, prominent British journalist Robert Fisk was nearly beaten to death in Pakistan by a mob of Afghan refugees who thought he was just another Westerner. Fisk sees their point:  If I was an Afghan refugee in Kila Abdullah, I would have done just what they did. I would have attacked Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find. The Spiritual Challenge From Desmond Tutu to Thich Nhat Hanh, Beliefnet assembles an awesome breadth  of responses to the spiritual challenge of September 11. The command to love my neighbor as I do myself is not an admonition to be nice: it is a statement of truth like the law of gravity. For my neighbor and myself are interwoven. If I pour contempt upon my neighbor, hatred will recoil upon me. Rabbi Arthur Waskow Collateral Starvation October 21, 2001 As Afghanistan's severe winter approaches, the climate of war is obstructing vital humanitarian aid to millions of hungry or starving men, women, and children. For the latest developments, visit the United Nations website. "The operating environment in Afghanistan is getting worse by the day," spokesman Hasan Ferdous told reporters in Islamabad. "This is a country with 6 million people in need of aid. They are not getting anywhere near the aid they need." Prayers and Wishes The Mennonite Central Committee, a progressive Christian aid agency working in Afghanistan and around the world, offers those back home food for thought and words for prayer. Lord of all nations, we pray. . . Grant us peace. That our nations will stop arming the world with weapons and supply instead the bread of life: food, medicine, and the tools for cultivating a harvest of justice and peace. Spirit of Grace, we pray . . . Grant us peace.  Give us the eyes to see, and the humility to admit, the root causes for the the anger against us. May we have the courage to peacefully make right our wrongs. Jesus our Lord, we pray . . . Grant us peace.  May we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other, and may we live in a way which will not deprive other living beings of air, water, food, shelter, or the chance to live. Creator of all life, we pray. . . Grant us peace. The Real Meaning of Jihad In mainstream Islam, holy war is a last resort. First and foremost, jihad is a nonviolent struggle for social justice and personal virtue. Anticipating the Terrorists' Arsenal November 1, 2001 From a nuclear physicist and former member of the US President’s Science Advisory Committee, a detailed reckoning of the many weapons potentially available to  terrorists and some things society can do to protect itself.  It is abundantly clear that the same 19 terrorists who hijacked the aircraft and destroyed buildings and thousands of lives, in what seemed an instant, would not have hesitated to detonate a nuclear explosive if they had acquired one.  A first-generation (ten-kilotonne) nuclear explosive would kill at least 100,000 people in a typical urban environment. The theft and detonation of one of the 500-kilotonne strategic weapons would probably kill a million people in an instant and flatten 100 sq km of buildings.  September's Children October 17, 2001 An estimated 10,000 children lost a parent on September 11. 60 Minutes II profiles a few who are bearing their grief with touching nobility. "I now come home every day after school to make sure my mom’s OK here before I go to bed," he says. "I go in and check on my sister and make sure she’s OK, things my dad would have done." The Peace Laureates Speak What do Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, and over a dozen other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates think about September 11? If the battle against terrorism is limited to military operations, the world could be the loser. But if it becomes an integral part of common efforts to build a more just world order, everyone would win. - Mikhail Gorbachev In with the Bombs . . .  Out with the Brains October 9, 2001 As bombs fall on Afghanistan, so does a fog over media access and objectivity, laments Robert Fisk, reducing the West to glazed spectators at a tawdry war flick. The BBC was yesterday broadcasting an American officer talking about the dangers of "collateral damage'' – without the slightest hint of the immorality of this phrase. . . .Is there some kind of rhetorical fog that envelops us every time we bomb someone? A Message from Gandhi September 30, 2001 In the wake of the catastrophe of September 11, Mahatma Gandhi's American grandson Arun makes the case for nonviolent justice. We must acknowledge our role in helping to create monsters in the world, find ways to contain these monsters without hurting more innocent people, and then redefine our role in the world. I think we must move from seeking to be respected for our military strength to being respected for our moral strength. Fighting the Good Fight In an essay for the forthcoming anthology America’s Tragedy: A Spiritual Response, Paul Loeb calls for global justice, not myopic revenge. According to Bread for the World, six million children die every year of hunger-related causes in developing countries—the equivalent of three World Trade Center attacks every day. For an annual appropriation of $13 billion—that’s a third of what our Congress just authorized, or five percent of our existing $260 billion dollar defense budget—we could meet the basic health and nutrition needs of the world’s poorest people every year.  American Satire, Post-911 September 26, 2001 Bracing itself for a backlash, The Onion tackles the satiric possibilities of September 11 and its aftermath - and doesn't make a stink. (Background story in Wired.) Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday. . . . "I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?" Islamic Introspection September 23, 2001 Prominent Muslim writer Ziauddin Sardar says it's high time for a "fatwa on the fanatics." To Muslims everywhere I issue this fatwa: any Muslim involved in the planning, financing, training, recruiting, support or harbouring of those who commit acts of indiscriminate violence against persons or the apparatus or infrastructure of states is guilty of terror and no part of the Ummah. It is the duty of every Muslim to spare no effort in hunting down, apprehending and bringing such criminals to justice. Inside the War Room September 30, 2001 Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice may be the only "doves" in Bush's cabinet.The Observer details the dynamics of the personalities pressing Bush to mount "Operation Infinite War." Love Thine Enemy September 18, 2001 At an online think tank, physicist and mystic Fred Alan Wolf dares us to "think the 'unthinkable' that even now peace is the answer and action based on bringing peace and well-being to all of our neighbors, even if they harbor hatred against us, may be the only weapon we really have." Praying for Discernment September 17, 2001 Canadian Member of Parliament  Bill Blaikie delivers a penetrating prayer for moral discernment as the world asks, "what next?" The Afghan Minefield September 14, 2001 An Afghani American's primer on the plight of his downtrodden people and the risks ahead.  Will other Muslim nations just stand by? . . .We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. What Martin Said April 14, 1967 A year to the day before his assasination in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. enjoined his country to rise to an urgent moral challenge. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.

Something rotten in Baghdad April 17, 2003 In Baghdad, veteran Mideast correspondent Robert Fisk sees only signs of a hypocritical, ill-willed occupation. President Bush promised that America was campaigning for human rights in Iraq, that the guilty, the war criminals, would be brought to trial. The 60 secret police headquarters in Baghdad are empty, even the three-square-mile compound headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.  I have been to many of them. But there is no evidence even that a single British or US forensic officer has visited the sites to sift the wealth of documents lying there or talk to the ex-prisoners returning to their former places of torment. Is this idleness. Or is this wilful? American reality TV show to pick new Iraq leader April 23, 2003 Describing the new show as "American Idol meets the reconstruction of Afghanistan," Darnell said Appointed By America will feature contestants squaring off in a variety of challenges, including a democracy quiz, a talent competition, and nation-building activities that will demonstrate their ability to lead a bombed-out, war-ravaged Mideast country. full story "We Stand for Peace & Justice" March 28, 2003 In just a day or two, over 15,000 people have joined Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Howard Zinn and other prominent activists in signing a declaration of universal principles of peace and justice. . . . I stand for internationalism. I oppose any nation spreading an ever expanding network of military bases around the world and producing an arsenal unparalleled in the world.  I stand for equity. I don’t think the U.S. or any other country should seek empire. I don’t think the U.S. ought to control Middle Eastern oil on behalf of U.S. corporations and as a wedge to gain political control over other countries.  more A UN the US can trust (satire) March 26, 2003 Stung by the United Nations' failure to respect the democratic will of the Bush administration, the government of the United States has formed a UN of its own. "The U.S.U.N. resembles the original in almost every way, right down to all the flags outside our headquarters," said Condoleezza Rice, a U.S. delegate to the U.S.U.N. "This organization will carry out peacekeeping missions all over the world, but, unlike the U.N., these missions will not be compromised by the threat of opposition by lesser nations." Irrelevant - or illegitimate? March 13, 2003 The Bush administration's bullying of undecided Security Council member states is threatening to make the institution it accuses of being irrelevant, illegitimate. Should the US succeed by these methods....The principles of "might makes right" and "money talks" will have triumphed over the rule of law at the international community's highest executive forum. Saddam's secret stash (spoof) March 7, 2003 In Washington, the question of where Saddam Hussein may be hiding weapons of mass destruction gets personal - and anatomical. "That's not what I really meant when I said Saddam's hiding his weapons of mass destruction 'where the sun don't shine.' The devious dictator has stashed them in the gathering depths of his heart of darkness," a testy George W. Bush said today after a speech to the Young Imperialists of America.  Faxocracy March 6, 2003 After drowning the Security Council's permanent members with faxes from online citizens opposed to any trigger-happy new resolution on Iraq, TrueMajority.org declares a tentative victory by fax machine. For the progressive Web-based organization founded by activist Ben (Ben & Jerry) Cohen, it's direct democracy's wave of the future. An overwhelmed official at the French embassy said our faxes were piled so high on his desk that people passing his office could not see him. Chinese officials seemed perplexed by witnessing our democracy in action, but they clearly got the point. In all, we jammed up the fax lines trying to send over 100,000 faxes. Subverting the Security Council March 2, 2003 The Bush administration is waging an aggressive campaign of threats, bribes, and spying to procure Security Council members' votes for its war on Iraq. The fight . . . has been characterised by threats, cajoling, US spying on their missions and blatant bribes. Seasoned diplomats have looked on in awe or felt the heat as America mounted its offensive to browbeat the nations it needs for a Security Council majority clearing the path to war. Coalition of the war criminals  February 26, 2003 Forty-three Australian legal and human rights experts skewer the coalition of the willing's pre-emptive war plans. An attack on Iraq, they warn, would not only violate international law and the UN charter, it probably would make participants whose countries have ratified the International Criminal Court indictable as war criminals - and set international order back 60 years. The military objective of disarming Iraq could not justify widespread harm to the Iraqi population, over half of whom are under the age of 15.... From what we know of the likely civilian devastation caused by the coalition's war strategies, there are strong arguments that attacking Iraq may involve committing both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Invasion of the body politic snatchers February 12, 2003 Now 80, American cult novelist and World War Two veteran Kurt Vonnegut despairs that "psychopathic personalities" and “C students from Yale” have taken over his country. I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”  George W. Bush: Agent of God February 2003 If the president of the United States seems like a man who believes he's on a guided mission from God, maybe it's because he does. Beliefnet examines the personal theology of George Walker Bush. A month after the World Trade Center attack. . . .Time magazine reported that "Privately, Bush even talked of being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment." The net effect is a theology that seems to imply that God is intervening in events, is on America's side, and has chosen Bush to be in the White House at this critical moment. I'm losing patience with my neighbours too! (irony!) January 26, 2003 Tongue planted wryly in cheek, Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones explains how the American President's patience problem has emboldened Jones to go after his own highly suspicious neighbours, starting with the devious Mr. Johnson and the murderous ("don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources") Mr. Patel. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of other people in the street who I don't like and who - quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be really safe until I've wiped them all out.  Who would Jesus kill? Christmas Day, 2002 This Christmas, nonviolence advocate Patrice Le-Muire Jones turns up the heat on the "what would Jesus do?" question.  Would Jesus kill Iraqi children so that the friends of Dick Cheney can gain control of Iraqi oil reserves? Would Jesus kill Iraqi mothers in order to boost the ego and popularity of George W. Bush?  Religious Leaders Urge Restraint in Iraq various dates Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, and other religious groups call for nonviolence first in Iraq - and more. The freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States oblige us to attend not only to our own welfare, but to the well-being of the world around us. A superpower, especially one that declares itself to be "under God," must exercise the role of super servant. America, disarm thyself November 16, 2002 Soon to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter tells Larry King that the U.S. and other armed-to-the-teeth superpowers should set an example for upstarts like Iraq and North Korea and destroy their own weapons of mass destruction.  "Quite often the big countries that are responsible for the peace of the world set a very poor example for those who might hunger for the esteem or the power or the threats that they can develop from nuclear weapons themselves." Transcript of Larry King's interview with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Taking Dubya at his word October 16, 2002 Syd Baumel takes the American President's new world order rhetoric for a world federalist spin. Let the world’s sole superpower reject feudal notions of a Pax Americana in favour of a true world democracy....Where there is a will for world peace and justice, there is a way. And the United States – as the bellwether of change in the world today – is a key to making it happen. Oily Motives September 19, 2002 Iraq's untapped oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's, and every country's oil companies want a piece of it. Michael T. Klare, author of Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, explains how war or peace with Iraq will determine who wins and who loses. . . . here's the rub: The Iraqi dissidents chosen by Washington to lead the new regime in Baghdad have threatened to cancel all contracts awarded to firms in countries that fail to assist in the overthrow of Saddam. A Call to Love Fall 2002 "We are in need of a revolution – a revolution of the Spirit in which we begin to love as fiercely as we have fought," writes Tracy Carreon, relating 911 to the message of Christ. It is our responsibility to begin seeing the map of the world as the architecture of our own home, treating each room as we would the place we most cherish, as the people we most adore.  Stupid White Men March 30, 2002 Political gadfly and satirist Michael Moore has put his finger on the root of all evil: STUPID WHITE MEN. He unleashes his comic vitriol in these excerpts (The Guardian | Amazon) from his latest book. ... as I look back on my life, a strange but unmistakable pattern seems to emerge. Every person who has ever harmed me in my lifetime - the boss who fired me, the teacher who flunked me, the principal who punished me, the kid who hit me in the eye with a rock, the executive who didn't renew TV Nation, the guy who was stalking me for three years, the accountant who double-paid my taxes, the drunk who smashed into me, the burglar who stole my stereo, the contractor who overcharged me, the girlfriend who left me, the next girlfriend who left even sooner, the person in the office who stole cheques from my chequebook and wrote them out to himself for a total of $16,000 - every one of these individuals has been a white person. Coincidence? I think not. more But while Moore's book makes for a rollickingly wry ride, the rhetoric busters at spinsanity.org say many of his jibes are based on grossly inaccurate "facts." Still Starving in Afghanistan January 8, 2002 Despite the recent huge infusion of food aid, hundreds of thousands of people in remote, drought-stricken areas of Afghanistan are slowly starving to death for lack of easy access. "We have the staff and food to feed six million hungry people in Afghanistan, but we're still faced with security problems," [World Food Program spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume] said.  "There are bandits and warlords," she said. "It's not the easiest place to work." Taking Stock December 27, 2001 As the New Year approaches, The Independent takes stock of the response to 911 and the road ahead. The "war against terrorism" will never be won on the battlefield, any more than the Cold War was. . . .Victory will require true statesmanship, a realisation by the United States and its friends that their long-term interests are the same as those of rest of the world; and it will require a generosity to match. more Better Watch Your Step January, 2002 FBI agents are interrogating Americans with anti-Bush posters on their walls. Across the land, a "new McCarthyism" is descending. Attorney General John Ashcroft is rounding up or interrogating thousands of immigrants in what will go down in history as the Ashcroft Raids. The FBI and Secret Service are harassing artists and activists. Publishers are firing anti-war columnists and cartoonists. University presidents are scolding dissident faculty members. And rightwing citizen's groups are demanding conformity. Hear No Evil, See No Evil December 13, 2001 An American human rights delegation returns from a trip to Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan with lots to tell about the desperate situation on the ground. The reception by the mainstream U.S. media is less than welcoming. . . . back in the United States it was very hard to get on major TV shows or get in some of the major media, and, in fact, as we went around, calling and asking to get coverage, one of the only TV venues where we found a positive response was Al Jazeera.  Winning the War on Starvation Afghan girl waits for food December 12, 2001 With war all but over in Afghanistan and disorder on the wane, the World Food Program and other aid agencies can finally  "serve  6 million hungry people" with little obstruction. But as winter sets in and many Afghans cling to life by a thread, UNICEF still warns of a "worst case scenario":  . . . some 100,000 children might die in the coming six months unless enough emergency relief aid reaches them. “By ‘worst case,’ we assume limited humanitarian access and increased mortality rates, linked to preventable diseases and exacerbated by high rates of malnutrition,” spokesman Chulho Hyun said. For up-to-date coverage on all aspects of  the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, visit the United Nations website. Voices of 911 The Aquarian, Winter 2001/02 Our compilation of dozens of linked excerpts to what people around the world are saying in the wake of September 11. "Our country is strong," we are told again and again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that America is strong? But that's not all America has to be. Susan Sontag, The New Yorker Defying Terror The Aquarian, Winter 2001/02 September 11 has been an everyday reality in Israel and Palestine for generations. But while some people keep fueling the fire, others rebuild bulldozed homes in defiance of terror and as an act of  solidarity between Palestinians and Jews. But Shawamreh was not to give up. He defied the demolition by building a third, and subsequently a fourth time with the help of Palestinian NGOs and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD), a human rights group coordinated by an American-born Israeli Jew and professor at Ben Gurion University named Jeff Halper. Afghanistan's Opportunity shedding burquas in Kabul November 29, 2001 The fall of the Taliban and the political accord in Bonn raise hopes that tyranny and disunity will, at long last, be replaced by a broad-based  democracy in Afghanistan. But the road ahead is frought with peril.  If past is any precedent, warns veteran U.S. foreign policy critic William Blum, don't assume America will keep its promise to help rebuild Afghanistan. The United States has a long record of bombing nations, reducing entire neighborhoods, and much of cities, to rubble, wrecking the infrastructure, ruining the lives of those the bombs didn't kill. And afterward doing nothing to repair the damage. Crisis | Opportunity The Aquarian, Winter 2001/02 Operation Enduring Freedom, the War on Terrorism - these are today's  "tactical"  realities, argues Aquarian Editor Syd Baumel. More fundamentally, there are signs of a New World Consciousness struggling to be born. It could lead us to a Globalisation of Peace and Justice. But the means-justify-the-ends crowd seems intent on pursuing a violently self-centred path to justice, no matter the collateral consequences. For a moment, it looked like the de facto ruling powers of the world, not unlike the amiable, but tormented Mob boss Tony Soprano chafing and twisting in a psychiatrist's chair, might experience a moral awakening. The tension kept building; and "the conversation" kept (cautiously) flowing. But then suddenly on October 7, the wind changed. America sprang out of its seat, shouted f—k this! to the dissenters rooting around in its subconscious, and (ahhh . . . what a release) started ejaculating heavy metal on Afghanistan.  Canadian Conscience November 10, 2001 Canada's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, visits Pakistan to assess the plight of Afghan civilians and returns with a mission statement: "The problem is not unsolvable if someone would take a hold of it and make the decision that we can't let these people face this disaster. . . .We can't leave them alone; we can't be indifferent to their suffering or their plight."  The New Insecurity October 30, 2001 From "what, me worry?" to prayer and Prozac, Americans are handling the new insecurity in a diverse range of ways.  Businessmen who once pined for the penthouse corner office are now buying parachutes designed for anxious executives. People who spent little time pondering life's meaning have found themselves turning more to prayer. Some have even brought the war effort home, stocking up on rubber gloves and gas masks. Chomsky Speaks October 18, 2001 American foreign policy's most acute critic delivers his take on September 11 at MIT. Transcript | Audio. [T]he events of September 11 were a horrendous atrocity, probably the most devastating instant human toll of any crime in history, outside of war. . . . It was a historic event . . . because there was a change. The change was the direction in which the guns were pointed. That’s new. Radically new. "The Israelis Did It!" October 16, 2001 As September 11 conspiracy theorists take aim at their favourite  scapegoats, many Muslims reportedly believe bin Laden and company were patsies of Israel's secret service, Mossad. Charles Paul Freund pessimistically analyzes the allure of the theory and  suggests "If you can't beat absurdity, use absurdity":  . . .  a useful antidote to the "Mossad did it" story is a counter-version, circulated surreptitiously, that agrees that the Mossad did it to make Islam look bad and to foment conflict against Muslims, adding only that Osama bin Laden is the Mossad's knowing agent. Defining Terrorism October 7, 2001 Boaz Ganor offers a morally precise definition of who is and who isn't a terrorist - a definition upon which honourable combatants of all ideological stripes should agree. By narrowing the definition of terrorism to include only deliberate attacks on civilians, we leave room for a “fair fight” between guerillas and state armies. Thus we set a clear moral standard that can be accepted not only by Western countries, but also by the Third World and even by some of the terrorist organizations themselves. When such a moral distinction is internationally applied, terrorist organizations will have yet another reason to renounce terrorism in favor of guerilla actions.  A Pentagon Widow's Plea September 25, 2001 "For the last two years Craig drove to his job at the Pentagon with a 'visualize world peace' bumper sticker on his car," writes Amber Amundson about her husband, a casualty of September 11. She still shares his vision. I call on our national leaders to find the courage to respond to this incomprehensible tragedy by breaking the cycle of violence. I call on them to marshal this great nation's skills and resources to lead a worldwide dialogue on freedom from terror and hate.  Amundsun is one of at least several Americans aggrieved by the loss of loved ones on September 11 who have spoken out for justice without further victimization of innocents. Of Global Reach September 15, 2001 The globalisation of commerce and terrorism must be balanced and countered by the globalization of justice, argues veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery. [T]here is no safe place on earth. . . .  The Twin Towers are everywhere. . . . This is the reality of the 21st century that started this week in earnest. It must lead to the globalization of all problems and the globalization of their solutions. Toward a Terror-free World Nicholas Abbey proposes "six major principles" to battle the root causes of terrorism. Loose talk of a war to "rid the world of evil" lends dangerous credence to those terrorists who do believe the world is caught in an eschatological confrontation between the forces of good and evil.  Mindless Terrorists, Holy Heroes July 5, 2001 Mindless terrorists to most of the world, in some Islamic communities there is no greater glory. "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys," Ahmed says. "I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know." "Allahu Akbar," his classmates shout in response: "God is great." June 4, 2001 Muslim clerics are divided on whether the suicide bombers are sinfully suicidal or righteously self-sacrificing. Muslim Resentment September 27, 2001 "Why do they hate us?" Americans ask. The Christian Science Monitor travels around the world to get some tough, personal answers.  [F]rom Jakarta to Cairo, Muslims and Arabs say. . . .they do not share Mr. Bush's view that the perpetrators did what they did because "they hate our freedoms."  Rather, they say, a mood of resentment toward America and its behavior around the world has become so commonplace in their countries that it was bound to breed hostility, and even hatred.  Everybody Hurts September24, 2001 "There are a hundred ways to be a good citizen, and one of them is to look finally at the things we don't want to see," writes novelist Barbara Kingsolver. "In a week of terrifying events, here is one awful, true thing that hasn't much been mentioned: Some people believe our country needed to learn how to hurt in this new way."  What We Can Do The Center for Visionary Leadership offers a plan for spiritual and practical action. Open your heart to the human suffering from this attack, but also from the daily violence being suffered by many people in countries worldwide.