January 2005

A human history not to be forgotten On 2 August 1990 Iraqi troops invaded and illegally occupied Kuwait. The United Nations Security Council reacted quickly. Four days later the most comprehensive economic and military sanctions ever pronounced against a nation were imposed on Iraq (1) . The 1991 Gulf War forced the Iraq Government to withdraw its troops from Kuwait. This fulfilled the conditions of resolution 661. Economic sanctions, however, were not lifted. Instead, the Security Council changed its conditions for the lifting of economic sanctions and decided in April 1991 to pass resolution 687 which demanded of Iraq the disarmament of all of its weapons of mass destruction (2). Throughout the years the Security Council became increasingly disunited on the question whether Iraq had fulfilled the disarmament requirements of resolution 687 (3). The result was that economic sanctions remained in place until the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in March...

By  A human history not to be forgotten On 2 August 1990 Iraqi troops invaded and illegally occupied Kuwait. The United Nations Security Council reacted quickly. Four days later the most comprehensive economic and military sanctions ever pronounced against a nation were imposed on Iraq (1) . The 1991 Gulf War forced the Iraq Government to withdraw its troops from Kuwait. This fulfilled the conditions of resolution 661. Economic sanctions, however, were not lifted. Instead, the Security Council changed its conditions for the lifting of economic sanctions and decided in April 1991 to pass resolution 687 which demanded of Iraq the disarmament of all of its weapons of mass destruction (2). Throughout the years the Security Council became increasingly disunited on the question whether Iraq had fulfilled the disarmament requirements of resolution 687 (3). The result was that economic sanctions remained in place until the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in...

LONDON – Why do military occupations rarely succeed? A study published in a recent edition of Harvard University’s “International Security” reveals that out of 24 military occupations examined only seven were a success and six of those came in the wake of World War 2 as the Cold War was emerging and concentrating minds. The Germans and the Japanese were war weary. Moreover, the allies were well prepared. During the war the U.S. had established Civil Affairs Training Schools which provided training in military administration, language and cultural knowledge of the countries they expected officers to work in. By now it is very clear that the U.S./British occupation of Iraq has hit insurmountable obstacles. Most of the unrest is actively provoked by their presence. Without the American and British forces there might well be violence, but it would not be constantly fuelled by the presence of foreign occupiers. It is...

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“A country’s violence, Hannah Arendt said, can destroy its power. The United States is moving quickly down this path. Do American leaders imagine that the people of the world, having overthrown the territorial empires of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are ready to bend the knee to an American overlord in the twenty-frist? Do they imagine that allies are willing to become subordinates? Have they forgotten that people hate to be dominated by force? History of packed with surprises. The leaders of the totalitarian Soviet empire miraculously had the good sense to yield up their power without unleashing the tremendous violence that was at their fingertips. Could it be the destiny of the American republic, unable to resist the allure of an imperial delusion, to flare out in a blaze of pointless mass destruction?“ – Jonathan Schell, The Unconquerable World, p. 346-347Related Feature Collections The US Empire – what future, what...

This collection contains pointed comments on various aspects of the second term of the Bush Administration. Bookmark it and check now and then the next four years: what was right and what was wrong, what was too ‘hard’ and too ‘soft’ as predictions? On imperialism Gore Vidal, In These TimesImperial amnesia or the United States of Amnesia… Ignacio Ramet, Le Monde DiplomatiqueBush second time around Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science MonitorOn foreign policy: how bold will Bush be?There is Iraq but new challenges also loom in Iran and North Korea. Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker and Information Clearing HouseThe Coming Wars.What Pentagon can now do in secret. Tom Barry, Laura Carlsen, and John Gershman, International Relations CenterThe next four years: A political forecast Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.comCreating a WIA – Worthless Intelligence Agency. Scott Ritter, AljazeeraThe Salvador optionThe Pentagon is considering the organisation, training and equipping of so-called death squads, teams of Iraqi...

LONDON – President Mahmoud Abbas is in a corner. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has lowered the boom on further negotiations, following the attack by Palestinian militants that killed six Israelis. Democratic legitimacy is obviously not on its own a strong enough tactic, either to win the ear of the militants or the Israelis. Abbas needs another string to his bow. One is reminded of the argument of Martin Luther King when confronted by the outburst of black rage – the big city riots, the rise of black power and the birth of the gun toting Black Panthers. Violence is not truly revolutionary, he used to argue, because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis that is followed by a sense of futility. This was certainly the case in America where President Richard Nixon gave a license to brute repression. And it appears to be the case in Palestine where...

Måske er Moder Jord vred? I så fald har hun gode grunde til at være det. De ubegribelige proportioner på den menneskelige tragedie i Asien giver os den bedste anledning i årtier til at tænke medfølende og dybere over hvordan vi handler, hvad vi planlægger og hvordan vi prioriterer på vor fælles klode. Hvis der i stedet for det nationale militære sikkerhedsparadigme havde været ét for global, menneskelig sikkerhed, havde vi formentlig ikke set noget lignende hvad angår død og ødelæggelse. Hvis regeringer havde haft en rimeligt objektiv analyse af hvad der truer ikke bare deres egne lande men menneskeheden og Jorden – og forberedt sig lidt på at imødegå sådanne trusler – ville redningsarbejdet være kommet i gang hurtigere. Hvis politik og økonomi handlede om mennesker og deres velfærd mere end om magt og økonomiske kalkuler, ville flere mennesker være i live i dag. Og hvis verden fungerede lidt...

Read also PressInfo 207 about the real tsunami scandal  Perhaps Mother Nature is angry? If so, she has good reasons. The incomprehensible proportions of the human tragedy in Asia offers us the most serious opportunity for decades to rethink deeply and with compassion how we act, what we do and how we make priorities on our common Earth. If instead of military security, human security had been the main paradigm, we would probably not have seen anything like this death and destruction. If governments had had a reasonably objective analysis of what threatens not only their own countries but humankind and the Earth – and prepared for it – the rescue work would have been better prepared. If politics and economics were about human beings and welfare, not about power and profit, more people would be alive today. And if the world was operating less on male-dominated thinking, chances are...

Måske er Moder Jord vred? I så fald har hun gode grunde til at være det. De ubegribelige proportioner på den menneskelige tragedie i Asien giver os den bedste anledning i årtier til at tænke medfølende og dybere over hvordan vi handler, hvad vi planlægger og hvordan vi prioriterer på vor fælles klode. Hvis der i stedet for det nationale militære sikkerhedsparadigme havde været ét for global, menneskelig sikkerhed, havde vi formentlig ikke set noget lignende hvad angår død og ødelæggelse. Hvis regeringer havde haft en rimeligt objektiv analyse af hvad der truer ikke bare deres egne lande men menneskeheden og Jorden – og forberedt sig lidt på at imødegå sådanne trusler – ville redningsarbejdet være kommet i gang hurtigere. Hvis politik og økonomi handlede om mennesker og deres velfærd mere end om magt og økonomiske kalkuler, ville flere mennesker være i live i dag. Og hvis verden fungerede lidt...

Read also PressInfo 207 about the real tsunami scandal  Perhaps Mother Nature is angry? If so, she has good reasons. The incomprehensible proportions of the human tragedy in Asia offers us the most serious opportunity for decades to rethink deeply and with compassion how we act, what we do and how we make priorities on our common Earth. If instead of military security, human security had been the main paradigm, we would probably not have seen anything like this death and destruction. If governments had had a reasonably objective analysis of what threatens not only their own countries but humankind and the Earth – and prepared for it – the rescue work would have been better prepared. If politics and economics were about human beings and welfare, not about power and profit, more people would be alive today. And if the world was operating less on male-dominated thinking, chances are...

Är Moder Jord måhända rasande? I så fall har hon bra anledning. De obegripliga proportionerna av den mänskliga tragedin i Asien ger oss den mest seriösa möjligheten på årtionden att tänka om på djupet; hur vi handlar, vad vi gör och hur vi prioriterar vår gemensamma värld. Om mänsklig säkerhet hade varit det huvudsakliga tankesystemet, istället för militär säkerhet, skulle vi troligen inte ha upplevt så mycket död och förstörelse som vi nu varit med om. Om regeringar hade gjort en någorlunda objektiv analys om vad som hotar inte bara deras egna länder utan mänskligheten och jorden – och förberett sig på detta – skulle räddningsarbetet ha varit bättre planerat. Om politik och ekonomi handlade om människor och välfärd, inte makt och vinst, skulle fler människor vara i livet i dag. Och om världen styrdes av ett mindre mansdominerat tänkande är chansen större att det skulle ha funnits en klarare...