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Meine Eingangsstatements als Teilnehmer am „Politischen Gespräch” des Ortsverbandes Harrislee der SPD am 8.10.2001 im Gasthaus Isabella, Harrislee, Süderstraße zum Thema “Terror &endash; Herausforderung des Friedens. “Gesprächsteilnehmer: Dirk Peddinghaus (BMVg), Klaus Peter Heldt (BGS), Wilhelm Nolte (draft), Leitung: Dr. Susanne Staemmler. Militärische Wahrnehmungen und Aussichten Für viele hat sich die Welt seit dem 11.9.2001, seit den Terrorakten in den USA, grundlegend geändert. Seit gestern sieht die Welt auch für mich anders aus. Bis gestern konnte man warnen, appellieren, fordern, besser wissen, Optimismen pflegen. Seit gestern müssen wir von Krieg reden, – der am 11. September 2001 begann. Mit Clausewitz &endash; und wenige Streitkräfte schätzen Clausewitz so sehr wie die US-Streitkräfte – beginnt Krieg mit der Verteidigung. Auch die Hamburger Kriegsursachenforschung spricht von Krieg erst dann, wenn wenigstens zwei Parteien &endash; ein Angreifer und ein Verteidiger &endash; gegeneinander kämpfen. Vor dem Gestern hatte der Gegner der USA nicht erkennbar militärisch operiert,...

What I’m concerned about are those people – of whom I think there are still pretty many – who say: “Yes, war would be terrible. Yes, the Iraqi people have suffered enough. Yes, we ought to do something else. But what can be done instead of war?” I shall address the little nagging feeling: what if this “bad guy” over there actually presents us, in five years or so, with a fait accompli, and he has some weapons with which he can threaten us? It doesn’t matter whether I think he wants to or will be able to, or not. Intellectuals have a duty to also the legitimate concerns of citizens. In addition, let me emphasise that it is never enough to say ‘No to war.! We must also be constructive and answer the question: If not war, then what? We must do so, because there is a problem and...

Artikel tryckt i Ordfront Inte behövs det en högerregering för att driva in Sverige i EU:s egen armé och in i ett Europas Förenta Stater. Det sköter den socialdemokratiska regeringen på egen hand utan debatt vare sig i partiet eller samhället i övrigt. Smygande förändras en tvåhundraårig freds- och neutralitetspolitik. Därtill helt ogenomtänkt! Var finns analysen av konsekvenserna? Var går gränsen för vårt deltagande i vad som i Sverige kallas civil krishantering men som i EU kallas “gemensam utrikes- och försvarspolitik”? Finns det överhuvudtaget någon gräns för svenska soldaters deltagande? Skall de strida för EU:s intressen i Mellersta Östern, Kaukasien eller Afrika? ÖB:s fråga om vad som gäller när krisen övergår i krig, är i högsta grad relevant. Dagens och morgondagens konflikter är i första hand etniska, religiösa och sociala. De kan aldrig lösas med varken stridsvagn 90 eller JAS-plan. I stället för att koncentrera sig på att söka upptäcka och...

LONDON – The dust has begun to settle in more ways than one. At last America is beginning to open up to a serious debate on the complexities of defeating terrorism. Even Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld spells out the difficulties of simply going to war. It reminds me of the great novel of the Portuguese Nobel literature laureate, Jose Saramago. In “Blindness” he describes how the inhabitants of a whole city become blind one by one. There is a universal emptiness of being, with everyone moving around like lost hungry dogs squelching through layers of excrement and refuse. “Blindness” wakes the reader up to the subtleties of everyday life- how we depend on a myriad of normal interactions everyday where we can see what we do and with whom we deal. For a couple of weeks it seemed that the American people, blind with righteous anger, led on by...

On September 12, the lives of the innocent and their place in the world came to an abrupt end through violence, and because this was terrorism, most of the victims did not have the opportunity to even know why. As a Muslim and a researcher in the fields of peace and non-violence, I find the taking of innocent lives such as this morally unacceptable on the religious grounds which teach Muslims that “whoever killed a human being… should be looked upon as though he had killed all humankind”. (Koran, V: 32). It also is unwise politically and probably will result in further consequences beyond common imagination as already evident in the beginning exodus of old and young Afghans from Kabul, and the attacks on and vandalism against Muslims around the world. This article is an attempt to suggest a way to deal with the terrorist acts already committed from the...

LONDON – Menachem Begin, the rightist Israeli politician, wrote in his account of the Jewish Irgun movement, active in Palestine against the British colonial power during the 1930s and 1940s: “Our enemies called us terrorists. People who were neither friends nor enemies, like the correspondents of the New York Herald Tribune, also used this Latin name, either under the influence of British propaganda or out of habit. Our friends, like the Irishman O’Reilly, preferred, as he wrote in a letter to “get ahead of history” and called us by a simpler, though also Latin name: “patriots”.” Yesterday’s terrorists can become today’s freedom fighters – – and in the Israeli case- today’s imperial oppressors. The very word fills us with dread yet it is replete with its own contradictions. The Russian czar killers were the first to bring the word into common political usage. But, ironically, although they claimed that political murder...

Is it possible for America to say ‘Sorry’? By JONATHAN POWER TFF PressInfo # 127 September 20, 2001 LONDON – How should the United States fight Osama bin Laden? It could start by saying sorry. Despite two centuries of rapid immigration pulling in people from all over the world, America remains a predominantly Christian nation. It is not a Jewish one and certainly not an Islamic one. It draws its inspiration from another book, mightier, it believes, than the Old Testament or the Koran, although it shares common roots with both these religions and worships the same God. If Christianity is not about saying sorry and turning the other cheek what, at the end of the day, is so special about it? We have a lot to be sorry for. After all it was Christian societies that practised slavery. It was a Christian society that tolerated the long persecution and...

Det er kun få forundt selv at rejse til konfliktområder og udvikle en egen forståelse og danne en egen opfattelse. De fleste er afhængige af dagblade, radio og TV. Derfor står medierne mellem os og begivenhederne. Hvad vi får er derfor ikke nødvendigvis en opfattelse af virkeligheden, men et billede af den, af en del af den, af nogle aspekter af den og vinkler på den og netop ikke af visse andre aspekter og vinkler. Det kan nok hverken være eller blive anderledes. Men! Hvad hvis dækningen er systematisk skæv, hvis der er en tendens i, hvad der dækkes og ikke dækkes? Nu er der igen en Balkankrise og igen er der nogen af os, som har været på åstedet i omkring 10 år, der spørger: har vi nu også en fri presse, som dem hjemme faktisk kan stole på ? Her kommer ca 20 spørgsmål/emner, som kunne have haft...

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) My first reaction was of incredulity: was I watching a movie or was this real? This was real. I was mesmerised. Then one of the Trade Centre’s towers collapsed. I fell deeply silent within myself, and an awareness of the suffering and grief all this was causing gripped me. Very many people are in deep grief for very many innocent lives have been lost by this act of terrorism, which was a dreadfully evil act. I uphold these people and all those in the administration of states who are responsible for responding to this crisis. Terrorism is indeed a threat to civilised societies and democracy and the following reflections should not be perceived as diminishing this conviction. My Buddhist training helps me to examine the causes of suffering and these include those causes of terrorism that are not entirely irrational. There is some basis for...

From articles in the Seikyo Shimbun, September 16 and 17 Ignorance is a dangerous thing. Without factual knowledge, stereotypes and the imagery they spawn invariably assume a momentum of their own, proliferating out of control. Just because the perpetrators of the appalling terrorist attacks are believed to be of Arab descent, I pray that people will not immediately jump to the conclusion that all Arabs are dangerous and that Islam encourages violence. It is in no way true that all 1.2 billion Muslims in the world are violent. Even the recent revival of Islam, which is sometimes confused with Islamic fundamentalism, is not a monolithic mass movement. The extremists constitute a very small minority; the vast majority are moderates. Obviously, every act of terrorism is reprehensible and wrong, regardless of its motive. Yet we absolutely must not treat terrorism as an inevitable consequence of faith in the tenets of Islam....

USA passerte noen år siden Romerriket i antallet militære intervensjoner i andre land. Av de rundt to hundre og tyve ganger USA har brukt militær makt mot andre stater kan muligens noen av dem forsvares ut fra Internasjonal Rett. De fleste er brudd på såvel folkeretten som de konvensjoner og lover som gjelder mår militær makt brukes. Dette gjelder såvel de midler som er benyttet som i hvilke situasjoner militær makt har vært tatt i bruk. Begge disse forhold er regulert i et flertall konvensjoner og avtaler. I tillegg har USA sjelden tatt hensyn til beslutninger i FNs Sikkerhetsråd, bortsett fra de ganger rådet har støttet USAs linje. I tillegg til de juridiske sidene ved disse overgrepene er mange av dem forkastelige fra moralske og politiske vurderinger. USA har vært militært aktive i alle verdensdeler i mange tiår og ekspanderer fortsatt med sine militære midler. NATOs utvidelse østover og den...

NATO vil ikke forlade Makedonien NATOs talsmænd understreger at Operation Essential Harvest i Makedonien er en meget begrænset mission, den skal kun være i Makedonien i en måned og kun indsamle 3300 våben. Det er ikke en overvågende, ikke en fredsbevarende, ikke en fredsskabende aktion. Og som vi har vist i TFF PressInfo 125 er det ikke en afvæbningsmission. Måske kunne man sige at det er en “indsaml-ikke-alt-for-mange-våben” mission. Når NATOs mission nærmer sig sin afslutning, må der forventes en intensiv media indsats for at understrege, at KLA/NLA/UCK har holdt deres løfte og afleveret 3300 våben. Det vil blive hilst velkommen af NATO og EU som et væsentligt skridt i retning af fred fra den side. Når man ser på sagens hele sammenhæng, er det imidlertid en meget rimelig hypotese, at begge parter vil anvende tiden produktivt til at anskaffe nye våben. Fordi: a) Makedonierne og regeringen har ingen som...