Peace is necessary. Therefore peace is possible. We live in a democracy.
We
must use democratic principles to bring about peace. Praying is good,
but it
is not enough. Walking and marching are good. But they are not enough.
We
have to take a huge step, each one of us, if we are to get to peace.
We have
to become true citizens of the world. We have to admit we are not the
king.
We are not in charge. The U.S. is not better or more important than
every
other nation.
AND
We have to begin to absorb the fact that the terrorist acts on Sept.
11 came
after many other terrorist acts in many nations in the recent history
of the
world.
SO
The nations of the world sat down in 1945, after 30 to 50 MILLION PEOPLE
HAD
BEEN KILLED in World War Two. And they wrote a list of steps to take
to stop
a terrible problem between two countries from becoming a world war.
These
steps are written into the United Nations Charter, articles 33 through
54.
And 50 nations signed and ratified the UN Charter, including the United
States. Now, in 2001, 189 nations have signed and ratified the UN Charter.
Please get a copy of the UN Charter -
www.un.org/Overview/Charter/contents.html, or from your local library
or
university, or from Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, or from the
United
Nations Association, and read paragraphs 33 through 54. And then write
an
email or a letter to everyone of your elected government officials
and
remind them that, when they took the oath of office, they swore to
uphold
the Constitution and laws of the United States. The UN Charter is part
of
"the laws of the United States" because it is a treaty, signed by the
President and ratified by 2/3 vote of the Senate. And, under the US
Constitution, every treaty is part of the supreme law of the land (Art.
VI,
¶ 2.)
That means the U.S. President, every one of the Senators and
Representatives, every Cabinet member, including the Secretary of Defense
and the Joint Chiefs - all are sworn to uphold each of the articles
in the
Charter.
Actually, the U.S. Government has been playing two roles, as it did
in the
deadly Vietnam and Gulf Wars. And, at the end of each of those military
engagements, the U.S. had to turn to the UN to help extricate us from
the
results of our violations of the fundamental purpose of the UN Charter,
which is to build a world in which wars do not happen, and when the
start,
they are quickly stopped.
1. On Sept. 12, 2001, the U.S. Government did immediately follow Art.
51 of
the UN Charter and report to the Security Council that it had been
attacked.
The Security Council met and discussed what is to be done at the
international level. It adopted Resolution 1368 calling on "all States
to
work together urgently to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers
and
sponsors" of the attack and that they "will be held accountable." The
Security Council called "on the international community to redouble
their
efforts" against terrorism, and expressed "its readiness to take all
necessary steps to respond to the terrorist attacks of 11 September
2001,
... in accordance with its responsibilities under the Charter...."
This
means that the U.S. must NOT take its own military steps in violation
of UN
Charter Articles 2.3 and 2.4. The U.S. must decide, with all
other 14
members of the Security Council, what steps should be taken, with the
goal
of Peace, not revenge and further war. Art. 51 - "Nothing in the present
Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective
self-defense, if an armed attack occurs against a member of the
organization, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary
to
maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by members
in the
exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported
to the
Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and
responsibility of the Security Council under the ... Charter to take
at any
time such action as it may deem necessary ... to maintain or restore
international peace and security." 2.3 - "All members shall settle
their
international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international
peace, and security, and justice, are not endangered." 2.4 - "All members
shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use
of
force against the territorial integrity or political independence of
any
member or state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes
of
the United Nations."
2. The U.S. President and DOD and Joint Chiefs then went outside the
UN
Charter and tried to act with other "friendly" nations to build support
for
U.S. military strikes against Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The U.S. called
up
many U.S. military troops and sent them overseas. This meant
they had to
ask many countries to permit U.S. troops and troop ships and airplanes
to
land or work from their soil.
3. Then the U.S., realizing that it needed more direct military support,
went to NATO, which is NOT part of the UN organizations and which has
NOT
adopted the UN Charter, or made a commitment to peace.
4. Next the U.S. went back to the Security Council, which promptly passed
Resolution 1373, which follows UN Charter Article 41, calling upon
all
nations to impound the bank accounts of suspected terrorists and to
take
other actions short of military actions in order to interrupt all economic
relations between other nations and Afghanistan because it is allegedly
harboring terrorists. Art. 41: "The Security Council may decide what
measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to
give
effort to its decisions, and it may call upon members of the United
Nations
to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruptions
of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio
and
other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations."
5. And the U.S. President asked Congress for appropriations for food
to be
sent to the Afghani people, in Afghanistan and refugees in border areas
of
nearby nations. And, since the U.S. does not have a method of distributing
these necessary food supplies within Afghanistan, it asked the UN peaceful
agencies in that area to distribute the food through UN High Commissioner
of
Refugees, etc.
6. Meanwhile, the President kept asking Congress for more and more money
for
new and old military weapons, precisely the kinds that are of no use
against
terrorist attacks.
7. And his Attorney General kept pressing Congress to pass limitations
on
clear rights spelled out in the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
that
were written by men who had just engaged in a successful uprising by
men not
in uniform who called themselves "Yankee Doodle," threw tea in the
Boston
harbor, and defeated the most powerful nation in the world at that
time.
These Amendments do not say they only apply to citizens and not to
immigrants, whether "documented" or "undocumented." They have led the
U.S.
to be respected, not hated. Seeking to apply these rights only to citizens,
or only to "white citizens" will not defend the U.S. Constitution or
diminish the threat of further terrorist acts against the U.S. Attacking
people who came to this country recently and have not become citizens
is NOT
legal. Call Meiklejohn Institute for the name of an immigrant
rights group
to whom you can refer people in need, or call the local National Lawyers
Guild.
8. We must insist that the U.S. take the steps agreed to in the UN Charter.
The legal and peaceful step to take to find and judge Bin Laden is
for the
U.S. immediately to sue Afghanistan in the World Court or other appropriate
international forum over its alleged harboring of Bin Laden, who allegedly
is the organizer of the attacks, and seek injunctive action by the
Court
ordering Afghanistan to give him up for trial immediately while the
case is
pending. This is exactly what the U.S. did when it sued Iran in the
World
Court in the hostage crisis and the Court immediately ordered Iran
to
release the hostages, which it did. And Nicaragua did the same thing
when it
sued the U.S. to stop mining the harbor in Nicaragua, and the World
Court
immediately ordered the U.S. to stop and the U.S. did obey the order.
9. We must also ensure that all young men and women who decided to "be
all
you can be in the Army" are informed of conscientious objector law.
Anyone
who is now having questions about whether they can, in good conscience,
obey
the orders they may be given to use weapons that will necessarily kill
innocent Muslim and Arab civilians has a right to consult someone about
CO
status based on religious or moral training and belief. Call Meiklejohn
Institute for the name of a CO counselor, or call Central Committee
for
Conscientious Objectors.
10. We must insist that the U.S. instantly stop bombing Iraq. It kills
civilians every time, especially children dying of malnutrition.
It is
illegal. It is not brining an end to Saddam Hussein's rule. It makes
many
enemies for the U.S.
11. We must insist that our Congressmembers and Senators spend the money
needed for federal aid to our schools, health care programs, low-cost
housing, unemployment compensation, and other basic human needs.
NOW, after the U.S. and U.K. have dropped bombs on the nation of
Afghanistan, killing some number of human beings who were not attacking
them, and have dropped small packages of food from high in the air
that may
or may not ever be eaten by hungry human beings, each of us must take
many
more steps than we thought we could to stop the bombing to work on
the
reasons for terrorist attacks to convince the people who were voted
into
office and the generals they were hired to oversee that PEACE IS POSSIBLE
BECAUSE IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY AND THE PATH TO PEACE IS THROUGH
THE
PEACE-MAKING PATHS SPELLED OUT IN THE UN CHARTER.
P.S.: Don't give up because the Secretary General of the UN does not
sound
like the President and order him to do or not do things. Don't give
up on
the Security Council because it acts slowly. It has members from every
region of the earth, and they all worry about what would happen if
what they
propose for country A might be used against them. And the UN cannot
move
peace keeping forces into a country without asking its permission.
BUT THE
PRINCIPLES OF PEACE MAKING ARE FUNDAMENTAL AND DOABLE. And the UN helped
bring about the downfall of the rich, successful, racist, undemocratic,
apartheid government of South Africa with relatively few lives lost!
--
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******* *******
Felicity Hill
Director, United Nations Office
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom