What can we do now for peace
by Ann Fagan Ginger
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 U.N. Charter, including the United States. Now, in 2001, 189 nations have signed and ratified the U.N. Charter.
Please get a copy of the U.N. Charter
- http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/,
- or from your 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 U.N. 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 U.N. to help extricate us from the results of our violations of the fundamental purpose of the U.N. Charter, which is to build a world in which wars do not happen, and when they start, they are quickly stopped.
1. On Sept. 12, 2001, the U.S. Government did immediately follow Art. 51 of the U.N. 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 U.N. 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
2.3
2.4
2. The U.S. President and DOD and Joint Chiefs then went outside the U.N. 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 U.N. organizations and which has NOT adopted the U.N. 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 U.N. 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 U.N. peaceful agencies in that area to distribute the food through U.N. 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 U.N. 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 bringing 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
P.S.: Don't give up because the Secretary General of the U.N. 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 U.N. cannot move peace keeping forces into a country without asking its permission. BUT THE PRINCIPLES OF PEACE MAKING ARE FU.N.DAMENTAL AND DOABLE.
And the U.N. helped bring about the downfall of the rich, successful, racist, undemocratic, apartheid government of South Africa with relatively few lives lost!
MCLI has been a non-profit corporation since 1965 and depends on the financial contributions and volunteer time of people who support its mission and work. Please join us!
Get on our new mailing list. Sign up to receive news from MCLI.