Please feel free to reprint and redistribute. Sunday Journal, Washington DC, May 30, 1999 SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT Robert Naiman Memorial Day finds us at war again, with Yugoslavia and Iraq. The death toll from NATO bombing climbs, as NATO bombs hospitals and embassies by predictable accident and water and electricity facilities on purpose. The bombing of Iraq continues, as do the economic sanctions on Iraq's civilian population which have killed more than a million Iraqis since 1991. Holidays evolve. Veterans' Day was originally "Armistice Day," marking the end of World War I. Memorial Day originally honored Union soldiers killed in the Civil War. On this and future Memorial Days we should remember all the victims of war, not just those who carried guns, and dedicate ourselves to "seek peace and pursue it," in the words of Psalm 34. This is urgent because the United States is waging in Yugoslavia and Iraq wars designed to have no U.S. casualties. The bombing of Yugoslavia has been called a "coward's war," where we show our great humanitarian commitment by bombing from 15,000 feet. The public is not nearly so enamored of war as the saber- rattlers on TV. A recent CNN poll reports that more than 80% of Americans support a halt in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Yet the White House, committed to war, ignores public opinion, international law, and the U.S. Constitution. The Framers of the Constitution wisely reserved for Congress the power to declare war. In the Vietnam-era War Powers Act, Congress attempted to reassert its Constitutional role by setting a deadline beyond which the President could not commit troops to conflict without Congressional approval. Yet the deadline has passed, and the war goes on. International institutions have been unable to restrain NATO. When asked about NATO liability for war crimes, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said, "NATO is the friend of the [War Crimes] Tribunal... NATO countries are those that have provided the finances to set up the Tribunal, we are among the majority financiers." To stop war we must create institutions independent of governments and the news media. Attacking a country which is contemplating an expulsion of population can be destructive, because wars are often a pretext and cover for population expulsions and massacres. Some suggest that Milosevic calculated that a NATO attack would provide him the pretext and suitable environment for expulsions. Consider 1948 in Israel. Fewer Palestinians might have been expelled without the war, which consolidated the position of hawks in the Israeli leadership. There were divisions at the time -- the civilian population of Nazareth was spared because the commander of the Israeli forces refused the order to expel its inhabitants. The war swept aside the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have been much better for the Palestinians than actual result. WWII did not prevent the Holocaust. Occupation by Allied forces halted it after it was mostly complete. The war may have exacerbated the Holocaust, by strengthening Hitler's position, and sealing the borders which stopped the escape of refugees. In _The Myth of Rescue_, William Rubinstein suggests that the U.S. Holocaust Museum exhibit suggesting the Allies could have disrupted the Holocaust through bombing is very misleading -- for example, it uses an aerial photograph of a concentration camp which was developed long after the war. Some say we need an alternative besides NATO and "doing nothing," but there was an intervention before the bombing, which if insufficient, was not useless. There were OSCE monitors, aid groups, peacekeepers, and journalists, and these had a deterrent effect, which should not be discounted. I served in a small peace team in Hebron in the West Bank in 1996. We had no governmental mandate or assistance, and yet we stopped many bad things from happening. A conflict with international monitors, peacekeepers, and aid groups, is highly preferable to one of total war and no monitors. Whatever deterrent effect the threat of military force may have is eliminated by the actual application of force, leaving only the threat of more escalation. Any force to stop bad things from happening to civilians without making things worse has to be on the ground, not avoid danger, and have the protection of civilians as its sole priority. Participation in such a force should be voluntary. Such a force is most likely to accept danger and prioritize humanitarian concerns. It should not be offensively armed. It must not be controlled by the big powers. Many organizations seek to put this vision into practice, such as Christian Peacemaker Teams and Peace Brigades International. We should support these organizations. ------------------------------- Robert Naiman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Preamble Center 1737 21st NW Washington, DC 20009 phone: 202-265-3263 fax: 202-265-3647 http://www.preamble.org/ -------------------------------
