One major reason to call for the abolition of all war is that in the "technological age" it is civilians who do the majority of the dieing.
As we are seeing in Iraq today, where over 1.2 million people have died since the U.S. illegal and immoral invasion of 2003, it is the innocent who are perishing.
In WW I, for every 100 deaths, 95 were military and 5 were civilian.
In WW II for every 100 deaths, 33 were military deaths as compared to 67 civilian deaths.
Hitler used his V-2 rockets to strike the cities of London, Paris, and Brussels. Clearly civilians were the targets.
The U.S. introduced the mass fire bombing of cities like Dresden and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of civilians lost their lives.
Estimates for the total casualties of WW II vary, but most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.
Gino Strada, war surgeon and founder of Emergency Italia, with extensive first-hand experience in many modern war theaters, has argued that over 80% of casualties in modern high-tech wars are civilians.
There can be no such thing as a "just war" any longer. How could wars that kill innocent people who are not engaged in the fighting be called "just"?
We must call for the abolition of all war. It must be outlawed for a nation to spend their national treasury on weapons systems that end up killing women, children, and the elderly.
Like the abolition of slavery in the U.S., the abolition of war is a huge struggle that appears impossible to reach. But history reveals that such changes are possible if the people are single-minded and determined over time.
We must call for the conversion of the military industrial complex as our first-step in the abolition of war.
http://www.space4peace.org
Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.
He was the organizer of the Cancel Cassini Campaign (launched 72 pounds of plutonium into space in 1997) that was featured on the TV program 60 Minutes.
Bruce has been featured by artist Robert Shetterly in his collection of portraits and quotes entitled Americans Who Tell The Truth.In 2006 he was the recipient of the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker Award.
In 2003 Bruce co-produced a popular video entitled Arsenal of Hypocrisy that spells out U.S. plans for space domination.His latest video, shot in 2006, is entitled The Necessity of the Conversion of the Military Industrial Complex.
In 1968 Bruce was Vice-chair of the Okaloosa County (Florida) Young Republican Club while working on the Nixon campaign for president.
Bruce is a Vietnam-era veteran and began his career by working for the United Farm Workers Union in Florida organizing fruit pickers.
You take the money Profits out of war and make it illegal to finance a war with debt financing, You'd find that the interest in war would decline proportionately.
by
"Hoss" David P. (51 articles, 5 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 339 comments)
on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 4:49:47 PM
By we, I mean humankind almost did, in 1945, after two particularly bloody world wars had had a chance to make strong impressions on the minds of the citizens of the "free" or "civilized" world.
The United Nations was put together "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brough untold sorrow to mankind".
There are practical problems to abolishing war though. Peace requires agreement but war (like murder) can be started unilaterally and without agreement.
The United Nations sort of worked for a while because it gave the world's 5 victorious WW2 powers, the power of veto on the security council. To oppose force you need to use force unfortunately and that means finding it where it can be found.
by
Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 771 comments)
on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 3:04:15 AM
