Despite the relative scarcity of examples thus far of nonviolent resistance to foreign occupation, there are those already beginning to claim a pattern of success. Here's Stephen Zunes:
"Nonviolent resistance has also successfully challenged foreign military occupation. During the first Palestinian intifada in the 1980s, much of the subjugated population effectively became self-governing entities through massive noncooperation and the creation of alternative institutions, forcing Israel to allow for the creation of the Palestine Authority and self-governance for most of the urban areas of the West Bank. Nonviolent resistance in the occupied Western Sahara has forced Morocco to offer an autonomy proposal which"while still falling well short of Morocco's obligation to grant the Sahrawis their right of self-determination"at least acknowledges that the territory is not simply another part of Morocco.
"In the final years of German occupation of Denmark and Norway during WWII, the Nazis effectively no longer controlled the population. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia freed themselves from Soviet occupation through nonviolent resistance prior to the USSR's collapse. In Lebanon, a nation ravaged by war for decades, thirty years of Syrian domination was ended through a large-scale, nonviolent uprising in 2005. And last year, Mariupol became the largest city to be liberated from control by Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine, not by bombings and artillery strikes by the Ukrainian military, but when thousands of unarmed steelworkers marched peacefully into occupied sections of its downtown area and drove out the armed separatists."[xx]
One might look for potential in numerous examples of resistance to the Nazis, and in German resistance to the French invasion of the Ruhr in 1923, or perhaps in the one-time success of the Philippines and the ongoing success of Ecuador in evicting U.S. military bases, and of course the Gandhian example of booting the British out of India. But the far more numerous examples of nonviolent success over domestic tyranny also provide a guide toward future action.
To be morally right, nonviolent resistance to an actual attack need not appear more likely to succeed than a violent response. It only need appear somewhat close to as likely. Because if it succeeds it will do so with less harm, and its success will be more likely to last.
In the absence of an attack, while claims are being made that a war should be launched as a "last resort," nonviolent solutions need only appear reasonably plausible. Even in that situation, they must be attempted before launching a war can be labeled a "last resort." But because they are infinite in variety and can be tried over and over again, under the same logic, one will never actually reach the point at which attacking another country is a last resort.
If you could achieve that, a moral decision would still require that the imagined benefits of your war outweigh all the damage done by maintaining the institution of war (see the above section on "Preparing For A Just War Is A Greater Injustice Than Any War").
[i] David Swanson, "Study Finds People Assume War Is Only Last Resort," idswanson.org/node/4637
[ii] Nicolas Davies, Alternet, "Armed Rebels and Middle-Eastern Power Plays: How the U.S. Is Helping to Kill Peace in Syria," click here
[iii] Julian Borger and Bastien Inzaurralde, "West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside,'" click here
[iv] Farea Al-muslimi testimony at Drone Wars Senate Committee Hearing, .youtube.com/watch?v=JtQ_mMKx3Ck
[v] The Mirror, "Navy Seal Rob O'Neill who killed Osama bin Laden claims US had no intention of capturing terrorist," click here See also: ABC News, "Osama Bin Laden Unarmed When Killed, White House Says,"
[vi] The Washington Post, "Gaddafi accepts road map for peace proposed by African leaders,"
[vii] See isacrime.org/whitehousememo
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