By
Woody Powell of ‘Veterans for Peace’
Dear Friends of Cuneo,
As you can easily imagine, the attacks upon the World Trade
Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. were the most heinous criminal acts ever
perpetrated on my country. I hurt for the people who died and with the people
who survived them; amongst those survivors I count a beloved cousin.
I understand and share, having gone through something like
it in my introduction to war in Korea, the succession of disbelief, dismay,
fear, grief and anger pushed to rage visited upon us as a people. In my own
case, after the rage, came the return of sanity, thank God. We need to be sane to effectively confront and defeat
terrorism. Indeed it is to our advantage, because terrorists are
still in their rage and locked into the rigid thinking of fundamentalism.
I believe it is our
governments’ obligation to combat terrorism in such a way as not to re-create
the conditions that produced it in the first place. That means,
among other things, having to know what those conditions were and how they
occurred. That means understanding the terrorist. "Know thy enemy."
Whenever I get to this point, the accusation is that I am
excusing the act itself. Let me say, categorically, that understanding the motive does not excuse the act.
It does, however, give us an insight as to what
we can do to improve national and international security.
NOW THAT WE ARE BOMBING AFGHANISTAN, the imperatives are
even more urgent and changing rapidly. There are millions of Afghanis in danger
of starvation and death from exposure because food and supplies cannot reach
them while the bombing goes on. I believe we must stop the bombing and turn our
attention to relieving this humanitarian disaster. Our
considerable resources should be put to the relief of human suffering - not the
creation of more suffering.
I do not think we should invade with soldiers, because it
will commit the region to another long-term conflict without hope of eventual
stability. I think we should back off, swallow
our pride, our thirst for vengeance, and take the more circuitous and difficult
course of developing dialogue with our opponents. In other words, practice
diplomacy.
If we can't do it ourselves, we should invite
a third party to the table and submit ourselves to a process we might not
control completely. It's tough for America to think that way - but then,
it's tough for individuals who, in order to preserve and enhance personal
relationships, must swallow hard and generate the necessary humility -- and
maturity -- to subject themselves to arbitration.
Part of this process should include bringing the criminals
who attacked us to justice. I would like to see the UN put in charge of such an
operation and empowered to carry it out.
I would like to see a trial in a world
court.
Any plan would include a serious study of our relationships
with the people of the world, not just their governments; such governments are
often propped up and unpopular. Our mutual
survival demands finding ways to be a better global co-habitant..
There are reasons a large segment of the world sees us as
opportunistic extractors of vital resources, rather than quid-pro-quo traders
on an open market. We need to know
them. We need to change perceptions, not with
Public Relations gimmickry, but with a change of attitude and mutually
negotiated policies with our neighbors.
Our members are engaged all over this country, carrying out
educational programs to give people the ability to examine public policy
critically, writing editorials, speaking before student groups - any groups who
will hear us, in fact - seeking the answers together to questions like, "Why do they mistrust and fear us
so?" And abroad, in
cooperation with the local people, we engage in projects to alleviate the
damage caused by wars. In Iraq, for example, we have rebuilt water treatment
plants, bringing drinkable water to 60,000 Iraqi citizens.
We are researching, conferencing, trying to determine the
best way to guide our democracy to improve the
world's security by working toward a time when terrorism is no longer
considered the final option of the hopeless.
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CONTRIBUTION TO
THE WORLD PEACE OF A “VETERAN FOR PEACE”
This letter was
written by Woody Powell, American veteran of the Korean War and National Administrator of Veterans for Peace, Inc., founded in the USA, in 1985, to promote non-violent
responses to the world’s problems, and to abolish war as an instrument of
international policy.
This
advertisement is sponsored by a Japanese peace movement “Global Peace Campaign” (www.peace2001.org) and
by a Italian peace movement “PeaceLink”
(www.peacelink.it/
).
The Global Peace Campaign realizes a variety of
activities and projects. The most recent project in these days is the “Global
Peacemaker Award”, intended to promote people who contribute most, with their
original ideas and deeds, to the elimination of terrorism and wars. For more
information, please see: www.peace2001.org