As Long As Citizens Remain Ignorant, Gov'ts Will Blunder Into War

[Hissyspit]

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?opedpg=http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2006/10/26_krieger_thinking.htm&opedid=25008

From Nuclear Age Peace Foundation:

Can We Change Our Thinking?
by David Krieger, October 26, 2006

It is a privilege to return to Nagasaki for this third Global Citizens' Assembly to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons. I am convinced that it is only by the actions and initiatives of citizens leading leaders that humanity shall bring nuclear weapons, its most deadly invention, under control.

I want to return to what may seem an old theme, but one that remains critically important. More than fifty years ago, Albert Einstein warned, "The splitting of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." I would like to explore what Einstein meant in reference to changing our "modes of thinking."

I believe Einstein was referring to humankind's continued reliance on force as a means of settling differences as the old way of thinking. He believed that in the Nuclear Age reliance on force was pushing us toward catastrophe. Einstein's warning was a recognition that with the advent of nuclear weapons, the use of force - a long-standing currency in the international system - placed not only countries but civilization and even humanity itself at risk, making force as a means of resolving disputes between nations too dangerous to be acceptable. If we are to move away from reliance on force to resolve conflicts, we must substitute something else in its place. What must take the place of threat or use of force is honest diplomacy, a willingness to engage in continuous dialogue with the goal of resolving even major differences between nations. That was the purpose for which the United Nations was created in June 1945, less than a month before the first test of an atomic weapon by the United States.

The United Nations sought to "end the scourge of war." To achieve this, the UN Charter prohibits the use of force except in the limited circumstance of self-defense, and then only until the United Nations can take control of the situation, or when authorized by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

Unfortunately, the United Nations has not been very effective in prohibiting the threat or use of force. This is largely due to its structure, which gives special power to the five permanent members of the Security Council. These states can cast a veto on actions that would subject their behavior to appropriate scrutiny and control. Despite the bold opening words of the UN Charter, "We, the Peoples," the UN is not a Peoples Parliament. Rather, it is a club of nation-states, and its most powerful members play by a different set of rules than do the other members.

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[opihimoimoi]

1. Someone long ago said THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

Still holds true...we just need reminding....