War on Whom?

15 September 2001

Pakistan has pledged its co-operation with the US in its campaign against terrorism.  However, if the action of the US becomes too extreme this position may be impossible to maintain. Pakistan, which shares a 2,510 kilometre border with Afghanistan, is the Taleban's strongest supporter and one of only three countries which recognise the regime.   Following an article in the Washington Times calling for the use of nuclear weapons against Afghanistan (see below) it should be pointed out that Pakistan is also now a nuclear power.  

In this context we welcome the formal statement below from EU heads of state, including Mr Blair. We choose to interpret this as confirmation that any 'action' which is taken against innocent people in response to the terrorist attacks in the US will not be supported. As the statement indicates - 'nothing' can justify such action.  

It is hard to see how the expedient classification of the killing of innocent people as 'collateral damage' can constitute anything other than a further grotesque example of the 'utter disregard for ethical values' to which the statement refers.  

NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex

"Nothing can justify the utter disregard for ethical values and human rights."
Statement from official Declaration of leaders of the EU nations, 14 September 2001, outlining EU policy in response to the bombings in the US 11 September, 2001

http://ue.eu.int/Newsroom/LoadDoc.cfm?MAX=1&DOC=!!!&BID=102&DID=67761&GRP=3753&LANG=1

UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights [extracts]
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
 
Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11507
War on Whom?
Michael Moore, AlterNet
September 14, 2001
Viewed on September 14, 2001 [extract only]

"......But I beg you, Mr. Bush, stay with the tears. Go today to comfort the wounded of New York. Tell the mayor, a guy most of us have not liked, that he is doing an incredible job, keeping the spirits of everyone up as high as they can be at this moment. Being there for a city I believe he loves, his own cancer still with him, he goes beyond the call of duty.

But do not declare war and massacre more innocents. After bin Laden's previous act of terror, our last elected president went and bombed what he said was "bin Laden's camp" in Afghanistan -- but instead just killed civilians. Then he bombed a factory in the Sudan, saying it was "making chemical weapons." It turned out to be making aspirin. Innocent people murdered by our Air Force.

Back in May, you gave the Taliban in Afghanistan $48 million dollars of our tax money. No free nation on earth would give them a cent, but you gave them a gift of $48 million because they said they had "banned all drugs."

Because your drug war was more important than the actual war the Taliban had inflicted on its own people, you helped to fund the regime who had given refuge to the very man you now say is responsible for killing my friend on that plane and for killing the friends of families of thousands and thousands of people. How dare you talk about more killing now! Shame! Shame! Shame! Explain your actions in support of the Taliban! Tell us why your father and his partner Mr. Reagan trained Mr. bin Laden in how to be a terrorist!

Am I angry? You bet I am. I am an American citizen, and my leaders have taken my money to fund mass murder. And now my friends have paid the price with their lives.

Keep crying, Mr. Bush. Keep running to Omaha or wherever it is you go while others die, just as you ran during Vietnam while claiming to be "on duty" in the Air National Guard. Nine boys from my high school died in that miserable war. And now you are asking for "unity" so you can start another one? Do not insult me or my country like this!

Yes, I, too, will be in church at noon today, on this national day of mourning. I will pray for you, and us, and the children of New York, and the children of this sad and ugly world."

"Who is Ousmane Bin Laden?"
Professor Michel Chossudovsky (University of Ottawa, Centre for Research on Globalisation)
on CIA sponsorship of militant factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html

"....Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that 'half of Taliban manpower and equipment originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI'. In fact, it would appear that following the Soviet withdrawal both sides in the Afghan civil war continued to receive covert support through Pakistan's ISI.

In other words, backed by Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) which in turn was controlled by the CIA, the Taliban Islamic State was largely serving American geopolitical interests.....

With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab were trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan...... the indirect beneficiaries of the Chechen war are the Anglo-American oil
conglomerates which are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin...." 

"Time to use the nuclear option"
Washington Times, September 14, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010914-87723680.htm

"The fight against the bin Laden groups will be a fight to the death, and this is another valid reason to make use of our nation's nuclear forces..... Should, God forbid, the United States withdraw from the Middle East and Persian Gulf, the terrorists will raise their sights to eliminate our influence elswhere in the world."

 "Pakistan revels in nuclear power"

"The chants of 'atom bomb, atom bomb' on national day provide a disturbing backdrop to the ongoing dispute with India over Kashmir, writes Luke Harding"

Guardian, Monday March 26, 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,463315,00.html

  A Political Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)
[posted to internet discussion list 8th May 1999 by Torleif Sleveland]
 
"This test consists of one multiple-choice question,"
Here's a list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of
World War II, compiled by historian William Blum:
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-99
Bosnia 1995
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999

In how many of these instances did a democratic government, respectful
of human rights, occur as a direct result? Choose one of the
following:

(a) 0
(b) zero
(c) none
(d) not a one
(e) a whole number between -1 and +1

  "I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend"
Abraham Lincoln
President of the United States of America
1861-1865  

NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex