WAR ON TERROR doesn’t prevent but causes spread of terrorism - Call to act

Victims in
Rubble of Palestine
War on Terror Middle East
West allied against Palestinians

Government must recognize damage its wars have inflicted and change foreign policy accordingly

Editing, bracketed additions by Carolyn Bennett

Stop the War Coalition to government after Southeast London’s Woolwich district attack ─ never before launch of Global Perpetual “War(s) on Terror”

City Hall
Woolwich

“The balance sheet of the last decade and more would demonstrate that the war on terror has been a failure in its own terms. It has not prevented terrorism but caused it to spread” says a statement by Stop the War Coalition (convener Lindsey German), Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (General Secretary Kate Hudson), and CagePrisoners (Outreach Director Moazzam Begg). 

“T

here were no such cases (as the Woolwich attack) in Britain before the start of the ‘war on terror’ in 2001, which led to the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The consequences of those wars have been devastating for the people of those countries and further afield. Up to a million died in Iraq and 4 million were made refugees. Tens of thousands have died in Afghanistan. Fighting still continues and in Iraq looks like descending into civil war in some parts of the country.

War on Terror ─

…has also led to a rise in Islamophobia in Britain and elsewhere.

The invasion and occupation of mainly Muslim countries abroad has led to the dehumanizing of the victims of the wars.

Racists like the EDL turned up in Woolwich to try to further foster Islamophobia.

  

Wikipedia note: The English Defense League (EDL) is a far-right street protest movement that opposes what it considers to be a spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom. At many of their demonstrations, EDL members have clashed with counter-demonstrators, including supporters of Unite Against Fascism (UAF). [Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, with support from MPs of all mainstream UK political parties - including the current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. It describes itself as a national campaign with the aim of alerting British society to a perceived threat of fascism and the far right.

Stop the War Coalition statement continues

“We call on all everyone to resist any racist backlash as a result of this attack. 

We also call on the government to recognize the damage done by these wars [against the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan and Syria and other places] and to change its foreign policy accordingly.”

Civilian dead
Afghanistan

What the Coalition directs to the Britain’s government in light of the Woolwich incident, I repeat to the United States government.

The May 22 attack in Woolwich “was horrific,” the Coalition correctly responds. 

“There can be no justification for a murderous attack on an individual soldier in the streets of London. It must have been awful too for the local people who witnessed it [the assault].”

Wikipedia note: A district in South East London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Woolwich declined as a town in the late 20th century, starting with the closure of the Siemens factory in 1968 and continuing as the Royal Arsenal scaled back operations and finally closed in 1994; its demographics changed when major local employers left and depressed the local economy.

The Coalition reports that the “Woolwich attack carried out by two men now shot and wounded and under arrest in hospital appears to represent a phenomenon that was pointed out by the security services in Britain nearly a decade ago:

Victims of
War on Terror
Iraq

that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would lead to a growing threat of terrorism in Britain.

Many of us have long predicted that these sorts of attacks would happen because of the ‘war on terror.’

“T

he men [attackers] claimed that the killing of the soldier was in response to the killing of Muslims by British soldiers in other countries. One said that the government did not care for people and should get the troops out.

Royal Arsenal Gatehouse
Woolwich

“The response from the government has been to declare this a major terrorist incident. We do not yet know whether they had wider connections or whether this was a one-off [limited to a single time or instance] incident.

“T

he government response fails to deal with the political causes underlying such attacks. 

We call on the government to recognize the damage done by these wars and to change its foreign policy accordingly.

Sources and notes

“Stop the War/CND Statement: Woolwich killing of a British soldier,” May 23, 2013, Stop the War Statements: “Woolwich killing of a British soldier” Statement by Stop the War Coalition and CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]; Supported by Cage Prisoners

Statemenrt by

Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition

 Kate Hudson General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

 Moazzam Begg Outreach Director, CagePrisoners

Add your name to the statement on the Woolwich killing

Link: http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/2484-stop-the-war-statement-woolwich-killing-of-a-british-soldier

Stop the War Coalition

The Stop the War Coalition was formed on September 21,, 2001 at a public meeting of over 2,000 people in London.

Woolwich

Woolwich is a district in South East London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centers in Greater London.

Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created. It is notable as a river crossing point, having the Woolwich Ferry (and the lesser-known Woolwich foot tunnel) to North Woolwich, and as the one-time home of the Woolwich Building Society (now owned by Barclays plc).

Woolwich declined as a town in the late 20th century, starting with the closure of the Siemens factory in 1968 and continuing as the Royal Arsenal scaled back operations and finally closed in 1994.

Without major local employers, the local economy was affected and the demographics of Woolwich changed.

In the town center, department and chain stores closed and the sprawl of the town center shrank. The focus of shopping activity was limited mostly to Powis Street and the area around the market. By the early 1990s, the town center had the typical appearance of a town in decline—discount retailers and charity shops using the empty stores. The local council used several properties as offices. The last cinema, the Coronet, closed and in general Woolwich seemed to have lost its previous vigor.

2013 Woolwich: May 22, 2013, two British men armed with machetes and meat cleavers murdered soldier Lee Rigby close to his base at the Royal Artillery Barracks. The attackers asked shocked bystanders to take pictures of them and made efforts to justify their actions to the crowd, making no effort to escape.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwich

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Ban them all: bombs, tests, war ─ Johnson

Dr. Rebecca Johnson was speaking from Britain to Britain

What she says speaks also to the USA

Excerpt, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

Global nuclear disarmament strategies are coalescing to lay the groundwork for a multilateral treaty that will ban weapons of mass destruction for good but Britain appears stuck in a time warp, says the director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons.

Partisans' entrenched regress 

Dr. Rebecca Johnson says Britain’s “Liberal Democrat MPs have been hitched up to vain efforts to find a cheaper way to stay nuclear”; and when Labour Party Leader Edward Miliband should be demonstrating foresight and constructive alternatives for UK security without nuclear weapons, “he seems scared to pull the parliamentary party out of (former Prime Minister Tony) Blair’s short-sighted 2007 trap.”

U.S. Defense missile systems

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) ─ It can be argued, Johnson says, that despite its support by more than 180 nations, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has not entered into force.

Obstruction

“That is because some of the nuclear-armed states placed the structural bar for entry into force much higher than with any other comparable treaty. Early in 1994, UK diplomats originated and then pushed vociferously throughout the CTBT negotiations for the extraordinarily stringent requirement that every possible nuclear-capable state must sign and ratify the treaty before it could enter into force,” said Johnson. 

Note: As of February 2012, 157 states had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); another 25 states had signed but not ratified it. The United States is among the signers/non-ratifiers. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it.

 

“Unfortunately,” Johnson continues, “they were successful – the last kick of Tory opposition to the treaty before they were ousted in 1997.” However, the practical political fact is, she says, “that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has already worked better than expected.

“It has established a worldwide verification regime and turned nuclear testing from a high status demonstration of nuclear prowess into a pariah activity that responsible states cannot pursue.…

“Among the English,” Johnson writes, “… the Green Party has a clear, rational policy on nuclear disarmament.” 

Progress

Tough the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was not designed to prevent nuclear proliferation, modernization, or other dangers of nuclear weapons production and deployment; it “has undoubtedly constrained new nuclear developments,” Johnson writes

“The next step – and one that presents Britain with important choices for our future – is likely to be a new multilateral treaty to comprehensively ban the use, deployment, production and transfer of all nuclear weapons and provide for their verified elimination.

“This is the strategic objective of a growing number of national and international campaign networks, and supported by more than 140 United Nations member states.”

Sources and notes

“From banning nuclear tests to banning nuclear weapons ─ on the 60th anniversary of Britain’s first atomic weapons test, we need to consider the parallels between how the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was achieved in the 1990s and today’s nuclear challenges. The British government is, yet again, unable to read the writing on the wall” (Rebecca Johnson) October 3, 2012, http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rebecca-johnson/from-banning-nuclear-tests-to-banning-nuclear-weapons

Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D.

Dr Rebecca Johnson is author of Unfinished Business (published by the United Nations, 2009) and Trident and International Law: Scotland’s Obligations (Luath Press, 2011). She is director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Rebecca Johnson holds a doctorate in international diplomacy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials and a vice president of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) campaigns non-violently to achieve British nuclear disarmament – for scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system and preventing its replacement.

Recognizing that Britain’s nuclear weapons are only a small part of the problem, CND also works to secure an international Nuclear Weapons Convention which will ban nuclear weapons globally, as chemical and biological weapons have been banned.

CND works also to end Britain’s participation in the U.S. Missile Defense system and – with other campaigns internationally – against missile defense and weapons in space.

Other CND campaigns include opposition to NATO and its nuclear policies and opposition  to nuclear power, and the prevention and cessation of wars in which nuclear weapons may be used and the encouragement of non-military solutions to conflict.

CND is funded entirely by its members and supporters. Its policies are decided upon by its annual national delegates’ conference at which its national leadership is also elected.

Dr Rebecca Johnson has also served as senior advisor to the International WMD (Blix) Commission (2004-06) and as vice chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2001-07).

She lived at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp for five years (1982-87),  co-founded the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) in 1985, and co-organized Faslane365 (2006-07).  http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/rebecca-johnson

Wikipedia notes

UK’s Trident

Trident missiles are carried by fourteen active U.S. Navy Ohio class submarines, with U.S. warheads, and four Royal Navy Vanguard class submarines, with British warheads. The original prime contractor and developer of the missile was Lockheed Martin Space Systems. 

The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV).

The Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

One hundred and fifty-seven (157) states as of February 2012 had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); another 25 states have signed but not ratified it. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it.

The United States has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Ratification proponents say the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty would:

Establish an international norm that would push other nuclear-capable countries like North Korea, Pakistan, and India to sign.

Constrain worldwide nuclear proliferation by vastly limiting a country's ability to make nuclear advancements that only testing can ensure.

Not compromise U.S. national security because the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program serves as a means for maintaining current US nuclear capabilities without physical detonation.

Ratification opponents say:

The treaty is unverifiable and that others nations could easily cheat.

The ability to enforce the treaty was dubious

The U.S. nuclear stockpile would not be as safe or reliable in the absence of testing.

The benefit to nuclear nonproliferation was minimal.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on September 10, 1996.  It opened for signature in New York on September 24, 1996, when it was signed by 71 States, including five of the eight then nuclear-capable states.

‘Annex 2 states’ are states that participated in the CTBT’s negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time.

As of December 7, 2011, eight Annex 2 states have not ratified the treaty:

China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but not ratified;

India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed.

In 1998, India said it would only sign the treaty if the United States presented a schedule for eliminating its nuclear stockpile, a condition the United States rejected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Nuclear-Test-Ban_Treaty#US_ratification_of_the_CTBT

Images 

image: Building E of the Vienna International Centre houses the offices of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV), and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Images from Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, http://www.cnduk.org/home

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Passé persists — U.S./NATO “Cold War”

Lethal entrenchment in a world needing policies, movement nonviolently forward

Editing by Carolyn Bennett 

“The Cold War has been over for more than 20 years,” says Global Zero addressing member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Keeping U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy makes no sense.” 

These weapons are dangerous, useless, expensive, unresponsive to today’s actual security threats. They are relics of a bygone age. Remove them from Europe.  

Pakistanis protest NATO

Seize this historic opportunity to take the next critical step toward a world without nuclear weapons.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) opposes all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction: their development, manufacture, testing, deployment and use or threatened use by any country; and campaigns nonviolently to rid the world of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and to create genuine security for future generations.

Antiwar and antinuclear activist Kate Hudson (Dr. Katharine Jane Hudson) is part of The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She is a UK academic and political activist and General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 2003 through 2010, she was CND’s chairperson.

Hudson is a Visiting Research Fellow in the department of Social and Policy Studies at London's South Bank University and founding editor of the journal Contemporary Politics and member of the editorial board of Debatte: the journal of contemporary central and eastern Europe.

These are edited notes on the entrenched and lethal collusion of the United States and NATO discussed in Dr. Hudson’s recent article variously titled “Are NATO’s days numbered…” and “Time for NATO to face new realities.”

"Cold War Cheerios"
By Teacher Luke Piwoni

Ailing giant 

Behind times

Inspires Cold War itch

“The United States and Europe are experiencing massive economic crises, and the United States has been fundamentally weakened by its poor economic performance and lack of internal investment over decades,” Kate Hudson writes. 

Dynamic economic rivals have emerged; and, in an increasingly multi-polar world, it is clear that the United States cannot maintain its status as the single global superpower. Nor is it desirable that it should do so.”

Image at CND

While the ‘hostile-camp’ tension that existed with the Soviet Union has vanished, at least in theory, Russia remains the chief military counterweight and rival on a global scale to the Unites States and NATO. 

Many people fear that the U.S. missile defense emboldens U. S. impunity, attacking countries without fear of retaliation; and that U.S. adherence to missile defense threatens survival of the new START Treaty.

Though it has declined in many respects, Hudson writes, the United States “has increasingly used NATO to support and advance its global power projection; [and] whatever the changing rationale or the nature of its supposed enemies in the post-Cold War era, NATO’s core function has remained to advance U.S. global interests and foreign policy goals.” This was apparent when, at the end of the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact dissolved but the North Atlantic Treaty Organization did not.

“Rather than scaling back its military presence, the United States moved to fill the positions vacated by its previous rival. As countries of Eastern Europe embraced free-market economics and multi-party democracy, the United States moved rapidly — faster than Western Europe embraced Eastern Europe via the European Union — to integrate these countries into the U.S. sphere of influence via NATO expansion.”

NATO at Prague 2002

A big question is, Hudson says, “whether NATO states will continue to foot the bill.… How long can it go on like this?”

Contrary to established law

In face of concerns, fears of regress to Cold-War tactics

The nuclear policies of NATO are in conflict with the legal obligations of the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), she observes. “Articles 1 and 2 of the NPT forbid the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states; [but] US/NATO nuclear weapons in Europe are located in non-nuclear weapons states.”

Image at CND

Despite a recent softening of language on nuclear issues and gestures towards a nuclear-free vision, particularly from the Barack Obama government, “NATO has continued to assert its need to retain nuclear weapons: ‘The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies is provided by the strategic nuclear forces,’” states the new Strategic Concept. With it, NATO also hangs on to a policy of “first use” of nuclear weapons. “In other words,” she writes, “NATO would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike,” a position not lost on the Russians.

The 2010 NATO summit decision to integrate the U.S. missile defense system with a European-theatre missile defense program under NATO auspices has caused major relations problems with Russia, Hudson says. Moreover, in 2012, concerns persist among many peoples and nations “that missile defense will enable the United States to attack countries without fear of retaliation; and U.S. adherence to missile defense continues to threaten the survival of the New START Treaty on bilateral US/Russia nuclear reductions.” 

The STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. Signed July 31, 1991, and entered into force on December 5, 1994, the treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs (Intercontinental ballistic missiles), submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. 

 The START I treaty expired December 5, 2009; and on April 8, 2010, the replacement New START Treaty was signed in Prague by U.S. and Russian presidents. After ratification by the U.S. Senate and the Federal Assembly of Russia, the New START Treaty on January 26, 2011, went into force. (Wikipedia)

“The mood is changing at many different levels —

Image at
Stop the War Coalition

“The mood is changing at many different levels, Dr. Hudson concludes, and it is “time for the NATO leadership to face the new realities.”

Sources and notes

Global Zero, http://nukesout.org/

Image at CND

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

As a British campaign, The CND concentrates as first priority on British nuclear weapons but it also works with anti-nuclear groups in other countries to eliminate the global threat. CND is also present at the United Nations and other international disarmament conferences.

Among its external strategic objectives

Global abandonment of space weapons and missile defense programs; and an international agreement on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space
Elimination of British nuclear weapons and global abolition of nuclear weapons
Withdrawal of all U.S. military bases and nuclear weapons from Europe and no nuclear or other expansion of NATO
Establishment of Formal Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones in Europe
Withdrawal of Britain from NATO
Closure of all foreign military bases on British soil
Independent control and verification of plutonium, uranium and depleted uranium stocks http://www.cnduk.org/about/aims-a-policies

Image at CND

Funded entirely by its members and supporters, CND aims to

Change Government policies to bring about the elimination of British nuclear weapons as a major contribution to global abolition
Stimulate wide public debate on the need for alternatives both to the nuclear cycle and to military attempts to resolve conflict.
Empower people to engage actively in the political process and to work for a nuclear-free and peaceful future.
Cooperate with other groups (UK and internationally) to ensure the development of greater mutual security (http://www.cnduk.org/about/aims-a-policies)

Kate Hudson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Hudson_(activist)

“Are NATO’s days numbered waging war as the vigilante agent of US global interests?” (Kate Hudson), May 22, 2012, Stop the War Coalition, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/1421-is-it-time-up-for-nato-as-a-vigilate-style-agent-of-us-global-interests

“Time for NATO to face new realities: NATO’s core function is still to advance U.S. global interests and foreign policy goals” (Kate Hudson opinion at Al Jazeera), May 20, 2012

Al JAEERA note: “Dr Kate Hudson was chair of the UK-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from 2003 to September 2010, when she became general secretary. She is a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner nationally and internationally. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/05/201252081843426753.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I

Image

Cold War Cheerios WebQuest, By: Luke Piwoni, http://www.kewaskumschools.org/faculty/lpiwoni/cheerios_home.cfm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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