Europe says no to the “Space Shield” project
Presented as a defence system against possible Iranian missile attacks, the United States’ NMD project – National Missile Defence – known as the “Star Shield”, in reality is an offensive weapon and aims towards the militarization and control of space. As Noam Chomsky said, “the installation by the United States of a Missile Defence System in Eastern Europe is practically a declaration of war, an instrument for global domination.”
The project is surrounded by mystery with secret agreements between the United States and different European countries, sidelining public opinion and even European parliaments. Europe has not managed to give a unified, coherent and non-violent response to the aggressive policies of the United States and this inertia has contributing towards pushing Russia, who feels directly threatened by this North American project, towards the path of re-armament re-creating a “cold war” atmosphere.
In a moment of global economic crisis where the cost of food is growing incredibly and education and health-care are being dangerously privatised, it is madness to spend millions of Euros on war and the production of new weapons. In such a difficult moment of global history, Europe must not support any policy that pushes the planet towards catastrophe: the lives of millions of people are at stake. We cannot allow our politicians to support the absurd intentions of the United States to transform Europe into the theatre of a possible nuclear war.
Precisely in these days, Europe is participating in a silent consensus of the military occupation that the United States is doing in the Czech Republic. We express our solidarity with the Humanist Jan Tamas who has started a hunger strike in the Czech Republic to ask that the will of 70% of the population is respected and that the subject of installing a US military base on Czech territory may be decided democratically through a referendum.
We therefore ask every Government and the European Parliament to take a clear and decisive position, denying support for the Space Shield project because it puts in danger the peace and co-existence of our peoples.
We don’t want new military bases of foreign powers on European territory or the expansion of those already existing. We want the elimination of all nuclear arsenals.
Giorgio Schultze
President
Humanist International
European Region
Spokesperson of New Humanism in Europe