17 march 2007: Peace Sign Demostration
Categorie: European Region
Today, the 17th March 2007, four years after the invasion of Iraq by the United States army, we can count...
- 3,468 deaths of US soldiers
- 6,283 deaths of Iraqi soldiers and police
- 64,729 deaths of civilians, the majority of which are women and children. (*)
Was this war that was so wanted and financed by Bush, Blair and Berlusconi, a humanitarian war and for the liberation of Iraq?
Is this the way they want to stop supposed Islamic terrorism, to destroy Al Qaeda and to detain Osama bin Laden (the family friend)?
Is this the way they were going to find the “weapons of mass destruction” (as dangerous as they were non-existent)?
Saddam Hussein was hanged, they never found the weapons, Bin Laden is free, the mission in Iraq is a huge failure... but President Bush, as spokesman for the North American arms trade and the oil industry is ready to:
- unleash an attack on Iran
- maintain high pressure and tension across the Middle East (Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria)
- maintain all the war fronts that are active across the oil regions from Afghanistan to Sudan.
- To launch a race for nuclear re-armament that has never been seen before in history from the Molin base in Italy, to new bases and control systems in the Czech Republic, Poland and Great Britain.
Europe will become the front line of the US National Defence System, but it will also be the front line of the control system and attack against the Middle East and Asia: a subordinate role of airbases and nuclear missiles for NATO – USA.
The 30,000 nuclear war heads, capable of destroying the planet 25 times over, will not only not be dismantled, rather they will be strengthened with weapons that are lighter, smaller suitcases that are more manageable and practical, 10 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, sufficient to flatten a city of 2 million inhabitants.
But the real future will be the armed control of space, the new frontier in which millions of dollars are already being invested: the one who controls space will be able to “shoot first and destroy their enemy”, directly launching the bomb that’s suspended in the sky from overhead.
Now, in front of this clear and demented strategy for war, imposed by specific interests... What international agreements would be able to force us to support terrible campaigns like the one in Iraq or like the current one in Afghanistan?
What agreement could be signed in open contradiction of the Non Proliferation Treaty, in open contradiction of the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in open contradiction of all logic and common sense?
If the General is crazy, the soldier can, must disobey.
This is one of the greatest virtues of the Human Being.
In many places around the world, in another 60 cities and capitals, in this moment, millions of people of common sense are saying:
- War is a disaster
- Occupying troops must be withdrawn
- Arsenals, and particularly nuclear ones, must be dismantled.
- NATO is an offensive organisation that is exposing its member countries to all kinds of reprisals.
The moment has come to ignore governments, industrial groups and lobby groups that propose war and violence as a solution to the difficult problems of a political, social, economic or religious nature.
The moment has come to consider war, as well as other forms of violence as “acts of offence to humanity” and to declare that there will be no peace without social and economic justice.
The moment has come to denounce the sowers of hate who instigate “civilising wars” and a “clash of cultures”.
The moment has come, like in Bolivia, to declare war “unconstitutional”, but above all the moment has come to apply those declarations to political practice and diplomacy, to start in Italy (Art. 11 of the Constitution of 1947)
The moment has arrived to build bridges of direct communication between peoples, learning from dialogue – real dialogue – the codes and languages of diversity.
Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, history will not absolve you; humanity will not forgive you for the wounds inflicted on those bodies... and the mistreatment of the spirit.
And, mercilessly, history will not absolve the Prodis, the D’Alemas and all those others who in a more subtle way and hiding behind ridiculous lies continue their terrible and endless task.
It is no longer enough for them to claim “fear” in order to recover the trust that has been lost, and not only of two MPs (**), but rather the more than half of the people of peace that have sustained you.
The one who sows winds, will reap storms. The one who sows bombs, will reap death and destruction.
We are sowing peace and nonviolence... we will reap better people.
It is the start. We are millions... There is hope!
Giorgio Schultze
Eurepean Humanist Regional President
European Humanist Forum Speaker
Rome, 17th March 2007
(*) www.icasualties.com or also www.iraqbodycount.com
(**) Prodi recently resigned as the Italian PM and forced a vote of confidence ensuring that his government moved further towards the centre-right using the frequently used tactic of making voters fear the return of the right wing.
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