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Archive for category International Law

Global Peace and Human Security: Are We the People and Global Leaders at a Crossroads? By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

Global Leaders lack an Understanding of Nature,  Peace, and Human Security

 

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja

 

 

 

To manifest global peace and human security, We, the People of conscience, ask for a reasoned dialogue for peace between all the warring parties. There is no place for complicity to maintain ignorance of the atrocities and emerging calamities of an acrimonious spell of violence and madness on either side. The superiority of intellect and information are simply imperatives of necessity, not the soul of human compassion and universal kindness. Cynicism about politicians is endemic. Mikhail Gorbacheve died this week but his legacy offers opportunities for political openness to change in Russia if collective efforts are implied to rebuild the trust between the contemporary belligerent actors. The Chernobyl nuclear meltdown is not forgotten or forbidden from recent memory as were the nuclear incidents in Japan and Three Mile Island, NY. We, the People of the world will continue to witness the unthinkable consequences of human fatalities and environmental impacts for ages to come.  Scientists and engineers specializing in nuclear reactor technology must have imagined theoretical and conceptual perfection of security and peace on this planet. Not so at Zaphornizhia (Ukraine) nuclear station. Now under Russian control, it is posing a critically ferocious problem according to the IAEA (Geneva) team that visited the site, calling ‘the security and integrity of the plant violated.’  Its volatility is a serious concern to all if another meltdown happens. The competing forces would start the blame games while human peace and security would be at crossroads.

It is repulsive to suppose universal harmony can be enhanced by profligacy, malevolence, and horrors and miseries for unthinkable multitudes. The IAEA team took more than two weeks just to visit the epicenter of the alleged nuclear disaster. How could the UNO or any of its agencies assure global humanity of its safety and survival in a nuclear meltdown? The current global institutions have a serious problem with integrity, relevance, and effectiveness. Why did the UNO Security Council fail to convene an emergency session and designate the nuclear establishments as “Safe Zones”, and ‘out of bounds’ for all military engagements? The people around Zaphorzhia breathe fear and sleep with the invisible horrors of radiation and nuclear meltdown. The fear could dehumanize people all over the globe.

Despite the reality of the catastrophic events of the World War II, most global leaders claiming greatness of mind and vision have lost the moral and intellectual path of political farsightedness and accountability.  The EU and NATO and their regionalized and ethno-nationalistic propositions are fast becoming contentious issues of peace and security between the Russian Federation and the Western nations. People with knowledge and wisdom cannot make animosity as a trade to endanger our future.

Nature Peace GIF - Nature Peace Calm - Discover & Share GIFs

 

NATO and the EU are regionalized organizations and their advisors lack imagination of global peace and security. We, the People witness a present devoid of reason and rationality often fearing the coming of an apocalyptic ending of a completely decadent human civilization. Some mythologists as the World Economic Forum advisor Yuval Noah Harari,  explains Emily Mangiaracina (“World Economic Forum Adviser Claims the Planet No Longer Needs the ‘Vast Majority’ of the Population” Global Research: 8/12/22), argues beyond the capacity of human nature:  that the world does not “need the vast majority” of the current population due to technological advances. Harari made the bold declaration in an interview with Chris Anderson, head of the popular TED media group, echoing past predictions of a “useless class” of “unemployable” humans.

To this author, the cataclysmic nature of human intellect is unleashing a highly irrational and unthinkable world of complexity to come into our consciousness, destroying all progress and achievement of any human civilization on this planet. Most human intellect knows the basic imperative: “if you THINK intelligently, you could find workable remedies to human problems.”

Global Leaders Must THINK of Effective Communication to Resolve Emerging Problems

Despite the leaders of Iran and Turkey having a working relationship with President Putin regarding the supply of grain via the Black Sea and prospects of meetings for peace talks, no other Western leaders took the initiative to break their strange silence and come out of the box to articulate a New Vision for political change and start talking to Russian and Ukrainian leaders for an immediate ceasefire and peace process.  All parties could well use the common phenomenon and threat of nuclear arsenals / hydrogen bombs or mother of bombs to annihilate human beings and habitats in few seconds, if not minutes.

The failure of global leadership and institutions more so of the UNO signals dubious conceptions of right and wrong, good and evil in problem-solving in Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Kashmir and Palestine are the outcomes of consequential military invasions and aggression that kill people and destroy Earth. History illustrates when a nation or its leaders challenge the limits of the Laws of God and approach the end of their lifespan, insanity overtakes common sense and they tend to ignore warnings and reject all Voices of Reason.

The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life and existence to all other living beings. When nations and leaders subscribing to political absolutism start acting like God and challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God; historically speaking, they become an object of unthinkable natural calamities- earthquakes, wildfires, floods, deaths and destruction. The Divine Revelations (The Qur’an: 40: 64), remind us, of who we are and what relationship we enjoin to Earth and its sustenance that supports our life and existence:

It is God Who made for you the Earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy;
And has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful,
And has provided for your Sustenance, of things pure and good;
Such is God your Lord. So Glory to God,
The Lord of the Worlds.

 

 

 

 

Global Humanity Rejects Military Conquests and Demands Peace, Security and Co-Existence

The sanctity of human life is grounded in the realization of peace, dialogue, and co-existence. The on-going onslaught between Russia-Ukraine and the West makes no sense to rational thinking and political accountability. Appearing more like spectators, American, European and NATO leaders pay their lip service to aid Ukraine is mere a repetitive cry for public consumption.

If time and history are a reference point to avoid any conflict between Man and the Nature of things, we must comprehend how the planet Earth exists and moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second that is 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. How do all living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? The NEED is urgent to understand the natural equilibrium of relationship between Man, Life and God – given the living Universe in which we all co-exist harmoniously. Modern wars represent sadistic minds to undermine and destroy all that is built over the ages that we call human cultures and civilizations. All of the Monolithic Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) reveal the truth of “Trust” – human beings took to be responsible and be at peace with the Nature of Things – the living Planet Earth. This TRUST and its reminder are explicitly mentioned in (The Qur’an, Chapter 33: 72):“We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth; And the mountains but they refused; To undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it; He was indeed unjust and foolish.”    

German philosopher Immanuel Kant(“Perpetual Peace”, 1795), was more proactive and a realist when he noted that:  “Intellectuals must be seated in chosen assemblies and systems of public governance to overt individualistic insanity against the people.”  Viewing the perpetuated chaos and nationalistic ideals of the few, no matter how time exists in a frozen leadership intellect, this author recently proposed a strategy of communication to global leaders to resolve the conflict on both sides of the iron curtain: “https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2022/04/19/ukraine-russia-and-the-easter-of-insanity.php and https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/151200-easter/ 4/19/2022:

To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO should have a direct face to face communication with President Putin. …….It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering is reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict.  Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal. 

Can we THINK to be human first in all of our moral, political and intellectual endeavors?

Can we look at the mirror and critically see ourselves – who we are and why have we become so stagnated in moral, spiritual and intellectual values to destroy our own existence by our own complicity?  Can we see the mirror with a collective conscience and realize as if there were no people of REASON and accountability populating Planet Earth?  What kind of nuisance discovery it could be if other intelligent species from outer space ( as indeed there are living beings in other planets), come to visit our Earth and its advanced knowledge-based species and their AI weapons, visual constructs and magic of conquests claiming to be the master of their destiny and sustainable future, and given the sophisticated missiles, nuclear arsenals and mother of bombs so well placed comfortably that nothing could disrupt their lifelines except animosities, wars and wickedness to destroy their own existence on this Earth.


Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and is the author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Germany, 12/2019.

 

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Nuclear Chutzpah By Eric Margolis

Nuclear Chutzpah

By Eric Margolis

May 07, 2018

 

 

 

‘Chutzpah’ is a wonderful Yiddish word that means outrageous nerve, or unmitigated gall.

This week’s Chutzpah Award goes to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Standing in front of props of data files and cd’s, Netanyahu claimed Israel’s renowned Mossad spy agency had stolen a small mountain of secret Iranian nuclear data from a warehouse in Tehran.

The never-understated Netanyahu claimed that the purloined material proved that Iran was lying about having halted its covert nuclear program and must not be trusted.

Netanyahu’s supposed nuclear bombshell was likely the warm-up act for President Donald Trump to reject Iran’s nuclear freeze deal with the US, Russia, China, Germany, and France, blessed by the UN and the European Union. The only thing Trump apparently hates more than Muslims is his predecessor, former President Barack Obama (whom he accused of being a secret Muslim). The Iran nuclear deal was the most important foreign policy accomplishment of the Obama administration.

Netanyahu repeatedly warned the world about Iran’s alleged nuclear arsenal while making no mention at all of Israel’s own large, secret nuclear arsenal, which is believed to comprise of over 100 warheads, perhaps even several hundred, that can be delivered by aircraft, missiles and submarines. Every Mideast nation can be hit by Israeli nukes as well as Russia, which some experts say is or was on Israel’s target list.

Trump, of course, made no mention of the awkward fact that Israel had stolen much of its nuclear technology and uranium from the United States, sometimes with the connivance of very senior US government officials. France, that paragon of world peace, had the rest.

Listening to Netanyahu accuse Iran of hiding secret nuclear facilities was a pure pot calling the kettle black. Israel’s early nuclear program at Dimona in the Negev desert was entirely concealed from US and UN inspectors, including fake walls in the nuclear complex that completely fooled them. When Netanyahu accused Iran of cheating, he knows of what he speaks.

Most of what Netanyahu ‘revealed’ about Iran’s alleged nuclear program was old stuff, dating back to 1999-2003 and readily available in reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency. This respected UN agency now reports that Iran has fulfilled all of its commitments and abandoned its earlier nuclear program that did not produce any weapons before it was ended.

But facts don’t matter in this Trump-produced, made-for-TV drama. The key point is that with the naming of Michael Pompeo as US Secretary of State, and appointment of the rightwing fanatic John Bolton as US national security advisor, Israel’s rightwing government has completed its virtual takeover of US Mideast policy. As I’ve previously written, Trump looks more and more like a Trojan Horse for Netanyahu and his extremist allies.

 

Dimona-Israel Nuclear Program-Actual Nuclear Bombs are kept near Airbases such as one around Accor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides Pompeo and VP Mike Pence, both ardent Christian Zionists, and Bolton, Trump now has around him the UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, of Indian origin, who is the darling of the US far right and a handmaiden of arch-pro Israel billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, a major bankroller of the Republican Party. Add in Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and, of course, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law. In short, an amen-chorus for Israel’s far right.

This American Israel-first coalition has joined Netanyahu’s Likud alliance in pressing for war against Iran. The first skirmishes have already begun with over 100 Israeli air attacks on Syria, ostensibly against Iranian positions. A great propaganda hue and cry against the purported dangers of Iran is being raised in the US and Europe. According to Israel’s right, Assyrian hordes are about to engulf Israel.

 

 

 

 

In reality, Iran has very little offensive power. Like Iraq before it, Iran is militarily dilapidated with 40-year old equipment, a largely grounded air force, little artillery and poor communications. Tehran has a few inaccurate missiles but no nuclear warheads.

Israel’s powerful air force could easily turn any attacking Iranian forces into chopped falafel. Iran’s only strength is defensive, in urban combat or mountainous terrain. Iran has no capability to seriously threaten Israel except by aiding the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in showering northern Israel with light artillery rockets, a nuisance rather than a mortal danger.

Israel is moving to repeat its triumph in 2003 when the Bush administration, US partisans of Israel, and dishonest US media pushed the nation into a war of pure aggression against Iraq. Israel emerged the victor from this unprovoked war and is trying to repeat its success again with Iran.

Overthrowing Iran’s Islamic Republic would leave Israel the unchallenged power in the Mideast.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation – Pakistan, Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia.https://ericmargolis.com/

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The End of International Law? by Thierry Meyssan

The End of International Law?

by Thierry Meyssan
The war against the Greater Middle East should end with the withdrawal of US troops within
the next six months. And yet nothing proves that peace will settle
in each of the countries that were invaded. Today we are witnessing what
seems to be a tactic to get rid of the international law.
Will this consolidate a division of the world into two parts,
or will it open to a generalised conflict?

Do the Western powers hope to put an end to the constraints of International Law? That is the question asked by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergueï Lavrov, at the Moscow conference on International Security [1].

Over the last few years, Washington has been promoting the concept of « unilateralism ». International Law and the United Nations are supposed to bow to the power of the United States.

This concept of political life is born of the History of the United States – the colonists who came to the Americas intended to live as they chose and make a fortune there. Each community developed its own laws and refused the intervention of a central government in local affairs. The President and the Federal Congress are charged with Defense and Foreign Affairs, but like the citizens themselves, they refused to accept an authority above their own.

Bill Clinton attacked Yugoslavia, blithely violating Internal Law. George Bush Jr. did the same by attacking Iraq, and Barack Obama by attacking Libya and Syria. As for Donald Trump, he has never hidden his distrust of supra-national rules.

Making an allusion to the Cebrowski-Barnett doctrine [2], Sergueï Lavrov declared: « We have the clear impression that the United States seeks to maintain a state of controlled chaos in this immense geopolitical area [the Near East], hoping to use it to justify the military presence of the USA in the region, without any time limit, in order to promote their own agenda ».

The United Kingdom also seem to feel quite comfortable with breaking the Law. Last month, it accused Moscow in the « Skripal affair », without the slightest proof, and attempted to unite a majority of the General Assembly of the UN to exclude Russia from the Security Council. It would, of course, be easier for the Anglo-Saxons to unilaterally rewrite the Law without having to take notice of the opinions of their opponents.

Moscow does not believe that London took this initiative. It considers that Washington is calling the shots.

« Globalisation », in other words, the « globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values », has created a class society between states. But we should not confuse this new problem with the existence of the right to a veto. Of course, the UNO, while it declares equality between states whatever their size, distinguishes, within the Security Council, five permanent members who have a veto. This Directorate, composed of the main victors of the Second World War, is a necessity for them to accept the principle of supra-national Law. However, when this Directorate fails to embody the Law, the General Assembly may take its place. At least in theory, because the smaller states which vote against a greater state are obliged to suffer retaliatory measures.

La « globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values » ignores honour and highlights profit, so that the weight of the propositions by any state will be measured only by the economic development of its country. However, over the years, three states have managed to gain an audience to the foundations of their propositions, and not in function of their economy – they are the Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (today under house arrest in his own country), the Venezuela of Hugo Chávez, and the Holy See.

The confusion engendered by Anglo-Saxon values has led to the financing of intergovernmental organisations with private money. As one thing leads to another, the member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for example, have progressively abandoned their propositional power to the profit of private telecom operators, who are united in a « consultative committee ».

« Communication », a new name for « propaganda », has become the imperative in international relations. From the US Secretary of State brandishing a phial of pseudo-anthrax to the British Minister for Foreign Affairs lying about the origin of Novitchok in the Salisbury affair, lies have become the substitute for respect, and cause general mistrust.

During the first years of its creation, the UNO attempted to forbid « war propaganda », but today, it is the permanent members of the Security Council who indulge in it.

The worst occurred in 2012, when Washington managed to obtain the nomination of one of its worst war-hawks, Jeffrey Feltman, as the number 2 of the UNO [3]. From that date onward, wars have been orchestrated in New York by the very institution that is supposed to prevent them.

Russia is wondering today about the possible desire of the Western powers to block the United Nations. If this is so, it would create an alternative institution, but there would no longer be a forum which would enable the two blocks to discuss matters.

Just as a society which falls into chaos, where men are wolves for men when deprived of the Law, so the world will become a battle-field if it abandons International Law.

Thierry Meyssan

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