Armistice Day, the Gulf of Tonkin and the Berlin Wall

"The First World War, boys,

It came and it went

The reason for fighting

I never did get"

- Bob Dylan, "With God on Our Side"

In the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allied Powers that put an end to fighting on the western front in the Great War. The war started in 1914 making this year the 100th anniversary of its beginning.  The Great War/World War I was one of the most inexplainable and horrific wars in history.  Bob Dylan is not alone in wondering why an assassination in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist grew into the greatest global conflict the world had yet seen. By the time it was over in 1918, "The Great War" claimed more than 16 million lives, including 7 million civilians. The trenches, machine guns, chemical weapons, and the use of airplanes made this war different - more horrific and more deadly than previous wars. The Treaty of Versailles, by severely punishing the Germans as if they were solely responsible for the war, laid the grounds for the rise of Hitler and World War II, with its even greater death toll.  The "war to end all wars" did no such thing.

This year is also the 50th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which marked the beginning of the massive escalation of United States involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam.  I was at a baseball game with my father that August in 1964.  Fans erupted in applause when some "retaliatory action" against North Vietnam was announced.  I'm sure none of that delirious and deluded mass had any idea what the consequences of the American escalation would be.  Or the background and disputable evidence for the incidents on which the retaliation was supposedly based.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Johnson the right to wage all out war against North Vietnam without securing a formal Declaration of War from Congress.  That was in the days of the Cold War with the Soviet Union when the bogus "domino theory" held sway over the American political landscape and military thinking. 

The Cold War came to a symbolic end 25 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.  The Soviet Union itself officially came to an end on December 26, 1991.  Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and the man responsible for the liberaliziation of the Soviet system embodied in the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (change), had resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.  And now the man at the center of the reforms that led to the end of the Cold War and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion is warning us that the world is on the brink of a new cold war.  Speaking in Berlin during the celebration commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev warned that the world was “on the brink of a new cold war” and strongly criticised the west for having sown the seeds of the current crisis by mishandling the fallout from the collapse of the iron curtain.  “Instead of building new mechanisms and institutions of European security and pursuing a major demilitarisation of European politics … the west, and particularly the United States, declared victory in the cold war...Euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of western leaders. Taking advantage of Russia’s weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world.”  The enlargement of NATO, Kosovo, missile defence plans and wars in the Middle East had led to a “collapse of trust”, said Gorbachev, now 83. “To put it metaphorically, a blister has now turned into a bloody, festering wound.” [The Guardian, November 8]

The 3,000 wars of recorded human history have claimed more than 340,000,000 lives.  Hundreds of millions have been forced to leave their homes.  And still the wars go on.

At present, more than 60 countries are suffering armed conflict.

For the first time since World War II, there are more than 50,000,000 refugees and internally displaced persons - more than half of whom are children.

Twenty five years after the Cold War ended, nine countries still possess 17,000 nuclear weapons.

In 2013, the nations of the world spent about $1,700,000,000,000 on their military budgets.

In the United States, Armistice Day is commemorated now as Veterans Day - a day to remember the sacrifices of the men and women sent to fight and die in wars.  As we remember veterans, we should also continue the struggle against the notions that violence is a viable solution and that war is a means of achieving peace.  I refuse to believe that war and violence are ingrained indelibly in human nature. We must continue to believe in the transformative power of nonviolent action and work against the underlying causes of war - the "interwoven systems of domination and exploitation at the roots of inequality and injustice."

"History tells us that the absence of war is not the presence of peace. We have seen time and time again that violence does not end when you put down the gun, that war is not over when you declare a ceasefire. We understand that there are interwoven systems of domination and exploitation at the roots of inequality and injustice, and that to 'remove all causes of war' we must collaborate and stand in solidarity with oppressed people across the globe."  

- War Resisters League Statement of Purpose

"I wonder how foreign policies would look if we ...thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never...wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children."

- Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Featured Post

Remembering the Fallen, Memorial Day (May 27) 2013

Featured Video
To paraphrase former president Reagan, "Tear down that wall, Mr. Netanyahu."
A powerful video and rendition of "We Shall Overcome" by Roger Waters.

Sunday Round-Up October 27, 2013

In this week's selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media, we look at European reaction to NSA spying, climate refugees, Syria and an update on the Bo Xilai case.  Sources include The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and BBC News.

The Guardian, which played a key role in bringing the NSA spying documents to the public's attention, had several stories on the European reaction to recent revelations. 

On October 25, Ian Traynor reported on warnings from Europeans that fallout from the spying was jeopardizing the international fight against terrorism:

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"Germany and France are to spearhead a drive to try to force the Americans to agree new transatlantic rules on intelligence and security service behaviour in the wake of the Snowden revelations and allegations of mass US spying in France and tapping of the German chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.  At an EU summit in Brussels that was hijacked by the furor over the activities of the National Security Agency in the US and Britain's GCHQ, the French president, François Hollande, also called for a new code of conduct agreed between national intelligence services in the EU, raising the question of whether Britain would opt to join in.  Shaken by this week's revelations of NSA operations in France and Germany, EU leaders and Merkel in particular warned that the international fight against terrorism was being jeopardised by the perception that mass US surveillance was out of control."
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The Guardian's Lizzie Davies and Angelina Chrisafis reported on additional revelations from Italy and France noted in  L'Espresso and Le Monde:

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"The weekly L'Espresso magazine said it had learned that documents obtained by the whistleblower Edward Snowden showed the intensive monitoring of Italian telecoms networks by both the NSA and GCHQ.  L'Espresso ...said it had ascertained that Italy - and particularly Sicily - had become a focus of activity because of its strategic location between Europe, north Africa and the Middle East...

In France, the daily newspaper Le Monde published an internal NSA document which it said showed the "tensions and distrust between Paris and Washington".  The document, a preparatory note before a visit to the NSA by two top French intelligence officials in April 2013, shows that French officials suspected the US could have been behind a now well-known cyber-attack on the French presidential computer network at the Elysée in May 2012....The NSA document states that no US intelligence agency or of its close allies in Britain and Canada were behind the electronic attack...[and] shows that the US maintained it had no role in the cyber-attack."
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Deutsche Welle had an October 24 article on the Kiribati climate refugee case now being considered by New Zealand immigration authorities and the "legal void" that surrounds such cases.   

The case should be decided by the end of this month - just several weeks before UN-organized Warsaw Climate Change Conference. Migration because of climate changes - rising seas, increased extreme weather events and desertification - will increase as global warming takes its toll. Recent estimates have put the possible total at 700 million by mid-century.   (See also Left Bank Café post "Sunday Round-Up October 6, 2013) 

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"Recently, Kiribati's government suggested relocating the entire island state's population of over 100,000 people, if predictions prove accurate that the sea will rise by one meter (3.25 feet) by the end of the century. At the moment, half of the population is crammed on to the central island of Tarawa, which comprises 32 square kilometers (12.4 square miles) of land. New Zealand and Australia, the two most developed countries in the South Pacific, have in recent years resisted calls to change immigration rules in favor of Pacific people displaced by climate change....

But, while conditions in Kiribati are difficult, they do not fall within the scope of the UN refugee convention, said Ska Keller, a migration policy expert with the German Greens party in the European Parliament. At the moment, Finland and Sweden are the only countries in the world to have passed legislation allowing people to apply for asylum for environmental reasons, but the processes there remain largely untested."
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As the effort to secure and destroy Syrian chemical weaponry proceeds and the Syrian civil war continues, Deutsche Welle reports on alleged Jihadist attacks against Christians and moderate Muslims in an October 23 article.    

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 "They want to drive us out of Syria," [says] 29-year-old Jalal Gazouha, whose brother was killed by al Qaeda fighters...  By "they," he's referring to Jihadists from countries neighboring Syria...who have joined in the Syrian civil war to fight against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to Gazouha, they're also targeting Christians.. ..When Gazouha received death threats, he fled the country. "I saw my name on a list on the Internet. That list contained names of Christians who were supposed to be killed, he says, written by "the terrorists of al Qaeda."

 

Jean Kawak, a Syriac bishop from Damascus, chose his words carefully when he spoke about the subject with DW. "We Christians have recently felt threatened by particular radical Islamist groups," he said....These radicalized groups are not only targeting Christians though, Kawak says. "Moderate Muslims are also being threatened."

 

"Reconciliation is possible," says Kawak - of that he is convinced.  But what kind of reconciliation could be possible between Bashar al-Assad and the rebels, the latter of whom have rejected any form of political solution that leaves Assad in power? .... Jochen Langer, Middle East expert at the International Society for Human Rights, shares the bishop's concerns. "The Syrian army is trying, as well as they can, to protect Syria's Christians," he told DW. "But that's only possible to a limited extent."...

 

Sadiq Al-Mousslie, a member of the Syrian National Council in Germany that forms part of the Syrian National Coalition, acknowledges that there were cases of "sporadic attacks by sick individuals" [but denies they were targeted attacks.]"

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Update

[BBC News, October 25] Bo Xilai's appeal of his life sentence was rejected by a Chinese court. "The former Chongqing Communist Party leader was convicted [on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power].in September....Bo only receives one chance to appeal and his sentence is now final. He could submit a complaint to the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, but the vast majority of such complaints are rejected and do not result in another trial." (See also Left Bank Café post of September 29.)

Saturday Round-Up August 31, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media. Today's subject is the potential US military intervention in Syria.  Sources are The Guardian, Oxfam America, and The Nation.

The Obama Administration is scrambling to define a position justifying a potential strike on Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons by that country's security forces.  There is no such justification for any unilateral, "a deux" or "coalition of the willing" military action. Two bodies are already established to try and punish perpetrators of international crimes - the International Court of Justice (United Nations) and the International Criminal Court established by the Rome Statute of 2002.

The Guardian reported on Thursday on the UK Parliament's vote against support for a United States airstrike on Syria.  The vote was 285-272 with many of PM Cameron's coalition joining Labour in opposition.  Asked by Labour leader Ed Miliband for an assurance that he would not use the royal prerogative to sanction British involvement in the military action, the prime minister told MPs: "I can give that assurance. ...it is clear to me that the British parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action. I get that and the government will act accordingly."

On Wednesday, prior to the vote, Guardian columnist Martin Kettle wrote:  After two years in which, tragically, the world has been unable to prevent Syria's catastrophe deepening ever further, the Cameron government is suddenly in a hurry to act. Partly this is because of the outrageous use of chemical weapons in Syria. But it is also because the US administration, having boxed itself in about responding to such horrors, now summons Britain to give support. But would the Obama administration, elected to end the war in Iraq and anxious to end the one in Afghanistan, really want to engage in Syria, even to the extent of an arm's-length bombing campaign, without either UN support or major international allies? ...It is arguable that a vote in the UK parliament could stay Washington's hand from a politically controversial, premature strike that would raise massive issues of legitimacy.

On Friday, a Guardian editorial praised the action of the MP's, noting:  There is no evidence that British public opinion has turned isolationist. There is plenty of evidence that it is fed up with the debilitating post 9/11 years of national sacrifice, with the humiliating excesses of US national security policy (not least its abuses of human rights and surveillance), with the unequal burden-sharing among allies and, above all, with the failures of policy. Iraq casts a very long, very dark shadow. As a result, right from the start of its spiralling civil war, Syria has felt like a sacrifice too far. When the latest call to arms came, though it came from a respected American president and was provoked by clearly intolerable war crimes, the answer was a clear one. Enough.

Addressing the plight of Syrians caught in middle of this civil war, Oxfam America condemns the attacks but makes a powerful case against military intervention:  Over more than two years of fighting, more than 100,000 lives have been lost and millions of people are in need of immediate humanitarian aid. It has been especially devastating for children: just last week, the UN announced that one million Syrian children are now refugees. Many have seen their homes bombed, their schools reduced to rubble, their communities destroyed.  The military intervention currently being debated will not – and is not aimed at – stopping the violence or helping these families start to rebuild. Instead of focusing on military options and arming the parties involved, President Obama, President Putin and other world leaders should intensify peaceful efforts to end the conflict, before Syria is destroyed and the region made even more unstable.

Finally, The Nation makes another powerful case against military intervention in an editorial.  After pointing out the illegitimacy of a US military attack without UN Security Council approval and the Administration's obligation to seek congressional authorization for such action, the editorial lists practical and humanitarian reasons to be opposed to military action:  On the practical level, there is little chance that limited airstrikes will have much deterrent effect on a ruthless regime that sees itself as engaged in an existential struggle for survival...It would make the United States a direct participant in what has become a regional sectarian conflict, further destabilizing Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey...On the humanitarian level, there is a strong chance that US airstrikes, no matter how “surgical,” will kill innocent civilians...[and] could worsen what is already a disastrous refugee crisis.  Instead of military action, The Nation editorial calls for the United States to vastly increase aid to the 1.9 million refugees who have flooded across the country’s borders and join Russia in its effort to renew the Geneva negotiations.  The editorial concludes that Moscow and Washington share an interest in not widening the war and strengthening jihadi extremists. It’s long past time for the two powers to concede that neither Assad nor the rebels are going to be defeated anytime soon....if the United States and Russia work together, they could use their combined influence to choke off the flow of arms from the outside and contain the conflict as they work toward a cease-fire. If they don’t, Syria’s disintegration will spread throughout the region. 


 

Sunday Round-Up - June 23, 2013

Iranian Elections

In what nearly all observers think is a good sign for Iranian relations with the West, Hassan Rouhani won a landslide victory in the Iranian presidential elections "promising better relations abroad and more freedom at home".   Rouhani won the election outright after securing more than 50% of the vote - far ahead of the next candidate, who received just 16% of the vote - and thereby avoiding the need for a run-off.   Al Jazeera reported: "In a statement, reported by the Iranian media on Saturday, the president-elect hailed his election as a victory of moderation over extremism:  'This victory is a victory for wisdom, moderation and maturity... over extremism.' "  The jubilant crowds celebrating in the streets were a marked contrast to the demonstrations following the 2009 presidential election, when results showed the conservative Ahmadinejad had won over the reformist candidate.   According to Al Jazeera's analyst: "The outcome will not soon transform Iran's long tense relations with the West, call into question its disputed pursuit of nuclear power or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. But the president runs the economy and wields important influence in decision-making and Rouhani's meteoric rise could offer latitude for a thaw in Iran's foreign relations and more social freedoms at home after eight years of confrontation and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." The pace of change will ultimately be decided by the Ayatollah Khamenei, whom Rouhani visited on Sunday (June 16) after the election. [Reuters]

[Photo: Al Jazeera]

 

NSA Surveillance, Snowden and Hong Kong

The US has charged 29 year old whistle-blower Edward Snowden with espionage. Kind of ironic, isn't it?   They are charging the person who blew the cover on the NSA's warrantless surveillance with spying.   Snowden meanwhile remains in Hong Kong.   Thursday's South China Morning Post reported on the commentary in China's "party newspapers."  Reporting on an article in the Global Times, it noted the Times commentary "that Hong Kong should follow public opinion in handling the case, not worry about Sino-US relations and 'be more spontaneous'."   Public opinion in Hong Kong is strongly supportive of Snowden.  The People's Daily said "the Prism scandal was America's trouble in the first place", but some US politicians were trying to "create a new link between China and the scandal with their own imagination" by hinting that Snowden was a Chinese spy. It said such a link was 'nonsense' and Beijing should ask the 'big mouths' to shut up. "Pouring dirty water on China shows how American politicians are embarrassed and anxious," it said. Both articles indicate that China is determined to separate the Snowden case from overall Sino-American relationship.

[Photo from South China Morning Post A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, is seen at Central district. Photo: David Wong]

 

UPDATE - 9AM EDT, 6/23/13

Edward Snowden is reported as having left Hong Kong today.  Hong Kong officials had rejected the US request for extradition "since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law."  Hong Kong had requested more information from the US and said that "there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

Palestinian Diaspora Forgotten?

Thursday was World Refugee Day. Press TV reported on the plight of the victims of what they termed the world's largest and longest standing refugee crisis:  "Following World Refugee Day, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation called upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for one of the largest refugee crises, since Israel displaced Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.   Palestinian refugees constitute the largest and longest standing refugee crisis in the world with up to 6 million 1st and 2nd generation Palestinian refugees scattered around the world unable to return to Palestine." Palestinian refugees have the right of return per UN resolution 194 which resolves "that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. It further states that compensation should be paid if they do not wish to return." In the on again/off again push towards a two-state solution and the attempts to resuscitate the long-moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, many Palestinians feel that international law is being ignored as all parties "continue to insist that refugees should wait indefinitely to return home."   The Syrian Civil War has added significantly to the plight of the refugees.  530,000 Palestinians are registered with the UN as refugees in that country.  The United Nations News Centre reported on June 17: "Warning that the centrifugal force of the Syria crisis continues to imperil the region, a senior United Nations agency official today said that more than half of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria have become 'theatres of war,' where killings and kidnappings have become the norm.  According to the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, seven out of 12 of the agency’s camps are now virtually inaccessible." 

[Photo: UNRWA]

Brazil 2014 World Cup Protests

Brazil has won five World Cups - more than any other nation. It is the fifth most populous country and, depending on what list you use, has between the sixth and ninth largest economy. Still its social inequity has been as legendary as its Rio de Janeiro slums. Things have been improving somewhat for Brazil's poor especially since the election of "pink revolution" hero Lula (Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva) as President in 2002 and his succession by Dilma Rousseff.  Pulsamerica opined in a January article: "Though Brazil remains a country of stark contrasts, its strides against poverty and inequality cannot be underestimated. It can be argued that until recently the focus in Brazil has always been on reducing poverty rather than combating income and social inequality overall, however, an emphasis on distribution, creating more job opportunities, investing in structural education systems and addressing discrimination are being implemented to ensure more equality in the future." But the movement towards more social equality is far from complete. (See, for example, Harper's Magazine's June 2013 article "Promised Land" by Glenn Cheney about the efforts of Sister Leonora Brunetto for agrarian land redistribution.) Just how far from complete the march towards equality is was demonstrated this past week as protests erupted against the money being spent on 2014 World Cup preparations (~18 bln USD) . As reported Friday in the Daily Mail: "More than a million Brazilians took to the streets of at least 80 Brazilian towns and cities in demonstrations that saw violent clashes and renewed calls for an end to government corruption and demands for better public services. Riot police battled protesters in at least five cities, with some of the most intense clashes in Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the city's central area." At least one person has been killed in the rioting.  President Rousseff , who was "a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship. 'My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard,' Rousseff said. 'Many were persecuted, tortured and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can't be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers.' " The protests continued Saturday.

[Photo from Daily Mail website (copyright Marco Isensee/Demotix: "Revolution: A football shirt-clad protester waves the Brazilian flag through clouds of smoke and teargas during violent clashes between protesters and police in Rio de Janeiro"]

World Refugee Day

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day.  World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations "to honor the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence." [US World Refugee Day website] Refugees are not something we think about much here in the US (Angelina Jolie notably excepted) but maybe we should. After all, currently 45 million people have been forced to leave their homes - displaced either internally or internationally. This total is a fourteen year high and was announced by the UN's refugee agency yesterday. Were they a nation, refugees would form the 30th most populous country on Earth.

The Syrian Civil War has played a large part in the recent increase in refugees with more than 1.6 million refugees created by the crisis so far. Syria now surpasses Somalia (1.1 million) and Iraq (~750,000) in the number of refugees. Only Afghanistan has created a higher number of refugees (~2.5 million) than Syria. [Euronews website]

Although famine plays a role (especially in sub-Saharan Africa), the root cause of the great majority of this displacement and misery is war. Until war is renounced by all the nations of the world, until the international arms trade stops, until nations begin to apply serious diplomacy instead of violence to end conflicts, not much will change. In the meantime, international efforts are focused on relieving the suffering of the refugees. But as in so many other areas, the support is forthcoming in totally inadequate amounts. Regarding the Syrian refugees, "Jana Mason, a senior advisor with the U.N.’s refugee agency, testified before the Helsinki Commission last week that the U.S. and other nations must provide greater financial aid to host countries that have opened their borders to Syrians." [Time.com]

 

Scene from the Zaatari refugee camp - now home to more than 100,000 Syrians from The Guardian.  It's included in a Guardian post from April: "A city that’s not a city – inside a Syrian refugee camp".

 

 

Still some small progress is being made:

• At the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland earlier this week, leaders pledged to disburse $1.5 billion of humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and those who are internally displaced." [Time.com]
• With the increasing stability in Somalia, Kenya is pushing for the repatriation of the 600,000+ Somalians now in refugee camps in Kenya. Both Somalia and Kenya now want the international community to provide immediate resources to support the repatriation of refugees living in UN designated camps in Kenya. Without such aid, the effort is doomed to failure. From the Press TV website: "Analysts warn that the government is not in a position to accommodate the massive number of returning refugees from camps. The government is still struggling to relocate IDPs who fled the famine in mid-2011 and the return of refugees is likely to increase the burden on the government."

Click here for a link to the Get Involved webpage of the USA for UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency).

Remembering the Fallen

Today, the last Monday in May, is Memorial Day here in the United States. It's a day set aside to remember those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. As we remember them, we should also pause to remember the devastating toll that war has taken on all the peoples of the world - military and civilian alike.

The numbers are staggering. In what is described as an "incomplete" list of the approximately 3000 wars in recorded human history, a Wikipedia article puts the minimum figure for deaths due to war at more than 340 million. The totals for each war in the list "usually include both the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/ war-related deaths of civilians, which are the results of war induced epidemics, diseases, famines, atrocities etc."

Besides the deaths from war, tens of millions of civilians have become refugees - either fleeing to another country or "internally displaced". Currently, according to the World Refugee Day website,  there are 43.7 million of them.  Were they a country, refugees would rank about 30th in population amongst the nations of the world.
UPDATE: A report released in June 2014 by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, shows that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people. [The Guardian, June 20]

Greed, hatred, nationalism, perceived wrongs, balance of power, economic systems, religious beliefs, quest for power, bloodlust - mankind has found many reasons to go to war. They are all wrong. They all basically stem from the perception of "the Other", someone you can dehumanize because he is different from you.

Will it ever change? One would hope so. John Kennedy once said "War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."   Fifty years after Kennedy's death, that day remains distant. 

Still we got to start somewhere. So I'll close with a few quotes and a few songs that look to that brighter distant day when men will no longer take up arms against their brothers and sisters.  Here's a link to blues guitarist Lead Belly singing "Ain't Gonna Study War No More".   (Apropos of nothing in particular: George Harrison has been quoted as saying "No Lead Belly, no Beatles.")

Albert Camus: "There are causes worth dying for but none worth killing for."  

Here's a link to Original Caste's "One Tin Soldier". 

"Peace on Earth" was all it said.

 

Joan Baez: "If people have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk singer."  Here's a link to Joan Baez singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind".    (In spite of the actual title Dylan gave his song, Joan Baez pronounces the "g" at the end of Blowin'.) The linked video also has some great shots of the young Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.  Dylan just turned 72 this past Friday and does that ever make me feel old!  Happy Birthday, Bobby. 

How many deaths will it take 'til he knows

that too many people have died? 

  

Mahatma Gandhi: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"



 

Finally, here's a link to Pete Seeger's rendition of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"

Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before.

I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.

Photos

Normandy Cemetery from American Battle Monuments Commission photo on britannica.com

Leadbelly from womex.com (adapted from Lead Belly Publicity Shot on Wikipedia Commons)

Albert Camus from wikispaces.com 

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan from Wikipedia Commons

Gandhi from myincrediblewebsite.com

Pete Seeger from The Guardian