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riiight...
in related news, my half-week of ideological knuckle-fighting in chatrooms and boards has seen one question come up again and again - it goes a little something like this:
"ok hippy - what do we do if we don't go to war? (aside) fuckin' hippy."
it took me a while to formulate an answer. plus a lot of reading of people with a much better grasp of polical science and history than myself - but now i think i have a rough-cut answer. this has been the alternative i've been advocating. i'd welcome opinions.
1. 9/11 was, as Monbiot says, 'a crime against humanity'. this is not that same thing as 'an act of war'.
2. we must find those responsible. the US intelligence agencies claim they are very close to doing this, and more importantly, are willing to share their information. now, of course, we have to be wary - the prosecution in any case can twist the evidence to suit their own purposes - but still - if the internatonal community (including the public) is given access to the raw material upon which the US has made its decision - that's an incredible leap.
3. supposing scrutiny by the international community leads to other nations, NGOs and people broadly agreeing with the US interpretation of the facts, and maybe even the culprit - the UN sanctions an international operation to capture the prime suspect.
4. when the prime suspect is captured, s/he stands trial in an international court, presided over ultimately by the UN, not the US. the victim of a crime cannot pass judgement on the crime - transfer the analogy to a domestic criminal case and you can easily see how this is an absolute law.
5. in the full glare of the world's media, mainstream and indie, the court reaches a decision.
6. the first world nations recognise that an event like 9/11 cannot be put down to a shdowy 'evil genius', and changes its foreign policy accordingly. idealistic, i know, but this is, after all, my ideal.
6. the UN is given the power it should have had all along. every nation is answerable. international law is invalid unless it serves the weak as the strong, the poor as the rich.
basically: support the UN. justice, not revenge. no more innocent dead. international law for all.
now, i know there are plenty of sticking points. that the whole thing seems so incredibly peace&love that's it's difficult to see it happening outside of a dayglo dream sequence. that i've sidestepped the incredible difficulty in capturing our suspect - but read Monbiot's piece in the chomsky thread. i think he goes some way to saying that something similar - aided and abetted by massive humanitarian measures - is possible.
this is my alternative to war. this is my alternative to terrorism. |
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