Skal man tro Rune Lykkeberg i Politiken men det skal man jo ikke nødvendigvis så mistede Rifbjerg faktisk grebet…”Derfor blev opgøret med velfærdsstatens pædagogik og kultursyn også til et opgør med Klaus Rifbjerg, der fastholdt sine gamle standpunkter som svar til alle kritikere og insisterede på, at humoren, legen, kunsten og seksualiteten var argumenter for hans position.” Fy for den lede velfærdsstat, humor, leg, kunst … Continue reading Længe leve gammeldagsen
Today Charles Krauhammer – a well-known extreme rightist usually advocating war – writes in the Washington Post under the headline “The Iran deal: The anatomy of a disaster”. My comments under the article goes: The day Mr. Krauthammer will write about• sanctions on Israel for its nuclear weapons and international law violations;• anytime/anywhere inspections in all nuclear weapons countries including Israel (does he really believe … Continue reading Comments to Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Israel’s defence minister Moshe Ya’alon writes in Washington Post under the headline “Current Iran framework will make war more likely”When I wrote my comment there were already more than 1100 comments – so here it is: “Israel’s defence minister is an echo of PM Netanyahu. Nothing new, Israel’s official views are well-known, beamed out a thousand times more effectively than Iran’s to the world, not … Continue reading Comment to Israel’s defence minister in Washington Post
Medialens tells us that the Zionist lobby does it again! Are we surprised?Oh yes, when was it last all Western leaders praised freedom of expression by walking through Paris? Will even one of them now stand up and demand that this conference be held anyhow? What is it the West’s academic community boats about in comparison with other cultures – isn’t it freedom of our … Continue reading Yet another attack by Zionists on academic freedom
Listen very carefully to the eloquent PM Netanyahu here again giving it full blast thanks to CNN in an interview in which he (again) says nothing new.Why – just why – is his views given coverage again and again and again in Western media? Does the Iranian or other P5+1 get anywhere near the same media coverage (I can’t remember every having seen a Chinese … Continue reading Isn’t it time to boycott pro-Zionist media?
Jan Oberg commenting on Iranian President Rouhani: “Tehran abides by commitments, if P5 1 fulfills promises” – YouTube/PressTV http://ow.ly/LbX3d In spite of the deal’s negative sides, Iran has chosen peace to the benefit of the world. In that perspective it is much more than a nuclear deal, it’s – potentially – a road to peace. Continue reading Iran nuclear deal – a road to peace
Deadline – DR om russisk propaganda – og kun dén. Indslaget er et glimrende eksempel på hvor statsmagten og formodede frie medier taler sammen på en helt indforstået måde. Der spørges ikke om hvad propaganda er i ministerens mund; det nævnes ikke at propganda også kan være fortielse. Det er helt indforstået at vi i vest siger sandheden og at vi nu skal bruge endnu … Continue reading Russisk og dansk propaganda – statslige og statslige medier…
Today – 16 years since NATO began to bomb Serbia and did so mercilessly for 78 days to carve out Kosovo as an independent state – still today a failed one.Remember that when you talk about Crimea today.Here is a link to “Yugoslavia – What Should Have Been Done?” – probably the world’s most comprehensive blog about the dissolution of Yugoslavia; it’s written since 1991 … Continue reading 16 years since NATO started its war on Yugoslavia – all criminals still at large
De fleste mennesker, der lytter til radio eller ser TV, tænker næppe så meget over hvad der også kunne være foregået og med hvilke deltagere. De ser et færdigt produkt, ikke processen – og de tager, nok så forståeligt, stilling til det de ser og hører snarere end til noget andet, de i en forestillingsverden kunne have set eller hørt.
Med de sociale medier kan man nu formidle informationer i rollen som mediemenneske og fortælle hvordan det også går til sådan bag kulisserne.
Måske lyttede du til P1 Debat på Danmarks Radio nu idag kl 12:15-13:00 om missilskjoldet og den russiske ambassadørs åbne brev? I så fald kan kopien herunder af min korrespondence med P1 Debats redaktør Anne Henderson måske have din interesse.
Den dokumenterer at jeg skriftligt blev inviteret til at deltage per telefon, at jeg sagde ja tak men under forudsætning af visse rammebetingelser kunne opfyldes gennem videre samtale – herunder a) at der blev mulighed for at forklare at missilforsvaret kan ses som en del af en større amerikansk atomkrigs-strategi og b) at der må være fair play med mig siddende udenfor studiet specielt når programmet efter min opfattelse allerede da er planlagt med en holdningsmæssig slagside.
Den viser endvidere at der gik næsten et døgn inden Hendersons svarer og så pludselig mener at det dér med at sidde på en telefon medførte at man har besluttet at jeg alligevel ikke skal deltage. Vel, læs selv nedenfor.
Continue reading “P1 Debats politiske tilrettelæggelse omkring missilforsvaret”Åbent brev sendt til 2200 mennesker i Norden herunder 325 danske medieadresser.
Af Jan Øberg
Dr.hc., forskningschef TFF
21. marts 2015
Missilskjoldet tjener til at gøre det muligt at udkæmpe og vinde en atomkrig – ikke at afskrække fra den
Den russiske ambassadørs artikel i Jyllands-Posten kan maaske siges at være bombastisk formuleret men i grunden har han – og ikke udenrigsminister Lidegaard – ret.
Ledende medier som f.eks. Danmarks Radio, Ritzaus og Politiken giver baggrund til missilforsvaret som vidner om total mangel paa fagkundskab om strategi og atomdoktriner.
I stærk kontrast til hvad vi hører om missilskjoldet – som Danmark nu tilsyneladende skal bidrage til – er det det mest de-stabiliserende indslag i atompolitikken siden 1945.
Det kan kun opfattes af Rusland og andre som en provokation.
Her er den forklaring som beslutningstagerne næppe har modtaget fra Washington, ministerier eller militære kredse. Den gælder for atomvaaben saavel som for konventionelle:
Den klassiske terrorbalance fra 1950-erne handler om at hvis A har kastet sine raketter – inkl atomare – paa B, saa vil B altid have tilstrækkeligt at gengælde med nemlig atomvaaben paa sine fly, ubaade og i siloer, som A ikke har mulighed for at slaa ud i sit første angreb.
Det hed “gensidigt sikret ødelæggelse”- MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. Den afskrækkende værdi laa i at begge parter vidste at hvis de startede en atomkrig ville deres egne befolkninger dø i millionvis som følge af modpartens gengældelse.
Hvad indebærer det i dette perspektiv at udvikle et missilskjold eller “forsvar”?
Enkelt udtrykt at A forsøger paa at hindre B i at kunne faa sine gengældelsesvaaben igennem til A. At der altsaa kun er én part, der bliver smadret men dens anden “vinder”. Hvis – og det er det store spørgsmaal – man har den tekniske evne til saa at sige at skyde pistolkugler ned med pistolkugler.
Det betyder at hvis A tror at han har et saadant system med hvilket han kan skyde modpartens gengældelsesmissiler ned saa øger hans tro paa muligheden af at han – uden selv at lide skade – kan indlede, gennemføre og vinde en atomkrig med mindre risiko for sin egen befolkning.
Dette sænker den psykologiske tærskel for atomkrig. Det gør atomkrig mere sandsynlig!
Continue reading “Politikere og medier savner åbenbart enhver ekspertise om missilskjoldet til at modstå Washingtons salgsteknikker”EU agrees Russia sanctions to stay until Ukraine peace terms met (Reuters). Exactly as expected. If the EU can make a conflict-resolution mistake, rest assured that it will! Minsk is not a peace agreement – but at Reuters they don’t know the difference between a ceasefire and a peace agreement. The looming catastrophe is exactly that there is no follow-up to Minsk II, no process … Continue reading EU agrees on sanctions on Russia – but what about peace?
War with Iran is probably our best option – The Washington PostBy Joshua Muravchik – one of the extremist neo-cons influencing U.S. foreign policy. Hardly one argument backed up by facts here. The professor advocates a series of violations of international law. He thinks it is fine to kill people and cause regime change. Two simple points: Why does Washington Post publish such crap? Answer: … Continue reading Like we use Islamism – why not USism
Today published a new TFF PressInfo # 314 with the above headline. I hope you’ll find it more constructive than most of the other things you may see and that you will hsrae it if you do. Also, you can subscribe to TFF PressInfos and get them by e-mail into your in-box – before they are posted on the Net – by writing to pressinfo@transnational.org … Continue reading From preventing to making peace in Ukraine
NATO military exercises begin in Black Sea – BBC NewsIs this professional, impartial journalism? Let’s look at the words: NATO “reassures”, Russia “accuses” and “warns” and is – stated as an objective fact – “increasingly unpredictable”. Here is how this news story could also be written: “Simultaneous with a series of other military execises, NATO has begun one today in the Black Sea. Russia – … Continue reading BBC’s non-professional reporting – and how it could also be written
Syrian Rebels in Aleppo Reject UN Peace Effort Perhaps understandable but tragic. When all this began in Syria some of us – a clear minority and without any media interest – suggested an arms embargo on all sides and involvement of the UN. But “Friends of Syria”, hot-headed politicians and media people knew that arming the opposition and never talk with Al-Assad was the only … Continue reading Gun in hand – less motivated to negotiate
Olof Palme – murdered today 29 years ago • Wikipedia A politician who willed a better society, to whom politics was a calling – working for justice, international law, nuclear disarmament, against big countries bullying small countries, a person who made Sweden stand ut. Then. And it was the Palme Commission on Common Security that broke the ice towards the end of the Cold War … Continue reading Olof Palme – murdered today 29 years
What the War on Terror Has Wrought: More TerrorismMy text for TFF PressInfo re-prited in CounterPunch – a “popular political sources in America, with a keen following in Washington” (The Observer). I’m proud to be re-printed there!TFF PressInfos are spread all over the place. You can get them by e-mail: write to PressInfo@transnational.org Continue reading What the War on Terror Has Wrought: More terrorism
Mossad contradicted Netanyahu on Iran nuclear programme – Al Jazeera PM Netanyahu repeatedly speaks and acts in bad faith with the aim of getting some kind of war started on Iran. A leader of a nuclear weapons state suffering from obsession and having such bad aims and political judgement is a threat to us all. With a population roughly 10 times bigger than Israel’s, the … Continue reading Help Netanyahu to come to his senses
TFF PressInfo # 310: Terrorism – small dot in a larger pictureWhat is terrorism? Why do we talk much more about that than other types of deaths? Why is the word misused?What has nuclear weapons – that politicians and media hardly ever talk about – got to do with terror?Why should we all be careful not to exaggerate the phenomenon of terror? Continue reading TFF PressInfo # 310: Terrorism – small dot in a larger picture
On political propaganda, media wars and moreJan Oberg interview with RT International – YouTube On political propaganda, counter-propaganda – the case of Ukraine – and how news have become commodities to be sold on a market and undermining democracy and people’s wish to engage in politics. Freedom of expression and freedom of deception hand in hand… Continue reading Political propaganda: Ukraine, media deception and democracy
My short open letter concerning the horrific attacks in Copenhagen in the weekend and the official reaction to them.http://ow.ly/JdIgI – Share if you find it meaningful.Thanks! Continue reading I am not a Dane: Short open letter
Freedom of expression fundamentalism – or what happened to Charlie?Four main reasons you need to be wise – and not make New Atheism your new creed! This is TFF PressInfo # 304. You can get these fast-growing PressInfos winging into you e-box too. Just write to pressinfo@transnational.org Continue reading Wisdom of expression
After Paris attacks, Pope Francis speaks out against insulting religions: “You can’t kill in the name of a religion. That is an aberration.” And “You can’t provoke, you can’t insult the faith of others, you can’t make fun of faith.” Thank God there is such a wise Pope! If it couldn’t be misunderstood I would say “I’m Pope”! Remember also Gandhi: “There can be no … Continue reading If one could say so I would: “I’m Pope!”
Eleven points as a reflection on the terror in Paris and – not the least – the reactions to it*:
1. What was this an attack on?
Was that attack an attack on freedom of speech as such, on democracy, even on the whole Western culture and lifestyle, as was maintained throughout? Or was it, more limited, a revenge directed at one weekly magazine for what some perceive as blasphemy?
2. Is freedom of expression practised or curtailed for various reasons?
How real is that freedom in the West? Just a couple of days before the Paris massacre PEN in the U.S. published a report – Global Chilling – finding that about 75% of writers report that they are influenced by the NSA listening and abstain from taking up certain subjects or perspectives? Self-censorship, in other words. Finally, most of the political leaders marching in Paris on Sunday January 11 have clamped down on media, such as Turkey and Egypt.
I must admit that I have experienced limitations in the practise of that freedom in my work with Western media and it is decades ago I draw the conclusion that things like political correctness, ownership, commercial/market considerations and journalists’ need for good relations with power – e.g. to obtain interviews – play a role.
I’ve been on the ground in conflict zones and returning home to see reports so biased to tell very little of what I’ve seen myself. And we’ve recently seen lots of cases from the U.S. academic world where there’s been a clampdown on certain views, pulications, courses and professors – not the least in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Or, you look at the proportions between government fund available for peace research and military research in virtually every Western society; free research is a vital element in the self-understanding of the West. But how much of do we have?
3. Freedom doesn’t mean duty.
Is freedom of expression really 100% irrespective of how much the practise of that freedom is hurtful, offending, humiliating or discriminatory against other peoples, religions and cultures? Even if you can express your opinions freely it is not always what we should do.
Or, rather, of violence against violence + terrorism against terrorism. Among the marchers against terrorism and for freedom of expression we find leaders from France, Denmark, Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Russia, the U.S., Israel, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein and Ukraine. What do they have in common? A deep belief in violence – violence of various types: 9-10 of them presently fighting foreign wars (mostly against or … Continue reading Depiction of the Spiral of Violence
I believe this is going to be an iconic image of something that will be a turning point in Europe and, likely too, the generalised West. Is this the 9/11 moment for Europe? Whether intended or not, the government leaders marching in Paris today will tomorrow begin a special ‘war on terror’ in Europe – clamping down on all of us, curtailing freedoms – including … Continue reading Europe’s 9/11 moment ?
En beslægtet version på engelsk hér:
Blandt verdens mange voldelige handlinger, krige og terrorhandlinger vælger Danmarks Radio at afholde en partilederdebat om netop denne terroraktion, der – så tragisk og afskyelig som den er – kostede 12 mennesker livet på et lille ugeblad i Paris. Den skal, hedder det – og tages uden videre som udgangspunkt for hele debatten – handle om ytringsfrihed og demokrati. Her en video fra debatten.
Spørgsmål 1:
Hvad er kriterierne for hvornår der gøres så meget ud af en international begivenhed at der hasteindkaldes til en times partilederdebat direkte efter TV-Avisen? Jeg kan ikke huske det skete under f.eks. Jugoslavienkrigene, besættelsen af Irak, Libyen eller Israels angreb for nogle måneder siden på Gaza hvor over 2000 blev dræbt.
Spørgsmål 2:
Hvordan ser forbindelseskæden ud mellem drabene i Paris og det, der af DR og alle politikere forstås (uden diskussion) som et angreb, ikke på et bestemt medie men på hele “vores” demokrati og ytringsfrihed? Hvad der således tages for givet er altid interessant – og vigtigt for demokratiet og ytringsfriheden – at stille spørgsmålstegn ved. Det være hermed gjort fordi det er svært at tro at nogen fundamentalist eller forstyrret person skulle forestille sig at ét angreb på et lille ugeblad og 12 dræbte kan true hele den vestlige verden i sin grundvold.
De 8 politkere er helt enige om – og det er rigtigt og vigtigt at få sagt til alle i Danmark – at alle muslimer ikke slås i hartkorn med de formodentligt muslimske ekstremister som begik denne massakre.
Desværre bliver de også lynhurtigt enige – under ledelse af statsministeren – at det skete ikke har årsager, der har noget som helst med vor egen politik, holdninger, krige etc. at gøre. Jeg tager i parantes hatten af for de to udspørgere, Kim Bildsøe Lassen og Ask Rostrup, der flere gange forsøgte men blev afvist af alle otte. Een partileder mente endog at man ikke skulle analysere sig ihjel.
Nej, de to eneste argumenter vi fik
Continue reading “Partilederdebatten om attentatet på Charlie Hebdo”Just published by PEN in the US: Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International WritersThis is deeply disturbing: “Concern about surveillance is now nearly as high among writers living in democracies (75%) as among those living in non-democracies (80%).The levels of self-censorship reported by writers living in democratic countries are approaching the levels reported by writers living in authoritarian or semi-democratic countries.And writers … Continue reading Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers
Jan Oberg interview with RT International on rise of islamophobia in SwedenA slightly different perspective from what you generally hear again and again: everybody coming to Sweden is a burden.We have to stop this nonsense and stop the Swedish Democrats from getting away with it! Continue reading Interview with RT International
Get TFF PressInfoLet it wing into you e-mail inbox!A rapidly growing peace politics e-mail service. It’s topical, for peace, and well-researched and sometimes provocative. Points you don’t often get in the media.It is free and you can unsub anytime with a click. Why not try it now?Sign up here… Continue reading TFF PressInfo! Let it wing into your e-mail inbox
Before Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Margot Wallström, gets too excited about the Russian Bear: Here is the story of NATO’s Iron Sword 2014 exercise! Wouldn’t it be great if, say, Svenska Dagbladet, DN, Politiken, Sydsvenskan, DR.dk., SVT.se., Göteborgs-Posten, Jyllands-Posten, Information, BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine, The Guardian . . . had mentioned this exercise somewhere? Just as a matter of … Continue reading Before Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wallström, gets too excited…
TFF PressInfo # 288 – Where it all went wrong and lessons were never learnt Why the “conflict management” and “peace making” by the West during the dissolution of Yugoslavia was much more important for our time and what happens now than anticipated. Much of the terrible crisis we see today was started by policies and principles introduced for the first time in Yugoslavia from … Continue reading ► ► TFF PressInfo # 288 – Where it all went wrong and lessons were never learnt
26 years ago on November 9: Fall of the Berlin Wall It was thanks to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that this symbol of division fell.In my view, one of the greatest statesmen of our times – unfortunately never supported by exploited by a triumphalist, winner-takes-it-all West. Those of us who remember those days and went down to hammer down that Wall can never ever forget! … Continue reading 26 years ago on November 9: Fall of the Berlin Wall
TFF PressInfo # 285: What submarine in Sweden? From Swedish defence force to farce – and boulevard press journalism. Who is playing with our security? Continue reading TFF PressInfo # 285: What submarine in Sweden?
Voting has begun in Bosnia in an election dominated by nationalist rhetoric and a stagnant economy. A good 2000 pages by three scholars who were present during the wars in Yugoslavia and did not buy the Western political and media simplifications and blame game. Neither did they buy the Western ‘peace’ making, the results of which can be seen in today’s Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia … Continue reading ► ► Bosnia today and Yugoslavia then
TFF PressInfo 282 Instead of bombing ISIS – Concrete proposals (Part B) Lots of proposals, doable and much more efficient than war. Please SHARE, thanks. The alternative to war is not to do nothing, it is to do something else! Continue reading ► ► TFF PressInfo 282: Instead of bombing IS (Part B)
TFF PressInfo 281: Instead of bombing IS (Part A) – Please SHARE It’s easy to be pro-war. It is easy to be anti-war. But we need alternatives to war! The first of two comprehensive pro-peace analyses containing no less than 27 proposals as alternatives to war. This one contains principles, tomorrow’s Part B offers concrete proposals. YOU can get TFF PressInfos too winging into your … Continue reading ► ► New TFF PressInfo 281: Instead of bombing IS (Part A)
☮ ☮ New TFF PressInfo 277 – After all this, what?Messages to NATO – After Yugoslavia? After the fall of the US Empire? After NATO?And After Violence – the world needs something else… Continue reading ☮ ☮ New TFF PressInfo 277 – After all this, what?
▶ The Powers Behind The Islamic State – YouTube Nafeez Ahmed, brilliant reliable researcher/journalist gives you, in 21 min, all you basically need to know about ISIS/Islamic State and why it is the result of policies conducted by the U.S., Britain, Qatar, Saudi-Arabia. He offers some common sense proposals on how to stop it. And there is NO military solution to it, only a shift … Continue reading The Powers Behind The Islamic State
☮ ☮ TFF PressInfo: Support Richard Branson’s Ukraine dialogue initiativeBy Jan Oberg“We are drifting towards a new Cold War. The reason isn’t substance because there is no reason we should not be able to live in peace in Europe – if we want and educated ourselves in handling problems.No, the reason is the woefully incompetent way in which politicians and media focus on violence and ignore … Continue reading ☮ ☮ TFF PressInfo: Support Richard Branson’s Ukraine dialogue initiative
TFF PressInfo: Cold War warnings 1998 – 2014 TFF predicted much of this 16 years ago. And offered you 46 arguments against NATO’s expansion. Now we have Ukraine. Dark dark clouds are gathering over Europe – predictably and for no good reason. Continue reading TFF PressInfo: Cold War warnings 1998 – 2014
☮ ☮ US warns Russia against Ukraine invasion – Al Jazeera English Does the United States want a war? Read this carefully! Samantha Power used to be a researcher one could respect, albeit not always agree with. Now she has turned into a war-monger. Here she has the guts to say that if Russia should deliver humanitarian aid to the suffering people in Eastern Ukraine, … Continue reading US warns Russia against Ukraine invasion
With this headline CNN conveys the idea that peace = when direct violence stops (for a while).
This is the classical journalist perspective, not even a minimum definition and makes peace a rest category in between wars and other violence. Deeply unhelpful!
A peace professional would call that peace illiteracy.
Here is how I and many other professional peace researchers see it:
PEACE can be seen as the outcome of a change in the underlying conflict, a decision about the future that all parties have contributed to define and will, therefore, be committed to help implement.
Continue reading “CNNs journalistic peace versus informed peace!”Responsibility for wars and killing A number of Western/NATO politicians – Hillary Clinton foremost among them – and media people have recently introduced a new ethical principle in international affairs: When A delivers weapons to B, A is responsible for what B does with these weapons. The former Secretary of State and perhaps future U.S. President presents this new ethical principle here on CNN. This … Continue reading Wow, Hillary Clinton as moral philosopher
TFF PressInfo, July 21, 2014
By Jan Oberg, TFF director
Tragic misuse of a tragedy
The government of Ukraine as well as the separatists, NATO/U.S. and very many leading Western mainstream media seem all to know who has caused the tragedy. Putin believes it was caused indirectly by the West.
Given the fact that very few, if any, people or institutions canknow who did it with enough details, data and precision to accuse anyone, the MH17 tragedy has been misused to an extent that can itself only be termed tragic.
The misuse is tragic because it is a catastrophe for close to 300 people, their relatives and friends. Silence – of both verbal and military weapons – and empathy would have been appropriate.
Anyone pointing fingers and calling it a terrorist act at this point is irresponsibly or should present convincing evidence.
Secondly, the blame game makes the necessary road to peace and security even more difficult.
An All Party Peace Process should come out of MH17 and the civil war
It would have been so much more civilised to use the MH 17 tragedy to say:
Continue reading “Use Malaysia’s MH17 to make peace instead”In early June I was asked by Russia Today – RT – to do a half-hour conversation about militarism and peace. The only questions that were planned in advance were about the changes in Sweden’s foreign and security policy over the years which I had writen about in TFF PressInfo – here in English and here in Swedish. So it was a free discussion, unedited and … Continue reading Interview on RT in early June
Gad vide hvor mange mislykkede krige vi endnu skal igennem før især politikere og medier opdager det indlysende faktum, at der findes et temmeligt bredt spektrum af handlingsmuligheder mellem at gøre ingenting og at smadre et land når konflikter dukker op?
Det spektrum hedder konflikthåndtering og tilhører et fagområde, der undervises i rundt om på verdens universiteter. Det kræver at FNs medlemsstater etablerer ”styrker” af uddannede konfliktanalytikere, facilitatorer, mæglere, områdeeksperter, forhandlere og forsoningsterapeuter, der kan rykke ud endnu hurtigere end de kan sende krydsermissiler og F-16 fly.
For at dette spektrum kan blive inddraget forudsættes endvidere at regeringer ikke direkte ønsker krig under foregivende af at have gode og ofte humanitære motiver hvor de i virkeligheden har rå interesser.
Med andre ord, man kan gøre noget ved den manifeste konfliktanalfabetisme, der først søger militære løsninger og – som en række danske politikere – hurtigt tilsidesætter folkeretten og FNs fornemste norm, nemlig den at fred skal skabes med fredelige midler og først når de alle har været prøvet og vist sig uden effekt kan man gribe til militære midler, vel at mærke i FN-regi.
Eller anderledes udtrykt: fred kan læres. Når nu de fleste mennesker i verden – også 98% af de civile i konfliktzoner der ikke griber til vold men er dens ofre – ønsker fred skulle man kunne tage demokratiet alvorligt og gøre en kraftanstrengelse for at mindske (ikke afskaffe) militæret, der globalt koster 1700 milliarder dollar eller 30 gange mere end alt FN gør – og i stedet øge konflikthåndteringen.
Eksemplet Syrien – gal diagnose og prognose
Verden har brug for konflikt-lægevidenskab: diagnose, prognose og behandling.
Diagnosen turde være nok så klar: Det handler om endog meget komplekse indre konflikter, den arabiske vår (oprindeligt) men det handler også om hele Mellemøsten og især hér om Vestens ønske om at holde Iran nede og Israel oppe. Continue reading “Syrien – hvad kunne være gjort og hvad kan stadig gøres?”