Living dangerously by advocating peace

On to the Vietnam War, a particularly painful time for many ex-soldiers still alive in USA and Australia, a war opposed by many civilians, and indeed by many who fought there and later threw their medals away.

Kurlansky: “Since the close of the 20th century it has become commonplace to refer to it as the most catastrophically bloody century in history … In World War I, one-fifth of casualties were civilian … in World War II it went up to two thirds. In 21st century warfare, such as in Iraq, the casualties may be as high as 90 per cent civilian.”

In October 2002 the US Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to attack Iraq because it was building “weapons of mass destruction”. Kurlansky comments “It is a peculiarly accepted notion that the United States, the only country ruthless enough ever to have used atomic weapons - and used them against a civilian population - should be trusted with a monopoly on weapons of mass destruction. But worse, the claim of Iraqi weapons was a blatant lie contradicted by the United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, among many other reliable sources.”

Since Kurlansky’s book was published Bush has announced he wants to send 22,000 more American young people to Iraq. He argues his purpose is to bring democracy to Iraq, although he is flouting democracy in his own country with an Administration not democratically elected but chosen by the president, and the Iraq war is opposed by a majority of the people and in Congress. Bush, like UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian PM John Howard, claims to be Christian but obviously rejects the church’s traditional teaching on non-violence.

Already hundreds of thousands of Iraqi, American and other civilians and military have been killed or severely injured, plus homes, businesses, schools and hospitals destroyed since the US Coalition invaded the country in March 2003. Of the 3,000 US troops killed 76 per cent were under the age of 30 years. Bush says “their sacrifice has not been made in vain”. On location in Baghdad, veteran reporter John Burns of the New York Times asks “What is being fought for in Iraq?”

Kurlansky’s book raises another question in the mind of the reader. Would Bush, Howard and Blair continue the war in Iraq if their own children, other family members, friends in their social class, and families of government members were required to risk death in this distant war?

The 20th century was the bloodiest century in history. However, Kurlansky points out it was also the greatest century for non-violent action. This started with “a peculiar man in India”, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, once described by Winston Churchill as “this one-time Inner temple lawyer, now seditious fakir, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroy’s palace, there to negotiate and to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor”.

At the end of his book Kurlansky has The Twenty-five Lessons. These include:

Nations that build military forces as deterrents will eventually use them.
Practitioners of non-violence are seen as enemies of the state.
Somewhere behind every war there are always a few founding lies.
A propaganda machine promoting hatred always has a war waiting in the wings.
People who go to war start to resemble the enemy.
If the violent side can provoke the non-violent side into violence the violent side has won.
The longer a war lasts, the less popular it becomes.
Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.
Wars do not have to be sold to the general public if they can be carried out by an all-volunteer professional military.
Once you start the business of killing, you just get “deeper and deeper”, without limits.
Violence is a virus that infects and takes over.
The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done.