Forum

Mid-East & Global

WMD-Free Zones

Urgently Needed!

      This past week the world observed the 67^th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6th and Nagasaki on Aug. 9th 1945 that killed more than 200,000 Japanese civilians. Professor and author, Noam Chomsky, recently wrote about how to defuse the world’s current nuclear threats, including today’s dangerous conflict with Iran over its nuclear program.http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13626/the_next_hiroshima

Chomsky notes the threat of Israeli pre-emptive bombing of Iran, but says, “the attack against Iran is in fact already well underway, including economic sanctions that have reached the level of “undeclared war,” in the judgment of Iran specialist Gary Sick, who served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan.”

“Consider, for another example, the Flame virus, revealed in mid-July, developed jointly by the United States and Israel, and used to secretly monitor Iranian computer networks. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon regards cyberwarfare as “an act of war” that authorizes the target “to respond using traditional military force” (though with the usual exception: not when the United States or an ally is the perpetrator).

“The escalation of the undeclared war against Iran increases the possibility of a large-scale war being sparked, even accidentally. The danger was illustrated when a U.S. Navy vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a civilian fishing boat July 16, killing one and wounding three. It would not take much more to ignite a major conflict.

“One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, in the wording of U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 of April 1991, “the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons…” The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed. It now has near unanimous global support, at least formally… Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful August 6.”

      It should be noted that Israel possesses several hundred nuclear weapons but it is hardly evermentioned in western media. A special note should also be made that Hawaii County declared itself by law in 1981 to be a Nuclear-Free Zone, but the U.S. military has refused to respect that law. In fact, the military has contaminated Hawaii island with radiation from nuclear weapon spotting rounds used at Pohakuloa that contained Depleted Uranium (DU) and has stonewalled the call for clean up and comprehensive, independent, testing and monitoring to determine the full extent of contamination.

Never Again!  No More Hiroshimas!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760. 
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Emailja@malu-aina.org   http://www.malu-aina.org 
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (August 10, 2012 – 568th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office