Analysis: A year into Obama’s presidency, it’s still Gates’ Pentagon 2 Μαρτίου 2010

WASHINGTON — U.S. troops are still in Iraq. More are headed into Afghanistan. Defense spending is up. Gay troops still can’t serve openly in the military.

So where is the dramatically overhauled Pentagon that President Barack Obama’s opponents — and supporters — predicted not long ago?

Just over a year after Obama took the reins as commander in chief, the most sweeping changes expected of the new president’s military policy haven’t taken hold. Despite two wars overseas, Obama’s focus has remained on domestic issues, such as the health care reform fight and the still-struggling economy.

Military topics, while hardly an afterthought, have not attracted the same level of public attention or debate. Experts say that reality, combined with the president’s decision to hold over Defense Secretary Robert Gates from President George W. Bush’s administration, has left the Pentagon without a clear Obama footprint thus far.

“But in a lot of ways, he ought to be congratulated on the degree of continuity and the lack of a dramatic change at the Pentagon,” said James Dobbins, director of the Rand Corporation’s Defense Policy Center.

“You don’t have a sense he came in with an endgame of changing major defense strategy,” Dobbins added. “He’s been persuaded by Gates’ view of focusing on the wars that we’re in, then tending to sustainment of U.S. forces.”

Still, the Pentagon has experienced a slow and sometimes painful culture change in recent years, with more focus on accountability and how stateside decisions affect overseas battlefields. The question is whether the president or defense secretary deserves the credit, and what those indicators mean for the coming years of Obama’s presidency.

In the first two years following his December 2006 confirmation, Gates sacked Army Secretary Francis Harvey (following the Walter Reed scandal), Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne (following his service’s mishandling of nuclear materials) and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace (over Congress’ dissatisfaction with his handling of Iraq).

Those efforts to increase accountability within the Pentagon have continued into the Obama presidency, with the firing of the prior Afghanistan commander, Gen. David McKiernan, because “fresh thinking” was needed in the fight; the increase in reprimands for battlefield commanders who lose troops or cause civilian casualties; and the impending punishment of at least six Army officers for their failure to prevent the Fort Hood shootings last fall.

Mike Noonan, deputy director of National Security Studies at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said even if Gates were to depart as secretary at the end of the year, as has been rumored within the Pentagon, that message of responsibility is likely to remain part of the culture within the ranks.

That’s because it matches up closely with the immediate battlefield focus that both Gates and Obama have emphasized. Military funding and policy priorities have already been shifted to short-term threats and away from conventional, legacy defense concerns such as new weapons systems, as part of the new approach to national security.

Obama’s first defense budget — large sections of which were crafted by Gates before the inauguration — slashed costly and inefficient weapons systems in favor of heavy, bomb-resistant vehicles needed in Afghanistan.

In this year’s defense budget, Gates announced an overhaul of the problematic Joint Strike Fighter Program–and fired the general then overseeing the project–to ensure it doesn’t slip further off schedule or off budget.

“It’s still Gates’ Pentagon, but I don’t know if that really matters,” said Jim Carafano, defense policy expert for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “These may not be Obama’s ideas, but they fit nicely with his priorities. And Gates is a guy that makes things happen in a way that the boss wants them to happen.”

Where Obama was expected to make his clearest mark on the military was in Iraq and Afghanistan, because during the campaign he had promised a radical rethinking of both wars.

Last March, the president laid out plans to draw down nearly all the U.S. troops in Iraq by 2011, but that timetable is still dependent on “conditions on the ground” — a common refrain in the Bush administration.

And anti-war advocates have been dismayed so far with operations in Afghanistan. By this summer, Obama will have nearly tripled the total number of U.S. troops there since he entered the White House.

Meanwhile, Obama’s insistence that the long-term solution Afghanistan must include political and social improvements echoes the 2008 National Defense Strategy approved by Bush and Gates which notes that “military success alone is insufficient to achieve victory.”

Visions of an immediate withdrawal from all overseas wars were never realistic, Noonan said. But the way the “slow glide” decisions were made — closely canvassing military brass for months before the announcements — indicates Obama’s trust in their advice.

Where that could change is with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” debate. Obama has drawn the support of both Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen in repealing the 17-year-old law banning gays from serving openly in the military, but he publicly supported that position before ever discussing it with his service chiefs, some of whom do not want to change the law quickly.

Still, experts note that even with that issue, the actual path to a repeal is a one-year review period followed by a unknown implementation period, a slower pace than hoped for by gay rights advocates but one Gates himself said will help show the military the pros and cons of the move.

PEACEFUL PROTESTERS ROUGHED UP, ARRESTED BY OBAMA’S PENTAGON 3 Φεβρουαρίου 2010

Is this how Obama thanks those who are taking his call for the abolition of nuclear weapons seriously?  He has then roughed up and arrested for standing with signs outside Vandenberg AFB in California while his Pentagon fires “missile defense” tests into the heavens above the Pacific Ocean?

For years people have been protesting outside Vandenberg AFB when the base launches missiles.  Now and then the military police would grab one of the organizers and arrest them but often nothing was done at all.  But on January 31, just as another $150 million “missile defense” test was launched from the base, the Obama led Pentagon had virtually everyone who was at the protest, legally standing outside the base, arrested.  In one case the military police threw Judy Evered onto the ground where two security guards held her with one soldier’s knee in her back. Her subsequent booking was interrupted because she had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance for a shoulder injury she sustained after she was already in custody.  Evered, a member of WILPF, is in her 80’s.

This was a particularly important “missile defense” test because the Pentagon promoted it as a practice to simulate “a nuclear attack by Iran”.  Of course Iran has no nuclear weapons today nor does it have any launch vehicles capable of reaching the continental U.S.  But truth and facts don’t matter when you are out to create a new enemy in the minds of the American people.  Fiction becomes reality, war is peace.  Brainwashing it is called.

In the first test of its kind involving Vandenberg, a U.S. Air Force ICBM launched from the Marshall Islands (the Ronald Reagan Test Range) was aimed at southern California. The Ground-Based Interceptor launched from Vandenberg, about 60 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, lifted off at around 3:45 pm, but did not succeed in shooting down the target missile (supposedly from Iran) which was launched six minutes earlier from the Reagan Test Range.

“They completely dismantled the demonstration,” said protest organizer MacGregor Eddy who is a WILPF and Global Network member. She went onto reiterate that the base was told well in advance of the demonstration which was initially scheduled for January 21, as was the interceptor test, both of which were grounded due to large southern California storms at the time.

Since November, the new base commander has decided to require I.D.s from demonstrators. There is no way that a base commander, on his own, is going to start demanding ID’s from legal public protesters and make such a decision to completely disrupt and arrest eight out of the eleven people at a peaceful vigil.  These orders have come from higher up and in the end the president of the U.S. has to be held responsible for escalating this provocative attack on peaceful protest outside a U.S. military base.

Obama talks big about wanting disarmament but then he qualifies this by saying that it might not happen “in his lifetime.”  Then he moves, two years in a row, to increase military spending and continues the Bush administration policy of surrounding Russia and China with “missile defense” systems that are actually part of the U.S. first-strike program.  The U.S. “missile defense” systems would pick-off any retaliatory missiles fired by Russia or China after the U.S. had launched the initial attack.  The U.S. Space Command has actually been computer war-gaming such a first-strike attack on China for the past several years.

In a statement prior to the January 31 missile launch Western States Legal Foundation Director Jacqueline Cabasso said, “Further, U.S. development of missile defenses endangers prospects for deeper U.S. and Russian nuclear arms reductions and threatens to scuttle agreement on a follow-on to the START treaty. To add insult to injury, every U.S. test launch from the Marshall Islands causes tremendous environmental damage to surrounding land and water areas and compounds the historical injustice to the indigenous Marshallese people.”

Obama can’t have it both ways.  He can’t go around talking nice about nuclear disarmament and then continue taking active steps to develop and test new generations of advanced war fighting systems and expect that Russia and China will just sit back and watch without reacting.  And if Obama was serious about real nuclear disarmament he would not allow his Pentagon operatives to harass, rough up, and arrest activists who are legally opposing wasteful and destabilizing missile tests.  You don’t treat your political allies in such a manner.

Once again we see the clear evidence that Obama is the quintessential magician – he says one thing but if we closely watch his other hand we see the revelation of his real agenda, which is nothing more than a continuation of the Bush war making program, but this time with a friendly smile and a well-turned phrase.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)

Punta de Vacas 2010 (english version) 28 Ιανουαρίου 2010

With Nuclear, Conventional Arms Pacts Stalled, U.S. Moves Missiles And Troops To Russian Border 27 Ιανουαρίου 2010

With Nuclear, Conventional Arms Pacts Stalled, U.S. Moves Missiles And Troops To Russian Border
Rick Rozoff

2010 is proceeding in a manner more befitting the third month of the year, named after the Roman god of war, than the first whose name is derived from a pacific deity.

On January 13 the Associated Press reported that the White House will submit its Quadrennial Defense Review to Congress on February 1 and request a record-high $708 billion for the Pentagon. That figure is the highest in absolute and in inflation-adjusted, constant (for any year) dollars since 1946, the year after the Second World War ended. Adding non-Pentagon defense-related spending, the total may exceed $1 trillion.

The $708 billion includes for the first time monies for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which in prior years were in part funded by periodic supplemental requests, but excludes what the above-mentioned report adds is the first in the new administration’s emergency requests for the same purpose: A purported $33 billion.

Already this month several NATO nations have pledged more troops, even before the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan when several thousand additional forces may be assigned for the war there, in addition to over 150,000 already serving or soon to serve under U.S. and NATO command.

Washington has increased lethal drone missile attacks in Pakistan, and calls for that model to be replicated in Yemen have been made recently, most notably by Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who on January 13 also advocated air strikes and special forces operations in the country. [1]

The Pentagon will begin the deployment of 1,400 personnel to Colombia to man seven new bases under a 10-year military agreement signed last October 30. [2]

This year the U.S. will also complete the $110 million dollar construction of new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania to house at least 4,000 American troops. [3]

The Pentagon’s newest regional command, Africa Command, will expand its activities on and off the coasts of that continent beyond current counterinsurgency operations in Somalia, Mali and Uganda and drone flights from a newly acquired site in Seychelles. [4]

But this month has brought even more dramatic and dangerous news. The Pentagon has authorized the completion of a $6.5 billion arms deal with Taiwan with an agreement to deliver 200 Patriot Advanced Capability anti-ballistic missiles. The People’s Republic of China is infuriated, as Washington would be if the situation were reversed and Beijing provided a comparable arsenal of weapons to, for example, an independent Puerto Rico. [5]

As though that action was not provocative enough however, on January 20 the Polish Defense Ministry announced that a U.S. Patriot missile battery, and the 100 American soldiers who will operate it, would not be based on the outskirts of the capital of Warsaw as previously announced but in the Baltic Sea city of Morag, 35 miles [6] from Poland’s border with Russia.

The missile battery and troops are scheduled to arrive in March or April. As part of the Obama administration’s new missile shield project, one which will be integrated with NATO to take in all of Europe and extend into the Middle East and the Caucasus, the Patriots will be followed by Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor deployments on warships in the Baltic Sea and, for the first time ever, a land-based version of the same. “The Pentagon will deploy command posts of SM-3 missiles, which can intercept both short- and mid-range missiles….” [7] An SM-3 was used by the Pentagon to shoot a satellite out of orbit in February of 2008 to give an indication of its range.

Further deployments will follow.

The new, post-George W. Bush administration, interceptor missile system will employ “existing missile systems based on land and at sea….Deployment of the revised missile defense would extend through 2020. The first step is to put existing sea-based weapons systems on Aegis-class destroyers and cruisers. [8]

“Subsequently, a mobile radar system would be deployed in a European nation….More advanced, mobile systems would be put in place later elsewhere in Europe. Their centerpiece would be…Lockheed’s Terminal High Altitude Defense interceptor missiles and improved Standard Missile-3 IB missiles made by…Raytheon.” [9]

Last December Washington signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that formalizes plans for “the United States military to station American troops and military equipment on Polish territory” and “opens the way for the promised Patriot missiles and US troops to be stationed in Poland…as part of an upgrading of NATO air defences in Europe.” [10]

In October, shortly after U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden visited Warsaw to finalize the plan, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski met with his opposite number from the U.S., Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow, and announced that the American missiles “will be combat-ready, not dummy varieties as Washington earlier suggested.” The same report added that “Earlier, Ukrainian and American officials stated that Ukrainian territory may be used in some way in the new antimissile shield.” [11] Poland borders Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave, but Ukraine has a 1,576 kilometer (979 mile) border with Russia.

The State Department issued a press release on the agreement to deploy American troops to Poland, the first foreign forces to be based there since the end of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, which stated “The agreement will facilitate a range of mutually agreed activities including joint training and exercises, deployments of U.S. military personnel, and prospective Ballistic Missile Defense deployments.” [12]

A Pentagon spokesperson said “U.S. Army Europe will help the Polish Armed Forces develop their air and missile defense capabilities. Considering the cooperative training we already do with the Polish Armed Forces, this Patriot training program is just another extension of that effort.” [13]

If earlier plans to deploy ground-based midcourse missiles to Poland evoked, however implausibly, an alleged Iranian missile threat, the Patriots can only be meant for Russia.

Russian Lieutenant-General Aitech Bizhev, former commander of the United Air Defense System of the Commonwealth of Independent States, told one of his nation’s main news agencies:

“It’s completely unclear why the air defense group of the northern flank of
NATO needed strengthening – NATO has manifold superiority over Russian
conventional armaments as it is.

“It can’t be ruled out that the stationing of the Patriots in Poland may be
followed by other actions in building up the American military infrastructure in Eastern Europe….” [14]

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms expired on December 5 and has been extended, but no agreement has been reached on a new pact, 48 days later.

At the end of last year Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was asked about the delay and identified the main impediment to resolving it: “What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one.”

He further defined the problem: “If we are not developing an anti-missile shield, then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such ‘an umbrella,’ will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately.”

In respect to how prospects for the reduction, much less elimination, of nuclear arms in Europe and North America were faring, Putin added, “In order to preserve balance…we need to develop offensive weapons systems,” [15] reiterating a statement by his nation’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, a week before. The timing of the announcement that the Pentagon will soon station Patriot missiles so close to Russian territory will not help matters. Nor was the State Department’s contention that “the START follow-on agreement is not the appropriate vehicle for addressing” the issue of “missile offense and defense.” [16]

A month before, Russian news media revealed that “Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), the land-based component of the nuclear triad, will put on combat duty a second regiment equipped with Topol-M mobile missile systems by the end of 2009.

“The Topol-M missile, with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 km), is said to be immune to any current and future U.S. ABM [Anti-Ballistic Missile] defense. It is capable of making evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill using terminal phase interceptors [for example Patriot missiles], and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.” [17]

Just as supplying Taiwan with Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) theater anti-ballistic missiles led China to conduct a ground-based, midcourse missile interception on January 11, so moving U.S. military hardware and troops nearer Russia bodes poorly for a nuclear arms reduction agreement.

On the non-strategic front, the 1990 Treaty On Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) limiting the amount and expansion of major armaments on the continent is also seriously jeopardized by U.S. and NATO missile shield plans. The adapted CFE (Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) of 1999 has not been ratified by any member of NATO, which has linked it with so-called frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union. The August 2008 Georgia-Russia war was a consequence of that obstructionist and belligerent policy. The establishment of permanent U.S. and NATO military bases in Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and now Poland is a gross violation of and may prove the death knell for the CFE.

Russia suspended the observance of its treaty obligations under the CFE on July 14, 2007 because of “extraordinary circumstances…which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures.” [18]

The circumstances alluded to were the U.S. project of establishing missile interception facilities in Eastern Europe and the general movement of NATO bases and forces to the Baltic and Black Sea regions.

On November 29 of last year Russia “released a draft of a proposal for a new European security agreement the Kremlin says should replace outdated institutions such as NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).” [19]

Chinese analysts Yu Maofeng and Lu Jingli contend that Moscow was motivated by its concerns over U.S. and NATO missile plans, NATO’s eastward expansion to its borders, the 1999 war against Yugoslavia, Western-sponsored “color revolutions” in other former Soviet states and NATO members’ non-ratification of the Treaty On Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. [20]

For the past thirty years each successive American president has unveiled an ostensible plan to eliminate nuclear weapons, if none before now has received the Nobel Peace Prize while in office [21]. Each in turn then escalated reckless arms buildups and armed aggression abroad in an effort to achieve global military dominance. The current U.S. commander-in-chief with his foreign policy entourage of Robert Gates, James Jones and Hillary Clinton is no exception. [22]

1) Yemen: Pentagon’s War On The Arabian Peninsula
Stop NATO, December 15, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/yemen-pentagons-war-on-the-arabian-peninsula
2) Rumors Of Coups And War: U.S., NATO Target Latin America
Stop NATO, November 18, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/rumors-of-coups-and-war-u-s-nato-target-latin-america
3) Bulgaria, Romania: U.S., NATO Bases For War In The East
Stop NATO, October 24, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/bulgaria-romania-u-s-nato-bases-for-war-in-the-east
4) AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of The Entire World
Stop NATO, October 22, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/africom-year-two-taking-the-helm-of-the-entire-world
5) U.S.-China Military Tensions Grow
Stop NATO, January 19, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/u-s-china-military-tensions-grow
6) New York Times, January 21, 2010
7) Voice of Russia, December 14, 2009
8) U.S. Missile Shield System Deployments: Larger, Sooner, Broader
Stop NATO, September 27, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/u-s-missile-shield-system-deployments-larger-sooner-broader
Black Sea, Caucasus: U.S. Moves Missile Shield South And East
Stop NATO,September 19, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/283
U.S. Expands Global Missile Shield Into Middle East, Balkans
Stop NATO, September 11, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/u-s-expands-global-missile-shield-into-middle-east-balkans
9) Bloomberg News, January 14, 2010
10) Polish Radio, December 11, 2009
11) Russia Today, October 16, 2009
12) Stars and Stripes, December 21, 2009
13) Ibid
14) Interfax Ukraine, January 20, 2010
15) Reuters, December 29, 2009
16) Ibid
17) Russian Information Agency Novosti, November 18, 2009
18) Time, July 14, 2007
19) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 30, 2009
20) Strategic considerations behind Russian proposal for new
European security treaty
Xinhua News Agency, December 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/02/content_12571639.htm
21) Obama Doctrine: Eternal War For Imperfect Mankind
Stop NATO,  December 10, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/obama-doctrine-eternal-war-for-imperfect-mankind
22) White House And Pentagon: Change, Continuity And Escalation
Stop NATO, March 19, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/white-house-and-pentagon-change-continuity-and-escalation
===========================
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato

Blog site:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/

Balkan musicians playing “We Want Peace On Earth” 18 Ιανουαρίου 2010

ΒΙΝΤΕΟ ΓΙΑ ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΑΣ ΠΟΡΕΙΑΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΜΗΒΙΑ 6 Ιανουαρίου 2010

Cierre de la Marcha Mundial por la Paz y la No violencia – La Pollera

Direct Transmission of the Grand Finale of the World March for Peace and Non-Violence 5 Ιανουαρίου 2010

Direct Transmission of the Grand Finale of the World March for Peace and Non-Violence Argentina Punta de Vacas | January 02, 2010 23:44 On Saturday, January 2nd a grand finale of the World March for Peace will take place. It will begin at 18 hours (Argentine time), with the testimonies from the international team that did the planetary march. There will be a direct transmission through the internet. The international media that can not be present at the Park will also be able to do internet interviews.

ΜΗΝΥΜΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΝΟΤΙΑ ΚΟΡΕΑ 21 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Hi Everyboday,

Tomorrow the base team is flying to Moscow.

It was great to welcome them here in South Korea and share so many things they will talk about better than me.

I just wanna send you pictures you can see on this link http://picasaweb.google.be/MurielJiEun/WMInKorea?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuO1a2WsaOw4gE# and a drawing which give me hope for the future.

I’m volunteer in an afterschool activities house for children in a poor area and I suggested the children to make a drawing about peace.

A 10 year’s old boy made this drawing: the flags of both Koreas mixed with title: the flag of reunification…Amazing!

From South Korea

Choi Ji Eun/Muriel Bossier

---

Bonjour à tous,

Demain l’équipe de base s’envole pour Moscou.

Ca a été fantastique de les accueillir ici en Corée du Sud et partager tant de choses dont ils parleront beaucoup mieux que moi.

Je voulais juste vous envoyer des photos que vous pourrez voir sur ce lien http://picasaweb.google.be/MurielJiEun/WMInKorea?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuO1a2WsaOw4gE# et un dessin qui me donne beaucoup d’espoir.

Je suis bénévole dans une maison d’activités parascolaires pour enfants d’un quartier défavorisé et ai proposé aux enfants de faire un dessin sur la paix. Un garçon de 10 ans a fait ce dessin: mélange des drapeaux des 2 Corées et l’a intitulé “le drapeau de la réunification”…Incroyable!

De Corée du Sud

Choi Ji Eun/Muriel Bossier

---

Buenos días a todos
Mañana el equipo de bases despega para Moscú.

Esto fue fantástico de acogerlos aquí en Corea del Sur y compartir tantas cosas de las que hablarán mucho mejor que yo.
¿ Quería justo enviarle fotos que podrá ver sobre este lazo http://picasaweb.google.be/MurielJiEun/WMInKorea?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuO1a2WsaOw4gE# yun dibujo que me da mucha esperanza.
Me soy benévolo en una casa de actividades extracurriculares para niños de un barrio(cuarto) desfavorecido y les propuse a los niños hacer un dibujo sobre la paz. Un chico de edad de 10 años hizo este dibujo: mezcla banderas de los 2 Tipos de Corea y lo(la) tituló ” la bandera de la reunificación “… ¡ Increíble!

De Corea Del Sur

Choi Ji Eun/Muriel Bossier

ΜΠΑΧΡΕΙΝ: Η ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΣΤΟΝ ΤΥΠΟ 17 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Londoners join world peace walk (From the Independent Catholic News, London) 17 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Londoners join world peace walk (From the Independent Catholic News, London)

Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:46 pm

Peace campaigners will walk 20 miles across London this weekend (17-18 October) to link in with a three-month global initiative called the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. Supporters of the walk include the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams,  Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the vice chair of Pax Christi, Bruce Kent, Martin Sheen, Julie Christie, Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Berrigan with a host of peace organisations. The London walk will start near Northwood Permanent Joint Forces NATO Headquarters in Middlesex on Saturday morning, where a vigil will be held, passing through north-west and central London before finishing on Sunday evening at the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park. On Sunday afternoon, walkers arriving at Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park will be welcomed at around 2pm with a half-hour play on the themes of peace and nonviolence written and directed by Charlie Wiseman. Daniel Viesnik, 34, from north London who is one of the organisers of the London walk, said: “I was thrilled when I heard about the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, a fantastic initiative to unite people of all nations striving for a society based on love, peace and justice. I believe in the transformative power of people united in positive thought and action and wanted to encourage participation in this inspiring project.” For more information see: www.theworldmarch.org

Media coverage about wm in dhaka 17 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Dear friends,

We can say we could won the media, specially press. The Rally was in dhaka on 9th october and on 10 October all the national newspaper cover the news.

As a media worker, one point is very significant to me. They just do not publish the news of rally, they published the news with a heading ` Decrease military expense, instead of that increase development expense for mankind. From the bangladeshi context its really a big turn back for media, usually they do not talk about such sensitive issue so openly.

The name of the media who cover the news

TV channels
1. Channel I
2. Diganto TV
3.Desh TV

Radio
1. ABC radio
2.Radio Amar
3.Radio foorti

Newspaper
1. Prothom alo
2.Jugantor
3 Somokal
4. Bhorere kgoz
5. Jai Jai din
6. Inquilab
7.Songbad

all the meadi are national media.

I would like to thanks Lipu, fahad and jitu to help me for doing this medai job.

And i am sorry i informed you lately as i was scik and now very fine…

And i attached some of the paper cuttings.

Ashif Entaz Rabi

14/10 ΙΣΡΑΗΛ, ΜΕΣΟΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΗ ΔΙΑΔΡΟΜΗ 16 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Disarmament or Armageddon (14.10.2009 Mount Megiddo, Israel)

ΟΜΠΑΜΑ ΚΑΙ ΝΟΜΠΕΛ ΕΙΡΗΝΗΣ 12 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Θέμα: NOBEL ΕΙΡΗΝΗΣ

ΔΕΛΤΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ – 10 ΟΚΤΩΒΡΗ 2009
Breaking news

Το ελληνικό τμήμα της διεθνούς οργάνωσης Κόσμος χωρίς πολέμους στέκεται ιδιαιτέρως επιφυλακτικό στην απόφαση της Ακαδημίας Νόμπελ να απονείμει στον Πρόεδρο των ΗΠΑ, Μπαράκ Ομπάμα, το Νόμπελ Ειρήνης. Ο Πρόεδρος των ΗΠΑ διανύει τον ένατο μήνα της θητείας του και μόλις προχτές (8 Οκτωβρίου) όλος ο πλανήτης «γιόρτασε» τη μαύρη επέτειο των οκτώ χρόνων εισβολής στο Αφγανιστάν. Πρόκειται για έναν πόλεμο που ακόμα μαίνεται και οδηγεί καθημερινά σε απώλειες τόσο από την πλευρά των Αμερικανών στρατιωτών όσο και από την πλευρά των Αφγανών –ως επί το πλείστον- αμάχων. Ταυτόχρονα ουδόλως  ξεκάθαρη είναι η στάση των Αμερικανών στρατευμάτων στο Ιράκ.

Θεωρούμε απαράδεκτο ακόμα και για λόγους παρότρυνσης, όπως ισχυρίζεται η Ακαδημία Νόμπελ, να δίνεται το βραβείο σε άνθρωπο που, την ίδια στιγμή που βραβεύεται, ηγείται μιας χώρας με ανοιχτά πολεμικά μέτωπα. Χαιρετίσαμε την προσπάθεια του Αμερικανού Προέδρου να αποσύρει το σχέδιο για αντιπυραυλική ασπίδα στην Τσεχία ή την Πολωνία, όμως δεν το θεωρούμε αρκετό για την βράβευσή του με το Νόμπελ Ειρήνης. Αντίθετα, το θεωρούμε, στην παρούσα φάση, ύβρη για τη διεθνή κοινότητα και τις προσπάθειες χιλιάδων ακτιβιστών ανά τον κόσμο για την επικράτηση της ειρήνης και μηβίας.

Τμήμα επικοινωνίας
Μάρα Ρέπα: 6932433873 – Μαριανέλλα Κλώκα: 6942913972
Email: press@kosmosxorispolemous.gr

ΟΙ ΠΕΝΤΕ ΠΡΟΤΑΣΕΙΣ 12 Οκτωβρίου 2009

ΣΠΟΤ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΑ ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΤΗΛΕΟΠΤΙΚΟ ΔΙΚΤΥΟ ΤΗΣ ΒΡΑΖΙΛΙΑΣ 6 Οκτωβρίου 2009

2/10, ΜΠΑΝΓΚΛΑΝΤΕΣ: Η ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΣΤΟΝ ΤΥΠΟ 3 Οκτωβρίου 2009

Dear friends,

Today three national newspaper publish the news of world march starting.

I am giving some details :

1.Prothom published a special article about International Non violence day. The Heading was ` Why people will not be Non-violent. In another page they published another news about World March.

2. Daily Jugantor published a news ` Peace March is coming to Bangladesh’ . They give a very details story includding website address. It helps me a lot as i am receiving many mails from bangladesh people who want to join the march on 9th october.

3. Daily Somokal also pulished the news with world march logo.

I just contacted these 3 popular newspaper, all of them published the news and assured me that they will publish another followup about 9th october march of Dhaka.

A big hug
Ashif Entaz Rabi

Compañeros les invitamos a observar estos videos y compartirlos con los amigos. 28 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Οι Cate Blanchett και Andrew Upton υποστηρίζουν την Παγκόσμια Πορεία για την Ειρήνη και τη ΜηΒία 21 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Cate Blanchett is an Australian actress and theatre director. She has won multiple acting awards, most notably two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, an Academy Award, as well as the Volpi Cup at 64th Venice International Film Festival. Blanchett came to international attention in the 1998 film Elizabeth in which she played Elizabeth I of England. She is also well known for her portrayals of the elf queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Ringstrilogy, Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones

cate blanchett
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, a role which brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She and her husband Andrew Upton, a playwright, are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.

Η διεθνής ομάδα της Ισπανίας είναι έτοιμη για την Παγκόσμια Πορεία! 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Hello friends:

With great joy, we share with you the news that we have formalized the first team in World without Wars base in Madrid (Spain), compound (for now) by 20 people.

We’ve put Kilómetrocero symbolic name as the local MSG is near the Puerta del Sol, where a memorial stone of the ‘kilometer zero’ of Spain, a good omen for our journey.

We have also unanimously elected our first leader: Rafael de la Rubia.

A big hug,
MJ

Δήλωση του Jan Tamas για την παύση του σχεδίου αντιπυραυλικής ασπίδας στην Κεντρική Ευρώπη 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Today is a big day that represents a new era in international relations; relations that were during the recent years poisoned with continuous armament and conflicts, with unilateral actions and disrespect for the will of ordinary people.

The 70% of Czechs are celebrating; it feels like a liberation day here in Prague. Today is a big victory for nonviolence.

At the same time we are very cautiously watching the reaction of powerful people, who for a long time have been proponents of the project and who probably have personal interest in the establishment of these new military bases in Central Europe.

We understand that the real threat today comes not from national states, but rather from economic and military-industry power groups that operate outside of any state control and could escalate international tensions any time.

We express our full support for president Obama in all his disarmament efforts, especially in the area of nuclear disarmament.

The struggle has been a very intense one and was carried forward by humanists and many other organizations around the world. We thank you all for all your support.

We hope that this victory will be a positive example for all the movements in Europe and around the world that are opposing the military bases and the militarist agenda in general.

This success is a good-luck wish to The World March for Peace and Non-violence that will begin in just a few days, on October 2 and that will unite people from around the world in the struggle for a better tomorrow.

See you all during the March!

Jan Tamas

President of the Humanist Party

Leader of non-violent movement against US base in the Czech Republic

Prague, September 17, 2009

Ο ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΕΚΟΥΑΔΟΡ Rafael Correa ΥΠΕΡ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΑΣ ΠΟΡΕΙΑΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΜΗ ΒΙΑ 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

ΝΕΑ ΥΟΡΚΗ – WE WANT PEACE ON EARTH! 16 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Militarising space: The Fallujah fallacy 9 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Tuesday, 08 September 2009
By Eric Walberg

http://ericwalberg.com/

The Pentagon has made remarkable strides in militarisation of space this year, but its techno-schemes are built on the same sandy foundations as the rest of its defence policy, laments Eric Walberg. In April, Air Force Space Command activated a new unit — the 24th Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas — to keep pace with “the rapid changes in information technology and allow space and cyberspace capabilities to be more accessible to military ground commanders”, according to the Space Command’s top military officer General Robert Kehler. Kehler called the activation “the beginning of what will be a deliberate and focused effort to develop and evolve cyberspace forces and capabilities.”

In August, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) commenced its 12th annual Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, at the shiny new Von Braun Centre, named after the father of Nazi Germany’s missile project and one of the creators of the US ICBM programme, who along with several German colleagues was sent to Huntsville in 1950 (Operation Paperclip) to work on the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted by the Pentagon.
[Actually 100 of Hitler's rocket team were brought to Huntsville by the Pnetagon to create the US space program.]

Von Braun — sorry, I mean Kehler — told the Space and Missile Defense Conference that global deterrence is necessary to encourage restraint, deny benefits and impose costs to those nations and non-nation states that threaten the Reich — sorry, I mean the US and its allies.

The 2,000 participants heard lots more sabre-rattling from the likes of the head of NASA, Charles Bolden, a retired Marine Corps general. Bloomberg news agency predicted correctly in January that “President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between civilian and military space programmes to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.”
There were no dissenting voices at the inauguration of the 24th Air Force Cyberwar Unit in April or at the Star Wars conference in August. It appears to be conventional wisdom that, as Army Lieutenant General Kevin Campbell told the conference, space is “key terrain” which the US can’t afford to cede. More and more countries have the money to use space, if not to fund their own launch and development programmes, and “we should expect our adversaries to take advantage of that.” Lieutenant General Larry James, commander of the 14th Air Force space forces in California (how many air forces does one country need?) said a major problem commanders face is “space situational awareness” — knowing what’s in orbit, whom it belongs to and what it’s supposed to be doing. Among the suggested solutions is greater use of commercial partners. How clever, let’s privatise space warfare while we’re at it. Perhaps it will be more “efficient”.

The MDA told Von Braun’s disciples that it is accelerating the pace of full spectrum air, sea, land, cyber and space missile shield developments in addition to laser weapons, having just completed a successful sea-based missile interception from Hawaii. A disabled spy satellite was shot down in February 2008 by the USS Lake Erie, an Aegis-class Guided Missile Cruiser, which, as the Pentagon insisted at the time, had no military implications whatsoever. In July, the Pentagon announced plans to integrate its latest generation drone, the Reaper, into the global missile shield system. At the same time, Israel tested its Arrow II interceptor missile, jointly developed with the US, off the coast of California. The US and Israeli Defense Forces will hold a joint missile defense exercise in October, Juniper Cobra, testing the advanced X-Band radar, a farewell gift to the land of Shalom from the Bush administration. The radar is capable of tracking small targets thousands of kilometres away. Thousands of kilometres away means surveillance of not only Syria and Iran but a large swathe of southern Russia.

All this makes perfect, if horrible, sense. The US empire is on the march and the Pentagon learned the perils of the draft from the massive public protests it provoked during the Vietnam war. It already operates on a global electronic battlefield where the fighting is increasingly done by robot drones guided by surveillance systems, the idea being to minimise US casualties. This was what Rumsfeld had in mind when he thought he could conquer Iraq and Afghanistan with a handful of troops on the ground. Even so, there is a lack of drafted cannon fodder, so in addition to robots, foreign nationals are offered immediate US citizenship if they sign up, and mercenaries (aka private contractors) — US and foreign — are employed to help fight on the ground. Hence the impotence of the peace movement in the face of US multiple wars, although the logic of the Rumsfeld doctrine is already looking pretty threadbare.

Iraq offers a heart-breaking example of a war in which mercenaries so inflamed the locals they were sent to “liberate” that, when given the chance in Fallujah, enraged mobs dragged the bodies of four of them through the streets, burned and hung two of them from a bridge. This scene was televised globally and prompted the US to make a punishing, retaliatory assault on Fallujah, causing widespread death and destruction, with no protest from Western governments. The new old logic on the ground is: conquer hearts-and-minds by terrorising and killing those who resist, preferably with robots and mercenaries.

The logic in the heavens is merely an extension of this: Star Wars is unashamedly a first strike global missile shield system. “The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy” in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Foreign Affairs (March 2006) states: “It will probably soon be possible for the United States to destroy the long-range nuclear arsenals of Russia or China with a first strike. The US Air Force has enhanced the avionics on its B-2 stealth bombers to permit them to fly at extremely low altitudes in order to avoid even the most sophisticated radar.” Deploying short-, medium- and long-range interceptor missile batteries, mobile missile radar stations, long-range super-stealth nuclear bombers, Aegis-class destroyers equipped to sail the world’s seas to hunt down conventional and nuclear missiles, and surveillance satellites and weapons in space is not designed to target non-existent intercontinental ballistic missile threats from Iran or Syria, or even from North Korea, concludes analyst Rick Rozoff, but to blackmail Russia and China and prepare the groundwork to “win” in a first strike nuclear war.

On August 11, just a few days before the Von Baunites gathered in Alabama, Russian Air Force commander Alexander Zelin warned, “By 2030 foreign countries, particularly the US, will be able to deliver coordinated high-precision strikes from air and space against any target on the whole territory of Russia. That is why the main goal of the development of the Russian Air Force until 2020 is to provide a reliable deterrent during peacetime, and repel any military aggression with the use of conventional and nuclear arsenals in a time of war.” The following day Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, “Outer space is now facing the looming danger of weaponisation. Credible and effective multilateral measures must be taken to forestall the weaponisation and arms race in outer space.”

Make no mistake, the Pentagon is busy shooting for global military supremacy. This year is crucial to get things right before the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) in December. A joint understanding for a follow-on “agreement” to START-1 was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in July. The US strategy appears to be to replace the treaty with a less formal agreement that eliminates strict verification requirements and weapons limits. Former US assistant secretary of state Paula DeSutter said in May 2007 that the major provisions of the treaty “are no longer necessary. We don’t believe we’re in a place where we need have to have the detailed lists and verification measures.”

More US “logic”, this time dismissing the need for much-hated treaties, which would have to be confirmed by the Senate and, worse yet, adhered to, instead of informal “cooperation”, meaning arm-twisting or merely ignoring protests. The connection between the lack of interest in a replacement for START-1 and Washington’s missile shield designs is not lost on the Russians. The CFR admits that US missile plans in Europe are seen by the Russians “not so much as missile defense as a deployment of first-strike capability.” Zelin revealed that defence upgrading would include developing “new missiles that will be capable of defending against space-based systems.”

Despite the fact that there is no popular will for militarising space, there is little standing in its way, with “defence” policy now solidly bipartisan, and Euro-silence and even Euro-cheerleading. Only “authoritarian” Russia and China call for a treaty against space warfare. The US dismisses these calls as designed to block its plans for the missile interceptor system. Well, yes, that is the point. “The practice of seeking absolute strategic advantage should be abandoned. Countries should neither develop missile defense systems that undermine global strategic stability nor deploy weapons in outer space,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told the peaceniks in Geneva, as the Von Braunites were promoting peace US-style. He added that China welcomed moves to rid the world of nuclear weapons, including China’s. “The complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons and a nuclear weapon-free world have become widely embraced goals,” Yang said, referring to Obama’s call in April for a “world without nuclear weapons”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told them much the same. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was conspicuous in Geneva by her absence.

Too bad no US generals or senior government officials bothered to drop in on the Geneva conference, where the fallacy in their “logic” could have been explained to them: a treaty signed by the nations of the world, led by all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, would prevent any “adversaries” from taking “advantage” of using space for military purposes. The most touted blaggard, North Korea, cannot even get its satellites into orbit, assuming they are of any military significance. The rogue states that can and do (no names are necessary) would be forced by a treaty to curb their appetites for cyber Armageddon, allowing the world to breathe slightly more easily.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502

http://www.space4peace.org

globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)

Participation in the mailing list of the “World March.” 8 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

We are forming a mailing list for all the members of the Humanist Movement who are supporting the World March for Peace and Non-Violence, and for those who just wish to keep themselves informed.

· This mailing list will be operative from September till January 2010, which is the month when the March ends.
· We also invite to this mailing list the supporters of the March who, while not belonging to the Movement, wish to support it actively so as to reach its maximum worldwide diffusion.
· The mailing list will be operative in different languages, and its objective is information and coordination of the different activities and initiatives that are being carried out regarding this joint action.
· To make the information of the March circulate through this mailing list will be made a priority.
· We propose that similar mailing lists are created in every country. Thus, whoever wishes so may subscribe to this list as well as to his/her own country mailing list.

If you want to participate in this mailing list, you should subscribe as follows:

Get in touch through: http://worldmarch. humanism. org/list/
In this website you should register your name, surname, country of residence, and your email address. A few minutes later you will receive an email to confirm your intention of subscribing to the mailing list and to confirm your email address. If you wish to confirm your subscription to the mailing list, you should reply to that email with a Reply. With it, you will remain already subscribed.

If you do not receive the confirmation email, try the process again or else send your data to Muty (muty@ciudad. com.ar) or Marco ( marco@makeko. com ), and they will help you to subscribe.

I kindly request you to make this invitation circulate throughout the Movement and among the active supporters of the “World March for Peace and Non-Violence.”

A strong hug,
Dario Ergas
Humanist Movement

ΧΟΝΓΚ ΚΟΝΓΚ:ΝΕΑ ΣΥΜΜΕΤΟΧΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΠ 7 Σεπτεμβρίου 2009

Elie Tu

European Humanist Forum The strength of nonviolence:Rafael de la Rubia Spokesperson World March for Peace and Nonviolence 29 Αυγούστου 2009

European Humanist Forum
The strength of nonviolence
Milan, 17th – 19th October 2008

Rafael de la Rubia
Spokesperson
World March for Peace and Nonviolence

Friends, I will make a brief introduction about the “World March for Peace and Nonviolence”.

Beforehand I would like to thank the organisers for opening this Forum for the first public presentation about the World March in Europe. Soon there will be presentations for America in Buenos Aires, for Africa in Nairobi and the official launch that in one month from now will take place in Punta de Vacas at the foot of Mount Aconcagua.

How and why a World March?… I will present some of the numerous reasons.

Because for many of us we don’t like what is happening. The profound crisis in which we are will have serious consequences, among others the increase of famine in the world.
However, hunger could be resolved with 10% of what is spent on weapons.

What could be done if 50% were to be used to improve the life of people instead of being applied to destruction and the benefit of a few?
Because everyone already knows that conflicts and violence lead us down a blind alley, towards self-destruction and the abyss.
Because global problems have to be given responses at the same level, that is, global.

Because those who want peace are the vast majority. An absolute majority. And if we are in democracies, how is that this will is not respected?

Because in this aspiration we are accompanied by the strength of the voices of so many previous generations that suffered the consequences of wars.

Maybe because there is nothing that unites all the initiatives in favour of peace and nonviolence that remain dispersed and diluted…
The moment has arrived to make the voices of those without a voice be heard! We want thousands, millions of human beings to express themselves.

All of this we can achieve by uniting all social sectors through the World March.

For some this World March is madness. Others are enthusiastic. To the great majority it’s interesting, even necessary… but unachievable. So our first job was centred on seeing if it were possible.

We took one year to make a feasibility study. Last June we decided to go ahead and we activated the World March. Today little more than three months later we are making a first evaluation. In this case very brief because of the short time and to not bore you.
I’m not going to entertain you with the statistics of this march that will be rolled out over 93 days. I’m going to tell you about the initiatives that are being launched to support this action.

They are initiatives that have emerged at the base, many of which have a novel character, innovative, outside the ordinary. Initiatives with a lot imagination, accompanied by a playful and party tone. I take the opportunity to remind you that this march is not aimed against anybody, it is an action that is aiming to open new paths…
I’m going to show you highlights as mentioning everything would take very long.

There are many activities in educational centres: marches, living symbols of peace and insertion in academic curricula of themes of peace and nonviolence. In Malaga, Spain, 800 schools. In a community in Chile, 52 colleges, are accommodating the contents to study geography, fauna, flora, minerals, cultures of the countries through which the World March passes.

There are universities that have pledged support. In Spain the World March is being presented in the Conference of Rectors of all Universities of Spain.

They are organising monthly marches with music bands, until making a big march with all the music bands of the city.

Entire sporting associations are joining: marathon runners and cyclists, with different routes, some international.

There are special marches: in Sardinia they will go through all the towns on the island and in Russia they will march on foot through the cities where Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky lived and wrote.
The World March can help in border conflicts or closed borders. These are the cases of Algeria-Morocco, Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan, the two Koreas and Mexico-USA to list a few examples.

Many mayors are offering accommodation, food and transport to the World March. In some case in large numbers.

We have already confirmed the reception of members of the World March by a president and government of a country.

Many personalities and well-known people have pledged support. Around 100 from around the world have made their support explicit (noble prize winners, scientists, intellectuals, artists, sportsmen and women).

200 organisations around the world have pledged support. In some countries, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, Human Rights associations. Some organisations like the Landless Movement in Brazil, peasant organisations in Central America and India have shown their interest in the World March.

We are working in various networks: mayors, parliamentarians and Universities for the World March.

With the World March, in addition, we are moving rappers, graffiti artists, motorcyclists, classical music groups, ballet companies, theatres. Russian parachuters want to make the peace symbol. A guild of fishermen what to make a march by boat to cross the straits of Gibraltar. In Chile and other places they want to make an air raid with hundreds of small planes accompanying the march. Also with hot air balloons.

There is a project for 3 mega-concerts: Prague, Dakar and Santiago where they already have O’Higgins Park reserved for 80,000 people. The projects of concerts in cities are numerous.

The World March has a central axis from New Zealand to Argentina. But numerous convergent routes have emerged. Adding the convergent routes together in kilometres will be greater that the central axis.

In June the World March was covering 40 countries. Today it is 90.
A few days ago on the 2nd of October, International day of nonviolence, one year until the start of the World March, events were carried out in 100 cities in 50 countries.

All of this has happened in barely 3 months.

Friends, as you have seen this is a living march that is being built.
The carrying out and the result of this World March depends on what each one of us does in this year that remains. These individual actions, like small drops of water that trickle together, converging to become a great and strong river that advances gently but unstoppably towards its destination.

It depends on us that the World March becomes something important. The need is imperative, the environment is receptive, the conditions are excellent.

It is the great opportunity for us to become a great force. Not the force of imposition, not the force of hardness, not the force of the powerful. The force of the soft, the force of coherence, the force of need, the force of the profound. This first World March is the nonviolent response that the human being is giving at a planetary level to reject a violent, unjust and remorseless world where we will seek to open new horizons of peace and coexistence for humanity.

I would like to end by sharing with you a phrase that made a great impact on me. It was sent to me by a pacifist leader in Jerusalem. He said: “The idea of the World March has been passed to members of my personal team and the leaders of the community. They are all very enthusiastic and see in this march an excellent opportunity to make what will be the greatest declaration to promote peace in history”…

I don’t know if we will reach the goal that our friend expressed. But if with the World March we manage to make a contribution to “raising awareness” about Peace and Nonviolence, then our objective will be fulfilled.

Many thanks.

Εκστρατεία για τον παγκόσμιο πυρηνικό αφοπλισμό: ερωτηματολόγιο 29 Αυγούστου 2009

1. Σε κλίμακα 1 –10 πόσο θεωρείτε ότι είστε ενημερωμένος-η για τα πυρηνικά όπλα;

2. Σε κλίμακα 1 –10 πόσο θεωρείτε ότι είμαστε κοντά σε μια πιθανή χρήση ατομικής  βόμβας σήμερα;

3. Γνωρίζετε αν και πόσα πυρηνικά όπλα υπάρχουν στην Ελλάδα;

Α. 12                           Β. 0                             Γ. 7

4. Ξέρετε πόσα πυρηνικά όπλα υπάρχουν συνολικά στον πλανήτη;

Α. 300    Β. περισσότερα από 30.000 Γ. 300.000

5. Γνωρίζετε ποιο είναι το πιθανό μέγεθος καταστροφής σήμερα από τα πυρηνικά όπλα;

Α. Μισός πλανήτης                                       Β. Τρεις φορές η καταστροφή της γης

Γ. Η καταστροφή της γης επί 25 φορές

6. Γνωρίζετε το μέγεθος της ατομικής βόμβας;

Α. Όσο ένα φορτηγό                 Β. Όσο ένα πλυντήριο ρούχων

Γ. Όσο μια βαλίτσα χειρός

7. Ξέρετε τι είναι το NPΤ;

Α. Μουσικό συγκρότημα                  Β. Εκρηκτική ύλη

Γ. Συμφωνία για τη μη διάδοση των πυρηνικών όπλων

8. Ποιος παραβιάζει το ΝΡΤ;

Α. ΝΑΤΟ και Ρωσία              Β. Μαδαγασκάρη              Γ. Ιράν

Δ. Πακιστάν και Ισραήλ

9. Πιστεύετε ότι ο συνολικός πυρηνικός αφοπλισμός αποτελεί επιτακτική ανάγκη;

ΝΑΙ                              ΟΧΙ

ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΕΙΣ

Στην Ελλάδα υπάρχουν τουλάχιστον 12 πυρηνικά όπλα στις νατοϊκές βάσεις (Σούδα, Άκτιο). Σε όλο τον κόσμο όμως υπάρχουν περισσότερα από 30.000, ικανά να καταστρέψουν ολόκληρο τον πλανήτη 25 φορές. Το ΝΡΤ είναι η συμφωνία για τη μη διάδοση των πυρηνικών όπλων (Non Proliferation Treaty), την οποία παραβιάζουν οι Η.Π.Α., η Μεγάλη Βρετανία, η Γαλλία, η Γερμανία και η Ρωσία. Το Πακιστάν και το Ισραήλ δεν την έχουν αποδεχθεί. Όσον αφορά στο Ιράν δεν έχουν βρεθεί αποδείξεις για πυρηνικά όπλα. Το μέγεθός μιας ατομικής βόμβας σήμερα αντιστοιχεί περίπου σε αυτό μιας βαλίτσας.

Ένας παγκόσμιος πυρηνικός αφοπλισμός είναι η μόνη λύση για την εξάλειψη του μεγαλύτερου κινδύνου που μπορεί να απειλήσει τον άνθρωπο και σήμερα βρίσκεται σε οριακό έλεγχο…

ΟΡΓΑΝΩΣΕΙΣ που υποστηρίζουν την παγκόσμια πορεία 29 Αυγούστου 2009

Greenpeace – Ουγγαρίας, Τσεχίας

Διεθνής Αμνηστία – Χιλής, Ουρουγουάης, Μεξικού, Γερμανίας

Ίδρυμα πολιτισμού ειρήνης – Ισπανίας

Εκστρατεία για την απόσυρση των αμερικανικών βάσεων – Μεγάλης Βρετανίας

ΑΜΙΑ – Αργεντινής

Μητέρες της Πλάζα ντε Μάγιο – Αργεντινής

MNV – Ιταλίας

Ερυθρός Σταυρός – Χιλής, Αργεντινής

Χρώματα του μέλλοντος – Γαλλίας

INES – Γερμανίας

ALDEA PROJECT – Ισπανίας

MASATAKAY KEIKO OTA – Βραζιλίας

Be positive – Ελλάδας

Afro aid – Ελβετία

Σωματείο ηθοποιών – Αργεντινής

Οργάνωση Μάρτιν Λούθερ Κινγκ – Ουγγαρίας

Κέντρο ανθρωπιστικών σπουδών – διεθνής οργάνωσης

Κέντρο Πολιτισμών – διεθνής οργάνωση

Το δένδρο της γνώσης – Σενεγάλης

Ευρώπη για την ειρήνη – διεθνής οργάνωση

Οργάνωση Ντα Βίντσι – Αργεντινής

Ίδρυμα Μιχαήλ Γκορμπατσώφ – Ρωσίας

Η Κοινότητα – διεθνής οργάνωσης

Παγκόσμιο Ίδρυμα Ασφαλείας (Η.Π.Α.)

Υφυπουργείο Σιδηροδρομικών Μεταφορών (Αργεντινή)

Humanity’s team (Γερμανία)

United Nations Association of New Zealand (Nέα Ζηλανδία)

The Peace Foundation (Nέα Ζηλανδία)

Συμμαχία για μια νέα Ανθρωπότητα (Η.Π.Α.)

ΤΙ ΕΙΝΑΙ Η ΜΗΒΙΑ 29 Αυγούστου 2009

ΜΗΒΙΑ

Στρατηγική αγώνα του Νέου Ανθρωπισμού, σχετική με την συστηματική καταγγε­λία όλων των μορφών βίας που εξασκεί το Σύστημα. Επίσης, τακτική αγώνα που εφαρμό­ζεται σε συγκεκριμένες καταστάσεις, στις οποίες οποιαδήποτε μορφή διάκρισης λαμβάνει χώρα.