[Reader-list] The 64th Anniversary Of USA Terrorism Enlightened By The Wisdom of Nonviolence By Eileen Fleming (fwd from Countercurrents.org)

[Murali V]

And today the media says that Manmohan has been cheated because the SC of
Pak has freed Sayeed.
Regards,
V Murali

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 4:37 PM, Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi <
rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sir,
>  are you not forgetting the "carpet bombing " of daisy cutters in
> Afghanistan, or to that matter the killing of innocents to introduce
> democracy in Iraq searching the imaginary "weapons of Mass destruction" or
> to that matter the popular day of Manmohini Singh with deal of N-deal
> loosing the trust of the nation winning the trust with money bags.?
>
> Regards,
>  Rajen.
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Venugopalan K M <kmvenuannur at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > The 64th Anniversary Of USA Terrorism Enlightened By The Wisdom of
> > Nonviolence
> >
> > By Eileen Fleming
> >
> > 02 August, 2009
> > Countercurrents.org
> >
> > This August 6th and 9th mark the 64th anniversary of the most brutal
> > acts of terrorism upon innocent people; America's atomic bombings of
> > Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
> >
> > On Armistice Day, 1948 General Omar Nelson Bradley warned, "We live in
> > a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has
> > achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have
> > solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon
> > on The Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more
> > about dying than we know about living."
> >
> > In 1995, from Ashkelon Prison, Mordechai Vanunu noted: "A radioactive
> > cloud consumed rubbed out Hiroshima...A live nuclear test sentenced
> > you. A nuclear laboratory…children women trees animals in and under a
> > nuclear mushroom…burning… burned…flattened to ground radioactive
> > ash-Hiroshima...Nuclear weapons gamblers win against you…Hollywood
> > doesn't know you - you are not a Jewish Holocaust." [1]
> >
> > A little history:
> >
> > At 2:45 AM, on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber flew north from
> > Tinian Island toward Japan. Three and a half hours later, the Enola
> > Gay dropped "Little Boy" an 8,900-pound atomic weapon upon civilians
> > in Hiroshima and leveled almost 90% of the city. On August 9, "Fat
> > Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, and one third of that city was
> > destroyed.
> >
> > "Little Boy" was fuelled by highly enriched uranium-235 and generated
> > a destructive force of about 15 kilotons—the equivalent of 15,000 tons
> > of TNT. "Fat Man" consisted of a plutonium core surrounded by high
> > explosives wired to explode simultaneously and yielded a 22 kiloton
> > explosion.
> >
> > As a child, I could not comprehend how my country could cold bloodedly
> > target and murder Japanese citizens in order to 'save' American lives,
> > which was the lame response I always received from every adult I
> > questioned as to why after what we did to Hiroshima did we do it again
> > to Nagasaki?
> >
> > If THAT DAY, we call 9/11 taught us anything, it should be that
> > America's nuclear arsenal cannot defeat 'terrorism' or provide
> > security from the actions of a few violent mad men who target and
> > murder innocent ones.
> >
> > American money is imprinted with "IN GOD WE TRUST" but reality is we
> > have become a nation of hypocrites, for by our foreign policy we
> > expose that we live by the sword.
> >
> > America has a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 weapons and nearly 2,000
> > remain on hair-trigger alert ever since the end of the Cold War.
> >
> > An estimated 150 – 240 tactical nuclear weapons remain based in 5 NATO
> > countries and the United States is the only country with nuclear
> > weapons deployed on foreign soil.
> >
> > American taxpayers provide over $54 billion annually to maintain
> > WMD's, which is but a drop in the bucket of the overall U.S. military
> > spending. The U.S. is also a co-conspirator in international nuclear
> > apartheid and major collaborator in Israel's INEFFECTIVE policy of
> > nuclear ambiguity.
> >
> > In April 2004, and just three days after Vanunu was released from 18
> > years in jail for providing the photographic proof and telling the
> > truth about Israel's clandestine seven story underground WMD Program
> > in the Negev, Uri Avnery wrote:
> >
> > "Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a
> > technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has
> > advanced with giant steps?
> >
> > "But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is
> > really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close
> > partnership with the United States in the development of Israel's
> > nuclear armaments.
> >
> > "This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the
> > State Department for 'arms control', Under-Secretary John Bolton, has
> > come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can
> > cause severe damage to the mighty super-power.
> >
> > "The Americans, it seems, are very worried. The Israeli security
> > services have to dance to their tune. The world must be prevented by
> > all available means from hearing, from the lips of a credible witness,
> > that the Americans are full partners in Israel's nuclear arms program,
> > while pretending to be the world's sheriff for the prevention of
> > nuclear proliferation."[2]
> >
> > On July 29, 2009, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore gave a
> > keynote talk at the first Deterrence Symposium, hosted by U.S.
> > Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
> >
> > He said, "Our world and its leaders must stay focused on the
> > destination of a nuclear-weapons-free world and on the concrete steps
> > that lead there…[and] that deterrence, in the words of the U.S.
> > bishops, is not 'a long-term basis for peace' …the spread of nuclear
> > weapons and technology to other nations, and the threat of nuclear
> > terrorism, which cannot be deterred with nuclear weapons, point to the
> > need to move beyond nuclear deterrence as rapidly as
> > possible…Religious leaders, prominent officials, and other people of
> > goodwill who support a nuclear-weapons-free world are not naïve about
> > the task ahead. They know the path will be difficult and will require
> > determined political leadership, strong public support, and the
> > dedicated skills of many capable leaders and technical experts. But
> > difficult is not impossible.” [3]
> >
> > The Archbishop outlined several concrete steps toward total nuclear
> > disarmament supported by the Catholic Church, including the Nuclear
> > Test Ban Treaty, negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty,
> > and the revision of military doctrines of nuclear weapon states to
> > “renounce the first use of nuclear weapons” and “declare they will not
> > be used against non-nuclear threats.”[Ibid]
> >
> > In Hiroshima on May 2008, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mairead Maguire
> said:
> >
> > "We live in an insecure, uncertain world; it is also a time of
> > opportunity. It is a time to put aside many of the old ways and with
> > creativity and imagination, develop new thinking, ideas, institutions,
> > etc. Young people and women will help this process; they know that
> > Nuclear weapons belong to the cold war thinking, and can never be
> > used. To do so, would be immoral, illogical and destroy the
> > Environment.
> >
> > "They know our real problems, are: Poverty, Environment, unethical
> > globalization, abuse of Human Rights and International Laws, gender
> > inequality, ethnical/political conflict, State and paramilitary acts
> > of terror…They know that spending trillions on weapons that can never
> > be used, while each day over 30,000 children die of preventable
> > disease, is immoral and unacceptable.
> >
> > "We are all aware that we are living in an increasing Culture of
> > violence, and if we are to survive we need to build a Culture of
> > Non-violence. Choosing not to kill another human being is the greatest
> > contribution each of us can make to peace. This is not a hard choice
> > when through prayer, meditation, morality, or logic, we come to
> > realize that our lives are sacred as is the life of all our brothers
> > and sisters, and there are always alternatives to violence which work.
> > Human beings are evolving and there is a new consciousness that we
> > must choose non-violence and build strong relationships and
> > community." [4]
> >
> > On May 17, 2009, Mairead prevailed on seventeen Nobel laureates to
> > sign a letter called the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Declaration. Her friend,
> > author and Jesuit priest John Dear wrote of that day:
> >
> > "Released in Hiroshima, it calls upon world leaders, and all people,
> > to eliminate nuclear weapons. And it warns that unless humanity fails
> > in that endeavor, 'the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki' will be
> > repeated. Such weapons, [Mairead] says, belong to the tragic past.
> > They belong to a time when the world lacked the wisdom to realize that
> > each culture needs the other to survive.
> >
> > "Governments which still hold such weapons violate the prohibition of
> > war in the UN charter. But more than that, she says, they’re operating
> > anachronistically. They’re out of touch with the insights of the
> > times. Nowadays our enemies aren’t across the border. The enemies of
> > humanity today are poverty, environmental destruction, militarism, and
> > war.
> >
> > "Our security nowadays lies in nonviolence and love. She insists that
> > we all need to heed the wisdom of nonviolence and apply it
> > institutionally, internationally, globally and concluded in The Vision
> > of Peace, 'Everyone of us has a role to play in the creation of a new
> > culture of nonviolence.'" [5]
> >
> > 2009 is the final year in the United Nations Decade of Creating a
> > Culture of Nonviolence for All the Children of the World. America is
> > on the record in the UN as abstaining from voting because to support
> > such an initiative would make it "too hard for us to go to war."
> >
> > Many Americans live under the delusion that the USA is a Christian
> > nation. If that were true, we would lead the way in nuclear
> > disarmament and abolish war.
> >
> > John Dear also wrote:
> >
> > "Contrary to what the Pentagon tells us, that our God is not a god of
> > war, but the God of peace; not a god of injustice, but the God of
> > justice; not a god of vengeance and retaliation, but the God of
> > compassion and mercy; not a god of violence, but the God of
> > non-violence; not a god of death, but the living God of life.
> >
> > "[And then] we discover a new image of God. As we begin to imagine the
> > peace and non-violence of God; we learn to worship the God of peace
> > and non-violence; and in the process, become people of peace and
> > non-violence.
> >
> > "The one thing we can say for sure about Jesus is that he practiced
> > active, public, creative non-violence. He called us to love our
> > neighbors; to show compassion toward everyone; to seek justice for the
> > poor; to forgive everyone; to put down the sword; to take up the cross
> > in the struggle for justice and peace; to lay down our lives, to risk
> > our lives if necessary, in love for all humanity, and most of all, to
> > love our enemies. His last words to the community, to the church, to
> > us, as the soldiers dragged him away, could not be clearer or more to
> > the point: "Put down the sword."
> >
> > "That's it. We are not allowed to kill. That's why they run away; they
> > realize he is serious about non-violence…Jesus dies on the cross
> > saying, "The violence stops here in my body, which is given for you.
> > You are forgiven, but from now on, you are not allowed to kill:
> >
> > "Violence doesn't work. War doesn't work. Violence in response to
> > violence always leads to further violence. Those who live by the sword
> > will die by the sword. Those who live by the bomb, the gun, the
> > nuclear weapon, will die by bombs, guns and nuclear weapons. You reap
> > what you sow. The means are the ends. What goes around comes around.
> > War can not stop terrorism because war is terrorism. War only sows the
> > seeds for future wars.
> >
> > "Underneath this culture of war and injustice is a sophisticated
> > spirituality of violence, a spirituality of war, a spirituality of
> > empire, a spirituality of injustice that has nothing to do with the
> > living God or the Gospel of Jesus. [Ibid]
> >
> > Jesus is best known as The Prince of Peace and when he told Nicodemus,
> > that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven, he was not
> > talking about an emotional high, but a TRANSFORMATION of heart and
> > mind to wake up and see The Divine in ALL people and all of creation.
> >
> > Every August 6th in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican
> > churches, there is a celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration
> > of Jesus, an event reported in the synoptic gospels in which Jesus
> > became radiant having undergone a metamorphosis; a transformation.
> >
> > In 2008, at the National Press Club, Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis,
> > Theological Advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on Environmental
> > Issues, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America addressed President
> > Bush's agenda known as COMPLEX TRANSFORMATION:
> >
> > "The question is not how much more sophisticated our plants and
> > weapons can become, but how serious we are as a nation to lead the
> > world with an alternative vision which interprets power differently
> > and promotes peaceful coexistence globally.
> >
> > "Complex Transformation is the Bush administration proposed plan to
> > restructure the nation's nuclear weapons infrastructure. The
> > administration's goal is to consolidate existing nuclear facilities
> > while increasing the capacity to produce material for new nuclear
> > weapons.
> >
> > "According to a report jointly released by the Energy Department (DOE)
> > on January 10, 2008, the administration seeks an annual production
> > capacity of 80 plutonium pits (read: triggers for new nuclear bombs)
> > as a result of the transformation.
> >
> > "The main justification for the program is the perceived need for a
> > more adaptable and responsive nuclear infrastructure to react to
> > unnamed future threats."[6]
> >
> > The Wisdom of Nonviolence
> >
> > "The God of peace is never glorified by human violence… The radical
> > truth of reality is that we are all one." –Thomas Merton
> >
> > Gandhi's non-violence was a political tactic that evolved from the
> > inner realization of spiritual unity within himself. Gandhi studied
> > all the world's religions and after attending many churches, he
> > remarked that Christianity was a great religion and all Christians
> > should "TRY IT!"
> >
> > The problem is not with Christianity, but that too few who claim to be
> > have taken The Sermon on The Mount as their manifesto and live lives
> > that express that God is Love and God Loves All.
> >
> > "Love is not the starving of whole populations. Love is not the
> > bombardment of open cities. Love is not killing......Our manifesto is
> > the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be
> > peacemakers." -Dorothy Day
> >
> > "The wisdom of non-violence teaches that war is not the way to follow
> > Jesus. War is not the will of God. War is never justified. War is
> > never blessed by God. War is not endorsed by any religion. War is the
> > very definition of mortal sin. War is demonic, evil, anti-human,
> > anti-life, anti-God, and anti-Christ." [7]
> >
> > "In all of earth’s sixty-five-million-year history, we are living in
> > the most dangerous of times. The fact that a bomb was dropped on
> > Hiroshima and two hundred thousand lives were vaporized within twenty
> > minutes has not prevented man from dreaming up more ways to fill space
> > with weapons of mass destruction. We were not created for militarism,
> > but to turn our swords into plowshares. We have arrived here today by
> > no accident. We have been summoned by the universe to claim the
> > highest common ground. As the Dali Lama said, the radicalism of our
> > age is to be compassionate human beings. We have been called to bring
> > love and compassion back into the equation and assist others to
> > connect with the deepest parts of themselves. Now is the time to
> > realize, as never before, that when any of us suffer, we all suffer.
> > All life is interconnected, interdependent, and greatly loved by the
> > creator, the sustainer of the universe. We are called by love, for
> > love, and to love.”- Franciscan Fr. Louis Vitale, July 20, 2005,
> > Berkeley, California at TIKKUN’s first annual conference for spiritual
> > progressives. [8]
> >
> > From Ashkelon prison in 1987, Mordechai Vanunu asked:
> >
> > "Any country, which manufactures and stocks nuclear weapons, is first
> > of all endangering its own citizens. This is why the citizens must
> > confront their government and warn it that it has no right to expose
> > them to this danger. Because, in effect, the citizens are being held
> > hostage by their own government, just as if they have been hijacked
> > and deprived of their freedom and threatened…when governments develop
> > nuclear weapons without the consent of their citizens - and this is
> > true in most cases - they are violating the basic rights of their
> > citizens, the basic right not to live under constant threat of
> > annihilation…Is any government qualified and authorized to produce
> > such weapons?"
> >
> > On April 5, 2009, President Obama stood on the world stage amongst
> > thousands of flag-waving Czechs and spoke of good humor, home town
> > Chicago, the will of the people over tanks and guns, old conflicts,
> > revolution, moral leadership as the most powerful weapon, iron
> > curtains that fell and the state of 21st century nuclear weapons:
> >
> > "We are here today because enough people ignored the voices who told
> > them that the world could not change. We're here today because of the
> > courage of those who stood up and took risks to say that freedom is a
> > right for all people, no matter what side of a wall they live on, and
> > no matter what they look like. We are here today because the simple
> > and principled pursuit of liberty and opportunity shamed those who
> > relied on the power of tanks and arms to put down the will of a
> > people.
> >
> > "Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot
> > be checked -– that we are destined to live in a world where more
> > nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction.
> > Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread
> > of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to
> > ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.
> >
> > "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United
> > States has a moral responsibility to act…It will take patience and
> > persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that
> > the world cannot change. We have to insist, "Yes, we can."
> >
> > "There is violence and injustice in our world that must be confronted.
> > We must confront it by standing together as free nations, as free
> > people. I know that a call to arms can stir the souls of men and women
> > more than a call to lay them down. But that is why the voices for
> > peace and progress must be raised together.
> >
> > "Let us honor our past by reaching for a better future. Let us bridge
> > our divisions, build upon our hopes, and accept our responsibility to
> > leave this world more prosperous and more peaceful than we found it.
> > Together we can do it.
> >
> > "Words must mean something [and] violence and injustice must be
> > confronted by standing together as free nations, as free people…[and]
> > Human destiny will be what we make of it."[9]
> >
> > To this day, the USA and Israel claim to be peace seekers and
> democracies.
> >
> > "Israel is a not a democracy but is an Ethnocracy, meaning a country
> > run and controlled by a national group with some democratic elements
> > but set up with Jews in control and structured to keep them in
> > control.”-Jeff Halper, American Israeli, Founder and Coordinator of
> > ICAHD/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a Noble Peace
> > Prize Nominee for 2006.
> >
> > To this day Vanunu remains an open air prisoner captive in occupied
> > east Jerusalem denied the right to leave the Jewish State. What
> > Vanunu's Freedom of Speech trial exposed since it began on January 25,
> > 2006 is that the Israeli SECURITY System controls the Israeli Ministry
> > of Justice. [Learn more: Vanunu Archives @ WeAreWideAwake.org]
> >
> > To this day, Tel Aviv persists to attempt to deflect its egregious
> > transgressions of international law and human rights abuses aided and
> > abetted by well funded publicity campaigns, an AIPAC beholden Congress
> > and an American media that has failed at its commission to seek and
> > report all sides of a story when in comes to the now 42 years of
> > military occupation of Palestine.
> >
> > In April 1999, thirty-six members of the House of Representatives
> > signed a letter calling for Vanunu's release from prison because they
> > believed "we have a duty to stand up for men and women like Mordechai
> > Vanunu who dare to articulate a brighter vision for humanity."
> >
> > President Clinton responded with a public statement expressing concern
> > for Vanunu and the need for Israel and other non-parties to the
> > Non-Proliferation Treaty to adhere to it and accept IAEA safeguards.
> >
> > However, ever since the silence had been deafening, until hope
> > resurrected in Prague:
> >
> > "Words must mean something [and] violence and injustice must be
> > confronted by standing together as free nations, as free people…Human
> > destiny will be what we make of it."-President Obama
> >
> > "You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic
> > bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a
> > weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police.
> > Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization
> > that has ceased...to obey the laws of life."- Lewis Mumford, 1946
> >
> > "Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think
> > we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends...I believe that as soon
> > as people want peace in the world they can have it. The only trouble
> > is they are not aware they can get it…You're just left with yourself
> > all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your
> > own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate...All we are
> > saying is give peace a chance...All you need is love...Imagine all the
> > people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not
> > the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as
> > one...Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."-John Lennon
> >
> > "If you are not apart of the solution; you are apart of the
> > problem."-Eldridge Cleaver
> >
> > Learn more and please and thanks for doing something:
> >
> > http://www.paxchristiusa.org/newsletters/
> > October2008NewsletterWeb.pdf
> >
> > http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?
> > option=com_content&task=view&id=660&Itemid=175
> >
> > 1. http://vanunu.com/poems/mvpoemhiroshima.html
> >
> > 2. http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org
> > /taxonomy/term/226
> >
> > 3. www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/n. The full text of Archbishop
> > O’Brien’s talk, “Nuclear Weapons and Moral Questions: The Path to
> > Zero,” uclearzero.shtml.
> >
> > 4. http://peacepeople.com
> >
> > 5. http://www.fatherjohndear.org/articles
> > /Nobel_Laureates.html
> >
> > 6. http://www.faithfulsecurity.org/
> > html/complex_transformation.html
> >
> > 7. http://www.fatherjohndear.org/speeches
> > /thomas_merton_wisdom.htm
> >
> > 8. eileen fleming, KEEP HOPE ALIVE, page 156
> >
> > 9. http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_
> > content&task=view&id=1247&Itemid=219
> >
> > Eileen Fleming, A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Founder
> > of WeAreWideAwake.org Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a
> > Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"Producer "30
> > Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://venukm.blogspot.com
> >
> > http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur
> >
> > http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com
> > _________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Rajen.
> _________________________________________
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