editorial at/@
tortillaconsal punto/dot com
by Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann
October 24th 2010, United Nations Day
Since I left my post as President of the UN General Assembly on September 14th 2009, I have been working on a Proposal to Reinvent the United Nations Organization. That Proposal will be presented shortly.
I find myself among those who are convinced that today, more than ever, the world needs a true United Nations that helps us join together all the peoples and governments of the world to defend the right to life and all the other inalienable rights of individual human beings and of humanity as a whole, of all living things, of nature in general and of Mother Earth. The United Nations as we have it now is a farce, an enormous lie, because some people have dedicated themselves to vitiate it beyond any possibility of reform.
I say this because it is evident that, within the Organization, we have a Member State, the most influential on account of its wealth and military power, which has managed to persuade other Members, mainly those of the so-called first world, to work for an agenda radically different from the agenda of Peace, respect and harmony between all Member States, respecting always their sovereign equality, something the Charter enshrines as its first principle. That State behaves as if it were the owner and patron of the Organization and its “negotiations” are little more than threats and repressive moves along with prodigious defamation campaigns which one can only describe as media terrorism.
For the United Nations to become an authentic Organization, it would require all Member States, especially the most powerful and influential to really commit themselves to world Peace, the eradication of war, hunger and poverty from this world. Those, after all, were the objectives for which the United Nations was created and, by signing its Charter, Member States committed themselves to dedicate their best efforts to achieving those ends.
For more than thirty years now, at least, it has been known that eradicating hunger and extreme poverty is no longer an unreachable utopia. The resources and scientific-technical know how exist to achieve it. All that is missing is the political will to live in brother and sisterhood, to love each other and to be always equal to the demands of human solidarity. We would need also the political will to meet the demands of respect, love and care for all living things and of our Mother Earth.
I think there is no doubt that the greater part of the world's peoples long for Peace and consider it the supreme good towards which we ought to work. However, as we have already noted, one State exists for which the supreme good, its raison d'être, is not Peace but power. A power of domination and subjugation that we can only describe as diabolical, because no means exist, however violent and criminal they may be, that this State, which we normally identify, quite simply, with Imperialism, is not prepared to use in order to achieve its objective of Full Spectrum Dominance – the name given by the Pentagon to the military strategy of controlling the whole planet and beyond. This, clearly, is an objective that others have already tried before, without ever managing to achieve it. According to the Pentagon itself, the agenda of this objective is to control everything, everywhere, including the seas, the earth, the air and even outer space and cyberspace.
When we talk about this kind of demented ambition, it is difficult not to recall events as perverse and deserving of condemnation, events which, indeed, can never be condemned enough, as those relating to Hitler who, as Simone Weil has pointed out, committed in Europe crimes that the European colonial powers had themselves committed for centuries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Still, it is no exaggeration to argue that Hitler, with all the evil he committed, was never able to cause as much harm to humankind as the United States has done and continues to do, exponentially, to a point that endangers the continuance of the human species and the greater part of life on Earth. The United States, its allies and NATO are a thousand times more dangerous and blameworthy than Hitler himself.
In which case it remains difficult, however desirable it may be, to imagine a different United States, integrated with the rest of the human family, working for the Peace and global security and doing everything possible to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty from this Earth, of which they themselves are the main cause. Furthermore, we would also like to see the United States attempt to respond seriously and effectively to climate change, global warming and the serious ecological problems of which, too, they have been the main cause. But, one has to ask oneself, for how long are we going to wait before the United States and its allies correct themselves and stop behaving like the enemies of humanity, of life, of Mother Earth?
The essential perversity of Empire is not something that just happened, as it were, by accident. It was something planned out, decided on by the leading architects of the Cold War policy of containment, themselves led by George F. Kennan, Director of the section of Policy and Planning of the Department of State. In an internal foreign policy document from 1948, classified as Top Secret, Kennan sums up what should be the main objectives of US foreign policy during the creation of Post War Empire which would become known as the American Century.
Kennan's thesis, now declassified, is startlingly clear. Selfishness and greed were enthroned, while international solidarity was characterized as a luxury among the “more serious and important” priorities of the moment. Kennan wrote: “We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction”. With these values and criteria, it was only to be expected that the United States would always behave as the enemy of the values and principles enshrined in the UN Charter.
Even so, the planners of the new foreign policy of the United States were very conscious of the fact that at this stage of history, the word “imperialism” had become politically repugnant. As William Engdahl, well regarded the world over as an expert in international relations and author of several best sellers, has commented: “The architects of the post-war US-Dominated global order explicitly chose not to call it an ‘empire’. Instead the U.S. would project its imperial power under the guise of colonial ‘liberation’, support for ‘democracy’ and ‘free markets’. This is one of the most effective and diabolical propaganda coups of modern times.”
For our part, we cannot afford the luxury of continuing to fool ourselves. The United States may have signed the UN Charter, but it has never shared its values and principles. It has never sought Peace because it needs war in order to achieve its Full Spectrum Dominance, which now stretches into outer space and into cyberspace. The United States has never believed in the rule of law in international relations, believing always in the law of the jungle, or in other words that might makes right. It has never believed in the United Nations and from its position as the most influential Member State in the Organization has always used blackmail and threats when it has not been supported in the genocides it has committed and continues committing, like those against Nicaragua and, today, against Iraq and Afghanistan.
With its incomparable brain washing apparatus of media power, the United States is now preparing the world psychologically to accept an attack against Iran using the same logic it applied to Iraq and Afghanistan, so as to seize more natural resources and put an ever tighter ring fence around Russia, which is and has always been its principal objective. The Empire's arrogance leads it to pay insufficient attention to the possible consequences of its adventures.
With all respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is different. If the United States forces have been unable to subdue Iraq and Afghanistan, much less will they be able to subdue Iran. The consequences of this new criminal adventure could be catastrophic, not just for Iran and its neighboring countries, but also for the whole world. Something similar could happen if the United States does not accept seriously the principle of one indivisible China but instead continues in its madness of trying to divide it so as eventually to break it up.
It seems to me that the time has come, as the great African intellectual Ngugi Wa Thiong’o has said, to decolonize the mind, ridding ourselves of domesticating ideas like the one that we need the United States, just as slaves used to need their slave master tormentors. The truth is, we need the United States like we need poisoning by arsenic. Enough of denial and of not wanting to face reality or call things by their real name.
The United Nations are not Nations truly United because the positions of different Member States of the Organization are not the same with regard to vital matters like war and Peace, hunger and poverty, climate change, global warming and nuclear disarmament and with regard to sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all States. The United States, the most influential country in the Organization and the major systematic violator of all its norms and principles, has a position diametrically opposed to that of the immense majority of Member States. Its main allies are the United Kingdom, the majority of European countries and Israel. The main weapon it depends on to impose its will in the world is NATO. All of these, by allying themselves with the Untied States, have turned themselves too into enemies of humanity, of Peace, of life and Mother Earth.
From my point of view as a religious person and follower of Our Lord Jesus of Nazareth, I am absolutely convinced that, according to biblical language, the United States is severely diabolically possessed. The world is passing through a truly apocalyptic moment. Possibly not for the first time, but it could well be the last given the immense and unprecedented destructive power of the Beast and the apathy, apparent indifference and cowardice of those who say they believe in God yet, faced with the duty of uniting and devising an effective strategy of resistance, fail to do so.
We should all recognize with humility that Comandante Fidel Castro is today the world's great prophet and moral and spiritual leader. His Reflections are truly inspired and inspiring. On October 15th last, he alerted us to the fact that all human life would be the collateral damage of nuclear war today. And, permitting Our Lord Jesus to speak through him, Fidel urges us: To have the courage to proclaim that all weapons, nuclear or conventional, everything that serves to make war, should disappear! Thank you Fidel for your courage and lifelong example!
All these reflections prompted me to say, at the conclusion of my period as President of the General Assembly, that the UN has reached a point where reforms and patches are not enough. It has to be reinvented and it is as a contribution to this urgent task of reinvention that I have dedicated myself over the last two years. I make the proposal personally, as ex-President of the UN General Assembly, completely and exclusively on my own responsibility and as someone interested in Peace and the eradication of war, hunger, poverty and the abuse of our Mother Earth without which we cannot live. The values I defend and have defended all my life are the values of Our Lord Jesus which on fundamentals I find absolutely compatible with the values of my sisters and brothers, be they Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu or Aymara, as I do all the religions of the world and the richest ethical-philosophical traditions like Marxism, for example, which promote correct relationships between everything that lives and suffers.
If at some time – for God everything is possible – the United States truly decides to return to the human family and, by way of proof, dismantles NATO and its more than 1000 military bases spread over the whole planet, proceeds seriously with the abolition of nuclear weapons, the demilitarization of outer space and puts an end to its wars of aggression, ends its criminal harassment of Cuba, suspending the blockade and freeing the 5 Cuban heroes, I am sure that everyone will celebrate and welcome them with open arms as sisters and brothers to the bosom of the human family, since what motivates us is neither hate nor a desire for revenge but only love and the desire for universal sister and brotherhood. God will bless them and Peace, security and joy will return to our world.
I think it is extremely urgent that we get to work on reinventing the UN so it can really be what its name says and not an Organization subject to any one patron, however rich and militarily powerful that patron may be. On a personal level, I have wanted to reciprocate the faith that the Member States placed in this humble servant when they elected me for the 63rd period of sessions of the UN General Assembly, by reflecting on the last two years and exchanging ideas with individuals who seem to me among the best qualified to help prepare a good, viable Proposal to reinvent the United Nations and turn it into an effective instrument in the struggle for Peace, the eradication of wars, hunger and extreme poverty from the Earth. A United Nations truly democratized and demilitarized. With humility and much love we will soon be presenting the proposal's latest version on our web site: www.reinventingtheun.org
Once the proposal has been received it will be necessary to act swiftly and take into account that its acceptance or rejection will have to be decided among heads of State and Government. Sending it for consideration by the Permanent Representatives at the UN would expose it to a rapid death, trapped in the extensive web of procedural norms, like those envisaged for “reforms” whose only purpose is to change nothing. Negotiating it regionally among groups of the heads of State and Government of the Group of 77 plus China could turn out to be relatively straightforward and achievable with the necessary speed to be able to submit it for approval to the General Assembly once it has secured support from the Group of 77 plus China which, I am convinced, many others countries will join.