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Looking
Back on 2003
By
David
Krieger
President, Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation
TFF
associate
January 2, 2004
The turning of the year is a good time to look back
and recall some of the momentous events and trends of
2003.
We witnessed the greatest uprising of people ever in
the history of the world in protest to war. In cities
large and small across the planet, ordinary people took
to the streets to try to stop a US-led war against Iraq.
In the end, we didn't succeed, but our effort marked the
opening of a new era of global protest against war and
violence.
We witnessed poets across the globe rise up and
generate more than 13,000 poems in opposition to a war
against Iraq.
We witnessed the government of the United States
ignore the people of the world, the poets and the United
Nations Security Council and initiate an illegal war
against Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, a war that
has thus far resulted in the deaths of some 8,000 to
10,000 Iraqi civilians, some 475 US troops and unknown
numbers of Iraqi troops.
We witnessed the increase of deadly attacks against US
and other troops and international relief workers in Iraq
after the president declared an end to major hostilities
on May 1st aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
We witnessed US leaders make claims of the imminent
threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but after
massive searches no weapons of mass destruction were
found in Iraq as of the end of the year.
We witnessed North Korea withdraw from the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, declare itself a nuclear weapon
state and offer to give up its nuclear arsenal and
ambitions if the United States would agree to a
non-aggression pact. At year's end, despite six nation
talks, the US and North Korea continue to threaten each
other without coming closer to agreement.
We witnessed Iran deny it had a nuclear weapons
program and allow inspectors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency greater leeway for inspections, and
we witnessed Libya admit that it had a nuclear weapons
program and allow inspectors of the IAEA to verify that
it had ceased. At the same time, the US government made
plans for building a new facility to create some 500
plutonium pits each year for new nuclear weapons.
We witnessed US government leaders press for and the
US Congress support research on more usable nuclear
weapons, mini-nukes and „bunker-busters,‰ and
the allocation of funds for shortening of the time
necessary to resume nuclear testing. We witnessed the
United States move toward deployment of missile defenses
and pressure other states to join in this
program.
We witnessed assassination attempts on Pakistani
leader Pervez Musharraf. The death of Musharraf would
open the door for nuclear weapons to fall into the hands
of Islamic extremists, which almost certainly would lead
to war, possibly nuclear war, with India or the United
States.
We witnessed the United States stand nearly alone in
opposing major nuclear disarmament resolutions in the
United Nations. In one vote on bringing the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty into force, the US cast the only vote
against the resolution while 173 countries voted in
favor. In a resolution put forward by Japan on the Path
to the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, only the US
and India oppsoed the resolution.
We witnessed the capture of Saddam Hussein, a pathetic
fallen dictator, and the ongoing international trial of
another fallen dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. At the same
time, we witnessed the United States government take
extraordinary steps to oppose the newly formed
International Criminal Court, which has the support of
nearly all major US allies.
We witnessed the world spend nearly a trillion dollars
on war and preparations for war, including the United
States spending more than $1.1 billion per day on its
military, while more than a billion people lived in utter
poverty on less than $1 per day.
But despite the wars and preparations for war, the
breakdown of international law and the global inequities,
we witnessed a resurgence of hope that ultimately people
power can and will prevail over imperialism; that peace
can and will prevail over the obscene spectacle of war
and its preparations; and that human security and dignity
can and will prevail over the current state of global
inequities. In 2004, there will again be an opportunity
for the people of the world to unite in support of peace,
international law and the rights of children and people
everywhere to have their basic needs fulfilled and to
live with dignity.
©
TFF & the author 2004
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