Choosing Wisdom or Folly

By: Douglas Mattern

On the centennial anniversary of the Nobel Prize in December of 2001, a total of 104 Nobel Laureates issued an appeal to humanity that reveals a profound gap in the vision of our brightest minds and that of President George Bush and his team of reconstituted cold warriors.

Most outspoken was Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the Argentinean campaigner for human rights who won the 1980 peace prize. Regarding the United States, he said it failed to grasp the nuances of the present conflict. "That kind of black-and-white thinking, where good is set against evil, reminds me of cowboy films", he said.

The Appeal of the 100 Nobel Laureates begins by stating, "The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the worldıs dispossessed". And later, "It is time to turn our backs on the unilateral search for security, in which we seek to shelter behind walls. Instead, we must persist in the quest for united action to counter both global warming and a weaponized world".

As vital to our future the Nobel Laureates include the 1972 ABM Treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (SALT), and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). In the appeal they "urge all governments to commit to these goals that constitute steps on the way to replacement of war by law".

In the opposing mentality we have President Bush and his team rejecting the 1997 Kyoto Protocol designed to reduce climate warming. Bush has no intention of pursuing congressional approval of the CTBT, or the SALT treaties, or just about anything else that actually benefits humanity rather than corporations and the rich that put him into office.

In addition, George W. and his team refuse to accept the new International Criminal Court (ICC). Moreover, Bush, with the help of the U.S. Senate, passed the "American Servicemembers" Protection Act that authorizes the President to use "all means" to free any American who might be arraigned before the ICC. This is a slap in the face to the world community.

In addition, the President rejected proposals to improve adherence to the 1972 Biological Warfare Convention. The purported reason is a refusal to open up our industrial facilities and pharmaceutical companies for the same inspection that other countries agree to.

Most recent of Bush's long list of rejections in opposition to world opinion is to scrap the 1972 ABM Treaty and proceed with the 'Son of Star Wars' anti-missile system, officially known as National Missile Defense (NMD). As even U.S. allies warn, this reckless decision could ignite a new nuclear arms race.

The Nobel Laureates concluded their appeal by stating: "To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all."

How profoundly different from the shallow and jingoist thinking of the Bush Administration, and with lots of help from small thinking politicians in Congress, including both Republicans and Democrats.

Congress, for example, passed a record military authorization bill for Fiscal 2002 for an astounding $343 billion. This figure is more than the entire gross domestic product of Russia and more than the combined spending of the next 15 nations after the United States.

There can be no rationale for this level of spending other than a clear intent for the United States to dominate the world economically and militarily, including the militarization of space, of which NMD is the first step. This is clear in the document "Vision 2020" of the Pentagon's U.S. Space Command. This document states how the global economy will widen the gulf between rich and poor and the role of the Space Command is: "dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investments. Integrating Space Forces into war fighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict."

As the crucial year of 2002 begins, let us reject the militarism and jingoistic policy of the Bush team. Our future and that of the world community depends on pursuing the thinking of the wise as expressed in the appeal of the Nobel Laureates. This is the thinking that offers a future; not small-minded folly coming out of our nationıs capital.