Mar 23, 2008 8:22:15 PM cite

PEOPLE FIGHT,GOVERNMENTS GO TO WAR, FIGURE IT OUT

by ADONAI

Feb 2, 2007 9:45:21 AM cite

We must expose the corruption that causes war. The only people benefiting from the Iraq war are war-profiteering interests, and the politicians they contribute to. All of the experts are saying that our military presence in Iraq is exasperating the problem, and that a political solution is the only real answer. Are both parties guilty of war-profiteering, preventing any cuts in funding from this ill-conceived war? Why won't the "Democrats" introduce a measure to cut the funding for this war? War-profiteering, it's the only answer. They're making so much money from political contributors that they don't care what the people want. Robbing the taxpayers is what the Iraq war was all about from the very beginning.

by Mike Taylor

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: People do this, they did it in history. A lot of people gave their voices against Vietnam wars, and the revolt stop of America “stop the war”. And there are a lot of other cases. There is a lot of people were not inert and so “I don’t care, it doesn’t touch me, my life is ok, and I have everything: food, a house, a happy life. Why should I trouble myself and go and speak about thousands of burned or killed people or children. I have my quiet life. People should care about their spiritual development; they must grow in their minds and souls. And if everybody gives his voice for freedom [peace], there would be no wars at all. People cannot stay indifferent. We all are parts of a whole. We should understand this, and with this understanding go and give our voices against war. And the government has to stop the wars.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I think it is very complex issue, so I do not know how we can do that.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: This question includes a big [] in the sense that war is something inherent of life and of our planet. I think that we should only intervene if we want to influence our governments in order to find other solutions of conflicts. And only a strong and organized civil society can put a government under pressure so that they propose other alternatives. One of the biggest problem is a state of not declarated civil war because it is maybe on of the most painful wars, like e. g. in my country. But I think that all wars are civil wars. All wars are happening between human beings, between the same species. But the interests in one country that obligate human beings to fight against each other can only be achieved if there is a very strong society that opposes itself against that form of fratricide. As I said all wars are fratricides. All wars are like this.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Glen, I'm going to be speaking to someone from South Africa. Well, the way I see it, anyway, the governments need us to go to war for them. The only way we can stop them from going to war is by refusing to go for them. Certainly that’s one way of doing it. The second way of doing it is to develop a lobby, an internal lobby, questioning why it is necessary for us to have a defense force, why is it necessary for there to be a defense force in Africa. I mean, who is it that we are defending ourselves from. I mean, is it to be Zimbabwe? I mean, who is America wanting to defend itself from. What is more important, it’s not about defending ourselves from anyone other than ourselves. War, and the instrument of war, is a necessary uncivilry to individuals who have indeed lost the ability to negotiate reasonableness. So, I think, the question is is that we go to war, you, me, us; governments don’t go to war. Governments send us to war. We pay the price. And the price that we pay is not only physical. The price that we pay is psychic. We lose our moral groundedness. We lose ourselves. That’s who goes to war. So we should decide not to do this. That’s the only way that we can change it. And we should also understand by not going we may have to pay a price for not doing that. But if you go to war you lose yourself anyway. So you might as well lose it for a reasonable, a higher purpose.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Not allowing them to go to war. That’s how we stop them. No government, no government and it’s not matter who they are and where they come from, have the right to go to war for any reasons. So when one particular country in an oppressed situation, that oppressor should be removed not the people being killed. You and I we have no right to kill anybody. That a life given to us by the Creator. Nobody and I say nobody has a right to remove any life anywhere. So it does not matter what kind of government, it does not matter where it is, it doesn’t matter when, but they should not, and they have no right to take you to war. I hope I answered your question. It is your responsibility as it is mine to stop our governments to do any act of killing of a human being anywhere else. Thank you.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think the question of how do we stop governments from going to war raises the question of who has the political power to affect government policy, who has the power to affect decisions of who is going to war. And there, I think we have to look at the role that working people can pay in confronting an empire, confronting the military/industrial complex. Because, ultimately, war relies first of all on the manufacture of the ammunitions in a war and those ammunitions cannot be manufactured if the workers in the war industries refuse to manufacture those ammunitions. And then, they also rely on people to carry out the actions of going to war, rely on soldiers, rely on troops to fight wars of profit, an empire. And the real power of stopping war ultimately lies with the working-class people, who in the industries of war and outside of the industries of war can organize to break down the institutions that drive us to war. They can refuse the orders to fire, they can refuse to ship ammunitions, they can refuse to fund the purchase of ammunitions, they can refuse to support the politicians that take us to war.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: I think we can stop our government from going into war by voting or choosing dedicated and devoted person who can really think about his country, choosing correct leader, correct leader. [inaudible]

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 12:25:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, when we saw the aggression in Iraq started with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, millions of people marched around the world to the extent that even New York Times and Kofi Annan called this anti-war movement or actually the peace movement, basically the other superpower. And this superpower in some ways, one could say, did not stop the war. But at the same time, when millions of people marched on the day in February, we sent a very clear signal that this war is not just, that this war does not have the approval of humanity. It is an unjust war, it’s an act of aggression, it’s an immoral invasion and today an immoral colonization of a country. But in terms of other ways that we can also stop the war not just by taking away the credibility, we have to gain over the credibility from the Bush administrations by denouncing its actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq. But we do know that war has become a way of oiling the wheels of this economic system, which -- the invasion of Iraq is really about the interest of the Bush administration. And I feel one way to deal with it is also through a preemptive strike. No, I am not talking about Bush’s idea of a preemptive strike; but if it is the way to grease the wheels of an economic system, what if each one of use refuse to go to work that day? What if we bring the economy to a standstill? What if teachers say we will not be teaching in the classrooms, but we will be out in the streets with our children, with the school students? That can say no to this war. What if the people who run the railways say, “Well, no train is going to move which is going to allow further movement of goods?” What if the truckers say that no truck is going to cross the border till this war stops? What if our soldiers walk away saying, “We will not fight this unjust war.” So I feel like what we have to do is launch a preemptive strike around the world when the powers and the superpowers decide that they want to go and launch war so that they can continue and build their empires further.

by Anuradha Mittal