Disarming to Prevent War

I went to a lecture on Global Action to Prevent War. I also had the unique experience of interviewing Douglas Rokke the former Depleted Uranium expert in the Pentagon. He was a whistle blower talking about depleted uranium in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. He explained depleted uranium had a half life of 4 billion years, the life of the planet. He spoke of the exposure his own weapons experts experienced, half of which were dying of cancer not to mention the thousands of service personnel and civilians. He talked about creating a world of peace for children. I so wish military strategists could look at foreign children as their own. To be able to see the depth of taking life, the loss to families, to friends, lost generations etc. Can you imagine. The contamination I find hard to conceive, as my world is one of compassion, aggression is a world I just don’t relate to on this scale. You cannot reverse nuclear fallout, the time scale is impossible. The consequences are for current and future generations, why is that not seen? How do we become blind in our rage? We have to create strong stories to justify violent acts. My question is are the stories we tell ourselves true? Is it our true nature to hurt others?

The second person I had the pleasure of meeting was Scott Ritter the former senior weapons inspector in Iraq. He came to Australia and gave a firey lecture at the University of Melbourne during the Bush years. It is really interesting how he and I met. I just had a feeling I wanted to be alone with him. I had no idea why, just felt it. Then my colleague who was organising the Scott Ritter lecture said I could interview him. On the night he told me Scott was tired after his lecture, he asked me to come to dinner the following night. Scott chose to sit next to me. I talked to him about Gandhi. We had a conversation which he felt we were saying the same thing. I asked him for an interview. So he says ‘come to my hotel room’. I thought no problems. We get there and I pull out my power chord but no mini disc (recording equipment). I said ‘Scott do you mind if we go back to the restaurant as I left my mini disc there. He said no problem. As we walked he is looking around and I am thinking ‘he is a tourist’, yet later I thought he was a spy, of course it is surveillance, checking for spooks (no not ghosts wally). This is a world I have no concept of, but it dawned on me. Anyway, we get to the restaurant, all the lights are out, the staff must have gone home as soon as we left. Anyway, I look wistfully at the chair where I am sure my mini disc is, interview of the century, not to be. Anyway, we walk and I say suddenly ‘Scott I am sorry but I left my power chord in your hotel room, can we go get it’. I think to myself he is probably thinking ‘this is one stupid clown or one smart spy’. Sadly the former was true. So we go to the hotel and he buys me a lemonaide, he wants me to stay. We sit together and we didn’t talk about Iraq. Instead we talk about peace. I felt compelled to talk about being a peace clown and the fact I don’t see anyone as an enemy, I explained how I feel love for all people. I see conflict as a ‘other’, but I don’t feel hate or want to hurt them. I explained my peace program called REAL HOPE which is an acronym for responsibility, empathy, awareness, love, honesty, oneness, peace and enjoyment. I explain values create peaceful behaviours and conflict resolution teaches children to resolve problems and I teach anti-bullying. To show children to respect and cooperate with others, to understand real power is power within (choices) not over people (bullying). I explain I feel inspired to teach peace. He listened, I could see he was a good intelligence officer, good listener of course. But I am easy to get information out of, it is shutting me up that is the hard part. He said to me later about his book ‘Waging Peace’, that after speaking to me he should re-write his book. I felt complimented and happy. He was actually a really lovely guy, although you wouldn’t want to cross him, he is trained. I gave him some of my famous poetry (haha) and he took me down stairs. I gave him a big hug and thanked him for his time. It was good I didn’t record an interview, far better to just talk about peace. I went home and reflected on the life of a spy and being a soldier. We were opposites, I live in the world of love, he lives in a world of fear, I live in total visibility he lives in secrecy. It was interesting to learn about his world and I guess for him interesting to step into the world of a clown. We both benefited from the experience. Thus the magic of life. Who would have thought.

I do regard war as unnecessary and I know there are other ways and I feel nonviolence is more effective and humane. I am not saying armies are not needed, yes in the short term until we become wiser there will be people who are very violent and there will be some form of deterrence but the introduction of a culture of peace across the world will create the environment for transforming violent thoughts to peaceful thoughts and hence, behaviours. We have to start with children. Perhaps we think about how we raise boys and show them that it is not an act of courage to harm a person, to be tough and aggressive, it takes more courage to receive the blow as Gandhi demonstrated, yet stand up for truth. We have a warrior myth that is passed on to boys, you see it clearly in violent video games. I feel masculinity is in men’s compassion and strength to protect without violence but through wisdom, that is where I see real courage. We have to look at bullying in schools (modelled from society), the latest figures here state 60% of kids experience it, it may be higher given it is at home and school.

All is linked, we have to choose the world we want. The first step is acknowleding we are all at war when fear dictates our actions and we defend. Real disarmament starts with trust in human nature that we can find solutions without violence. We have to deal with our thinking, is the demon we see real? or is it something we created to justify violence? Hard questions but they have to be asked. The world cannot afford nuclear misadventure nor any more civilian casualties (90%). We have to start with ourselves and lead by example and examine then stop the violence at home, schools, workplaces, society and between countries, this is the only escalation I would love to see happen. To solve the problem not hate the other is the fundamental principle of conflict resolution. Bring in the peacemakers and you may be surprised how great humans are. Why not a Department of Peace… aah for another blog.

GLOBAL ACTION TO PREVENT WAR

Global action to prevent war,
Espouses intervention as action,
Within institutions,
That have no constitution,
No bill of rights,
Only the right to bill,
For the cost of the exercise,
Is the machinations of a machine,
For which it is the spanner,
Which works.

Disarmament rests on arms control,
But the arms provide no control,
For they are the image of protection,
For manhood comes of age,
In the nuclear age,
Where fishing,
Turns to fission for fuel,
For the nuclear cycle,
Replaces the life cycle,
As the information age turns to the stone age,
A freeze frame with no answers,
For time stops the watch,
As it bends and warps time,
The surreal becomes real,
When insanity becomes the crown of thorns,
Of primitive man.

If you are seeking answers to big questions,
You must ask yourself in earnest,
For you are upholding the apparatus,
You are supporting a structure,
That lives on fear,
For we are in fear,
That is what has brought you together,
Not the flight of inspiration for a better world,
But the fight to tackle an insecure role,
In which we continue to play,
To our folly.

For I am learning that I am the change,
I am responsible for what I see,
I must change old paradigms to be free,
To challenge the spin of my myth,
To spring-clean cobwebs and move to the ledge,
To live on the edge of security in-purity,
And trust the pendulum as it swings high and low,
I must kick away the supports that keep me dependent and compromised,
For independence is the true sovereignty of liberation,
That many dream of,
And for me the dream is becoming real.

I am circling the movement,
For the movement is in circles,
Circles and cycles,
Adopting different styles,
But posturing reveals position but not core beliefs,
For it is in beliefs that behaviour follows,
Like the obedient child it is unquestioning,
For motives are barely visible,
As fear seeks to accord blame,
Yet there is no blame,
There is only fear,
For fear is a MAD weapon of proliferation,
Fear builds the walls of suspicion and division,
To keep the enemy with-out,
Yet the enemy is with-in,
For all have used power over,
All have excluded,
All have colluded,
All seek protection in institutions,
Contentment in company,
Yet if all this way of life was to be taken away,
We would fight to regain our peace of mind.

The peace we seek cannot be stolen,
It is the golden voice that sings the love song,
That needs nothing to find happiness,
For it is happy with no-thing,
There is no material desire,
There is no burning fires,
No burning bush in Babylon to crucify,
For the matador will eventually tire of the bull,
As the bull bleeds,
For it is weakening,
Yet the people are spectators in the coliseum,
They enjoy a blood sport,
For they find excitement in violence,
They are violent in their excitement.

For suppression of feeling States,
Perpetuates unnatural feelings,
Which fuel consent and yellow cake,
For the heart of discontentment,
Can never agree to total disarmament,
As exposure sees the thorns,
And not the rose.