Tag: Hiroshima

Shattering my world (Liberate THIS, Part 3)

Posted on by kathiemm

[Note by Kathie Malley-Morrison:  Today we are pleased to publish the third in our ongoing series from Dr. Dahlia Wasfi‘s book, Liberate THIS.]

The missiles that trailed across the Arabian night sky that January of 1991 fractured the calm over Iraq, like the war itself shattered my world and my memories to pieces.

Marine fighter planes during Iraq war
Marine fighter planes during Iraq war (Image in public domain)

There was no question that the regime of Saddam Hussein was politically repressive. But now, Iraqis suffered under brutality from within and aerial bombardment from without.

Iraqi families were under attack.  My fellow students were celebrating.

Yet, even though I had insight that no one else could have, I said and did nothing for our victims.  At the time, assimilation was a higher priority for me than speaking the truth.  I reeked of selling out.

More than 100,000 Iraqis perished during the 42 days of Gulf War I, but I was lucky.  My blood relatives survived. The worst was yet to come, however, because our aerial assaults had purposely targeted Iraq’s electricity plants, telecommunication centers, and water treatment facilities.  These attacks were in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in war[1].

In a matter of days, life became desperate. There was no potable water, no electricity, and with economic sanctions in place, there soon would be no means of rebuilding.

Severe economic sanctions had been imposed on Iraq four days after Iraqi troops entered Kuwait, on August 6, 1990.  (In sad irony, that date was the forty-five year anniversary of another Western targeting of a civilian population, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.)  All of Iraq’s exports and imports were banned in order to induce Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.[2]

Though withdrawal was completed by the end of the 1991 Gulf War in April, those brutal sanctions remained in place for years.  Once stored resources were depleted, Iraqis began to starve.  It was a stringent medical, cultural, intellectual, and nutritional embargo that victimized the already-suffering Iraqi people.

I knew the direct correlation between my government’s actions and human suffering.  I did nothing.

Dahlia Wasfi

[1] http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/380  Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

[2] Herring, Eric.  “Between Iraq and a Hard Place:  A Critique of the Case for UN Economic Sanctions” in Falk, Richard, Irene Gendzier, and Robert Jay Lifton, eds.  Crimes of War:  Iraq. Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.  New York, NY.  2006. p .223.

 

Today: A day of mourning and celebration

Posted on by kathiemm

Today is a day when we should mourn the first and only use of nuclear weapons and their growing threat to life on earth.

Nuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll
Nuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll (Image in public domain)

By some estimates (e.g., the Ploughshares Fund, June, 2010), there may now be over 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Primarily owned by Russia and the United States, these modern weapons are more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Today is also a day that warrants celebrations. It is a day to appreciate the ongoing efforts of thousands of activists around the world to resist the spread of nuclear weaponry—including the unintended “weaponry” that unleashed death and contamination at Japan’s Fukushima power plant.

Today, psychologists emphasize mindfulness as a path to greater mental health.  Think of the anti-nuclear activists as our global agents of mindfulness.  They risk persecution and prosecution to help sustain life on earth. They educate, agitate, and promulgate on behalf of all of us.

Today we are approximately one quarter of the way through August, which is Nuclear-Free Future Month.  At least for today, think about what this world would be like if we stop — or fail to stop — nuclear proliferation and the retention of thousands of nuclear weapons.

Is this not an issue worthy of your attention? What will you do to make your voice heard?

Today is a good day to learn more about anti-nuclear crusaders for peace and justice. For example, check out The Nuclear Abolitionist, Waging Nonviolence, and The Ploughshares Fund.

Today is a good day to get Howard Zinn’s last book, The Bomb, (City Lights Open Media) and to listen to Daniel Ellsberg’s discussion of the man and the book.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Bombing civilians

Posted on by kathiemm

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Today we welcome guest author Tom Greening, a humanistic psychologist, member of the American Psychological Association division on peace psychology, and a poet.]

Bombing Civilians

U.S. military plane releasing cluster bombs
U.S.A.F. plane releasing cluster munitions (Image in public domain)

There was a time, before Guernica,
when it was considered barbaric
to bomb civilians.
Then came Coventry, London, Hamburg, Dresden,
Hiroshima and the rest.
We’ve outgrown our squeamishness and,
as one door gunner put it,
“There was a My Lai every day.”
Thus do we evolve,
and out there in the universe
there are lots of targets
we can go gunning for.
If they are inhabited
by strange or familiar creatures
they’d better start preparing.

Tom Greening