Tag: landmines

How many times must the cannonballs fly?

Posted on by kathiemm

Ban the bombs…all of them.

Nuclear weapons:  The United States is the only nation in the world that has dropped atomic weapons onto a civilian population. Right now it has a stockpile of about 5,000 nuclear weapons, many of which can be launched within 15 minutes.

Cluster bombs:  The U.S. dropped thousands of cluster bombs (weapons that kill large numbers of civilians, even after an armed conflict has ended) in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. An international Convention on Cluster Munitions, sponsored by the United Nations, entered into force in 2010, yet the U.S.–along with Russia, China, and several other states–has been unwilling to sign the agreement. (See Feickert and Kerr [opens in pdf]).

Landmines:  The U.S. refuses to join its NATO allies and many other nations in banning the use of landmines.

Drones:  In secret meetings, the U.S. identifies individuals around the world as threats, then uses drones to kill them without trial or benefit from counsel.

Illicit arms sales:  A recent effort by the United Nations to establish an Arm Trades convention to help stop the illicit international sales of weapons failed in part because the U.S. government refused to sign off on the draft treaty. The National Rifle Association proudly takes responsibility for killing the agreement.

What can you do to help stop the U.S. government from acting like the world’s chief thug?

You can read The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb by Philip Taubman (see review).

You can support and volunteer for non-profits that strive to move the U.S. away from its preoccupation with power and destruction towards one of conflict resolution, reconciliation, social justice, and cooperation.

Engaging Peace, Inc. is one such organization, and we welcome your support in the form of reading and commenting on the blog, subscribing to the newsletter, as well as your financial donations.

In addition to Engaging Peace, here are some other groups you may want to learn about:

Please get involved in working to end the country’s headlong rush down the road to death for all.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Misrepresenting or minimizing consequences (Moral disengagement, part 6)

Posted on by kathiemm

Misrepresenting or minimizing consequences is another moral disengagement mechanism.

Psychologist Albert Bandura notes that when people commit atrocities for personal gain or as a response to social pressure, one way to offset shame and guilt is to minimize or distort the ill-effects of their behavior.

During contemporary warfare by the developed nations, this process is facilitated by modern technology, which allows maiming and killing from high in the air–thus avoiding the sight of blood, guts, and dismembered bodies; the screams of pain, pleas for help; and victims begging for an end to their ordeal.

It has been noted that the Pulitzer-prize winning photograph of the naked Vietnamese girl running from her napalmed village played a pivotal role in turning the American public against the Vietnam War.

To avoid a repetition of that kind of public disavowal of their political and military aims, more recent governments have exercised extreme control over media portrayals of wartime events.

Misrepresenting and minimizing consequences is rampant in relation to the environmental consequences of war. Among the long-lasting effects of war that are minimized right out of people’s consciousness are:

  • Sunken ships that continue to pollute the oceans
  • Landmines that continue to maim and kill
  • Hazardous waste from the manufacturing of weapons
  • Destruction and pollution of wildlife and human habitat through use of herbicidal weapons such as Agent Orange
  • Environmental degradation from the thousands of refugees fleeing the armed conflict.

(For more about environmental consequences of war, see the report of the Environmental Literacy Council.)

In reaction to the minimizing, misrepresenting, and denial of the environmental effects of war, the United Nations, in 2001, declared November 6 to be  International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Note: This post was adapted from my previously published article in Peace Psychology (a publication of the American Psychological Association), Spring, 2009.