Since I'd rather look at porn than think up of a response to this thread... I'm gonna just copy and paste something I found somewhere else.
quote
Can the Peace Movement Make the UN the Only Superpower?
One Bush administrations goal is to destroy the UN and the vision of a world democracy. The Peace Movement must step up to support the UN and restructure global power to serve all.
Length: 1250 words.
The US occupation of Iraq has grave implications for the future of the international power structure and the global economy. Iraq has been called the first battle in the fourth world war (the Cold War being the third) by figures inside the Bush administration. Some believe the reasons of this war were for stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, stopping terrorism and liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein’s tyranical rule. None of this has yet been accomplished, which leads many others to believe the Bush administrations reasons for this war were driven by more selfish reasons such as controlling Iraq’s vast oil reserves and permanently basing US troops in the region. All these reasons are valid and true, but they are merely isolated aspects of the Bush administration’s larger project of restructuring global power.
Ideologues actively involved developing the Bush administration’s policies have long desired to go to war with Iraq as a way to implement a ‘New World Order.’ The basic plans for a Pax-Americana are spelled out by the Project for a New a New American Century, a right-wing think tank established in the mid-90’s by numerous figures currently in the Bush administration, in their September 2000 report entitled ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses.’ The plan for a Pax-American is nothing short of a global empire enforced by overwhelming military strength and presence reaching across the planet. The plan has colonialist implications in its desire to open the world to unchecked economic opportunity by transfering US soldiers into other countries to allow selected transnational corporations to abstract resources from their land to be sold on the international market. These men truly seem to believe they, and only they, can bring democracy to the world through unilateral military force.
The Bush administration is attempting to completely undermine the United Nations, which exposes the contradiction in their methods of achieving their stated goals of bringing democracy to the world. The Independent (UK) revealed on March 2, a memo written by an US official that reveals the US spied on the members of the Security Council, looking for things to use against them to gain support for the war against Iraq. The US went to great lengths to coerce Security Council members to support the war, including threatening to withdraw economic and military aid to the non-permanent members. When it was apparent that the Security Council was not going to pass a resolution supporting war, Bush declared they had become ‘ineffective.’ At the outset of the Iraq war, Richard Perle, a highly influential figure in the Bush administration who recently resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, but remains a member, was quoted by London’s Guardian as saying "Thank god for the death of the UN." Perle boasted of the defeat of Saddam Hussein and the collapse of the UN, which he referred to as the ‘chatterbox on the Hudson,’ as a dual victory. Without the UN to challenge the US’s unilateral actions, the imposition of the Pax-Americana will go more smoothly for the right-wing ideologues in power.
The Bush administration’s plan of restructuring global power under their influence has a great chance of backfiring on them. The backlash by groups persecuted by the US, especially Muslims, may develop into a force too powerful to be economically viable to be controlled by military force. Another possibility is that OPEC will switch to the euro, causing flight from the dollar and therefore economic fallout for the US, while strengthening the euro. Yet another possibility is Asian nations and other regional blocks will succeed in forming economic unity under a single currency. The Non-Aligned Movement, a group of 116 developing nations that opposed the war, could follow Venezuela’s example and begin a barter system of trade with their undervalued commodities. The possibility also exists that the US will continue to isolate themselves to the point where the UN General Assembly decides to go over the head of the US to takeover administering Iraq.
While the above possibilities seem distant at this point, it cannot be ignored that the actions taken by the Bush administration, especially concerning Iraq, have instigated the world’s largest peace movement, which has been called ‘the world’s second super-power.’ In a letter to George Bush, famed Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo thanks Bush for his disregard of world public opinion, revealing ‘the gulf that exists between the decisions made by those in power and the wishes of the people.’ Respected British journalist George Monbiot, indicates that the men in the Bush administration who think they can ‘extend democracy’ through war while serving elite interests ‘are not monsters. They are simply responding to opportunities that power presents’. This analysis points to problems in the structure of global power, not merely to the individuals that run the country.
The role of the peace movement from this point should be to shift the structure of global power away from the unilateral hierarchy the US is trying to impose and towards a multilateral system of cooperation. In the short-term, voting Bush out of office and replacing him with leaders willing to listen to the people of the world, is certainly necessary to achieving a world democracy. Another method suggested to check US power has been an economic boycott, but as Monbiot points out: ‘US trade has penetrated the economies of almost all other nations of such an extent that to boycott its goods and services would be to boycott our own.’ This is another example of the importance of the peace movement’s need to advocate structural change.
One way this could begin would be to insist the US pull its forces out of Iraq and allow UN peacekeeping forces to keep stability. From there the UN should be encouraged to govern until Iraqi’s can elect a government that truly represents the people. The US should pay the bulk of the rebuilding costs and assist the Iraqi economy under their terms. For the US peace movement the UN flag could represent multilateral world democracy, counteracting the abundance of American flags that have been raised since the 9-11 attacks that to many now represents unilateral aggression rather than freedom and prosperity. As Stephen Zunes notes in Tinderbox, ‘there has been little effort among American activists to support pro-democracy movements in the Middle East.’ Establishing and strengthening democracy across the globe should become one of the main priorities of the peace movement. Working with indigenous movements, labor unions, NGO’s and grassroots institutions is one way to work towards democracy. Another place to build democracy is in the UN, once the Security Council is abolished and all nations are given a voice equal to the population they represent.
The peace movement should continue to join forces with the global justice (anti-globalization) movement to encourage the diversification of currencies on the international market. Encouraging the strength of the euro combined with the rise of an Asian currency would be a step towards diluting global power. To keep the rising economic powers in the EU and Asia from acting similarly to the US, the movement would also have to encourage unity amongst the developing world. Economic and political unity between developing regions and strengthening the Non-Aligned Movement with the rise of a barter system could be another way to balance world power. But most important for the peace movement is to continue to struggle for a grass roots democracy that is able to provide a structure for all voices to be heard, all mouths to be feed, and all individuals to be empowered through a structure that measures progress by a system’s ability to incorporate all into the decision making process. /quote
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