Peace and War notes

Imagining Other

Power and Protest (social movements) in the 20^th Century:

(4) The peace, anti-war and anti-nuclear movements:

Updates (2) since 2010.

Links: Imagining Other Index Page

Links to other sections on the peace and anti-war movement:

Section 1 (anti-war movement)

Section 2 (anti-nuclear movement)

Section 3 (non-violence)

Section 5 (conclusion and references)

Section 6 (updates 1: before 2010)

Note: these recent notes contain some topics that I believe are important aspects of the peace movement, and some concerning the horrors of war and war’s ‘collateral’ effects.

Alphabetical list of Topics:

America (military power of) #America

Arms trade (and global development) #arms trade

Blanket bombing #bombing

Drones #drones

Falklands War #Falklands

Famine and war #famine

The ‘Great Escape’ – a myth #great escape

Kosovo #kosovo

Iraq: go to sm4peace6updates1...

Pacifism (and Second World War) #pacifism (in World War II)

Palestinian Peacemaker #Palestine

Peace memorials #peace

Poetry #poetry

Quakers #Quakers

Rape as a weapon of war #rape - rape and sexual violence in US armed forces #US

Secrecy #secrecy

Soldiers’ training makes killing more easy #soldiers

Syria #Syria

UN Peacekeeping #UN

Websites #websites

World War I #world war I

World War II – the Zohn family #Zohn

*America’s military might*

John Pilger quotes Fred Branfman ‘who exposed the “secret” destruction of tiny Laos by the US air forces in the 1960s and 1970s’ – Obama understands that he has to expand ‘the most powerful institution in history of the world, one that has killed, wounded or made homeless well over 20 million human beings, mostly civilians, since 1962.’ (New Statesman 21 – 27 June 2013). Branfman also says of Obama: ‘no president has done more to create the infrastructure for a possible future police state.’

Some books by Branfman, from Wikipedia: The Third Indochina War, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, ISBN 0-85124-048-8, ISBN 978-0-85124-048-0

The Old Man: A Biographical Account of a Lao Villager.

Voices from The Plain of Jars, Life Under an Air War, Harper & Row 1972.

Life under the bombs, Project Air War, Harper & Row, 1972, ISBN 0-06-090300-7, ISBN 978-0-06-090300-8

The Village of the Deep Pond, Ban Xa Phang Meuk, Laos, International Area Studies Programs, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1978, ASIN: B0000E92G5

Some links (same source):

Fred Branfman's Internet presence

Fred Branfman: War Crimes in Indochina and Our Troubled National Soul Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1998

Fred Branfman: On Torture and Being "Good Americans" The Huffington Post, 29. April 2007

Fred Branfman: Indochina: The illusion of withdrawal May 1973

Fred Branfman: We Must All Be Prepared to Torture, Antiwar.com, January 26, 2006

NB: Branfman is also concerned that ‘denial of death’ is a serious problem today – see www.trulyalive.org

*Arms trade*

Arms Trade 31/5/08: Good to see that Reed Elsevier has finally agreed not to sponsor arms trade exhibitions any more (G today): it has sold DSEi, ITC, and LAAD defence exhibitions to Clarion Events (chief executive: Simon Kimble)Victory for CAAT, writers on The Lancet, and other well-known writers.

The UN is trying to get full agreement to an arms trade treaty - ATT – and so far 150 countries have backed it with only Zimbabwe explicitly against. Approximately 20 other countries are trying to get the toughly-worded treaty watered down. The main aim is to stop arms sales to human rights abusers, and set up an approved register of arms dealers (there are many shady dealers such as the Russian Viktor Bout, now in prison). The article by Nick Hopkins guardian Monday 2^nd July gives tables of how much different countries spend on arms, with the USA way out in front: $689 bn in 2011. China is second ($129 bn). UK: $57.9 bn. We exported $1.1 bn worth of arms in 2011.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/02/rift-valley-pastoralists-arms-treaty?INTCMP=SRCH (article on the importance of arms control to the developing world)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/02/arms-trade-treaty-un-talks-weapons?INTCMP=SRCH (appeal for support from William Hague and others...).

Britain’s arms trade (Sep 2012):

Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy, shadow foreign and defence secretaries, call for UK arms export licences to be subject to more scrutiny – so we don’t sell to dictators http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/17/uk-progressive-arms-policy-arab-spring?INTCMP=SRCH

* Blanket bombing*

Given the recent ceremony to remember with a monument the 50,573 members of RAF Bomber Command who died in action, there has been much discussion of the morality of their raids. Richard Overy (professor of history at the University of Exeter), Guardian 23.06.12 says: ‘At every briefing [the aircrew] were told about the industrial and military targets that lay within the area. No doubt many, perhaps most, knew that their bombs would ... also shatter the city that housed [the designate objectives].’

Commanders knew that survival rates were poor, he says, ‘and that the military-industrial targets were a mere front for a deliberate policy of killing civilians. This was a policy shielded from the public and from the crews, because it raised awkward questions.’ The RAF chief of staff, Charles Portal, told Churchill, Roosevelt and the assembled chiefs at Quebec in August 1943, that the RAF hoped to kill 900,000 German civilians. No one there demurred. ‘Somehow bombing created a moral blind spot that allowed airmen to do to the enemy what soldiers could not.’ (That is, it would be impossible for soldiers to kill so many.)

‘It is surely time that the ethical subterfuge performed all through the war, in pretending that city areas were militarily justifiable targets, was confronted honestly.’ ‘Those who gave the permission [for the bombing] ... need to be held to account.’

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/22/raf-bomber-command-remembered-with-honesty?INTCMP=SRCH – and see Mary Midgley’s letter in response.

*Drones*

The UK has spent 2 billion on drones, and is developing more at a cost of a further 2 billion. Some are not armed, but Reaper is, and it/they has/have flown for 11,000 hours in Afghanistan – firing more than 280 laser-guided Hellfire missiles and bombs. MoD says only 4 civilians have been killed, but this is dependent on Afghans reporting, so may well be an unreliable figure. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/26/drone-spending-britain-tops-2bn for Nick Hopkins article on this, Guardian 27^th Sep 2012.

Estimated the US now has 7,000 active drones. They are supposed to kill terrorists, but there seems to be a lot of ‘collateral’ damage, and e.g. someone attached a GPS tracking device to a car that carried two young men (16 and 12) simply so he could collect a fee for it. Clive Stafford Smith and Reprieve are acting against drones. (03.06.12 Observer).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/02/drone-age-obama-pakistan?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/04/15-dead-drone-pakistan

*Falklands War*

March 2013 – islanders vote to stay under British rule. Seamas Milne (13^th March, The Guardian) says despite this it is time for a negotiated settlement. The poll was a foregone conclusion and misses the point of the dispute: the seizure 180 years ago by one of Lord Palmerston’s gunboats, who then expelled the Argentinian administration. By giving the colonists a veto, Britain is pre-empting the issue, which the UN and others regard as a problem of decolonization.

Are the islanders really a viable group, capable of self-determination? The UN says not – and so the dispute is over who the island belongs to. Britain spends nearly £45,000 a head (£75 million a year) to keep just over 1,500 inhabitants in the style to which they are accustomed! (What Milne calls Rhodesian retro).

More than 900 people died in the 1982 war.

Options for the island include: joint sovereignty, co-administration and leaseback.

[Notes written up April 8^th 2013, on the day Margaret Thatcher died...]

March 2012 sees 30^th anniversary: articles in New Statesman (02.04.12) make good points:

Anthony Barnett - author of Iron Britannia (1982, revised with new overview of 30 years of militarism) Faber Finds Imprint (£11). There are myths, especially on the left:

- the war was an accident

- US support was vital

- the war was nothing to do with the left (even though Labour supported it, and 15 years later fought in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq...).

Barnett: it grew out of ‘Churchillism’ (from the impact of 1940) – i.e. bellicosity but minus its humanity. Victory was close – Argentine bombs were not correctly fused, the landing areas could have been mined but weren’t, and if the conflict had been delayed until the bad weather, we would have lost.

‘The victory gave birth to the double-headed monster of militarism and market fundamentalism signaled in Thatcher’s Cheltenham victory speech’ (she would bring the war home and make it the ‘real spirit of Britain’). We have been manipulated into militarism – witness the Military Wives Christmas hit: ‘Wherever you are... may your courage never cease.’

David Cameron at Camp Bastion, Helmand: ‘During the first and second world wars and the Falklands war, there was real support in our country for the military. We want to put you front and centre of our national life again...’

The UN Charter says we must protect the ‘interests’ of the islanders, not their ‘wishes’. We should recognise the oil being sought round the island is Argentina’s...

* Famine and war *

Guardian 22.07.11 John Vidal – famine in Somalia is due to: climate change (there always were cyclical droughts, now they come more often) + war… Simon Levine of ODI: ‘Wars don’t kill many people directly but can kill millions through the way they render them totally vulnerable to the kind of problems they should be able to cope with.’ People have lost their assets and can’t access grazing grounds they need. John Vidal adds: “But remember too, that Somalia has been made a war zone by the US-led ‘war on terror’.”

In addition, governments in the region have declared war on pastoralists – to ‘modernise’ them… yet “major international studies” have shown that “pastoralists produce more and better quality meat and generate more cash per hectare than ‘modern’ Australian and US ranches.”

What is needed, finally, is long-term assistance with development, not emergency aid that only arrives in a crisis (which always arrives late anyway because of the time it takes to set it in motion.’

*The great escape: a war myth *

Guy Walters: The Real Great Escape (Bantam) argues that the ‘hero’ Sqdn Ldr Roger Bushell was a driven character, who ignored warnings about the danger of trying to escape from Stalag Luft III, the escape attempt led to the deaths by shooting of 50 of the 76 who took part (and only 3 got to Britain – none of them British). Walters finds Bushell culpable for his own murder and those of his comrades. The escape attempts (though elaborate and involving three tunnels and documents for 200 escapees) were partly planned so as to occupy German resources hunting the men and slow the German war effort. It did nothing of the sort. (Review by Nigel Jones, Saturday Guardian 26.05.12)

* Kosovo *

Summary from Guardian weekend 21^st June 2014 (in an article on boys called ‘Tonybler’ etc after their ‘hero’):

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/20/kosovan-albanians-name-children-tony-blair-tonibler

That hot June day in 1999, British troops were festooned with flowers, kissed and hugged along the road from the Macedonian border to Pristina. But less than 100 yards from the long line of Warrior armoured cars baking in the sun were reminders of why they had come. Scattered among the villages were hundreds of freshly dug graves for victims of atrocities committed by Serbian paramilitaries. More than 10,000 people were killed. Milosevic had ordered many of the bodies to be dug up and taken away by the departing Serbs in a clumsy attempt at a cover-up of his crimes. The bones are still being unearthed in Serbia today.

In retrospect, that bright shining day in June, with Kosovan children thronging around smiling, sunburned squaddies, was the high point for humanitarian intervention. A year after the Kosovo intervention, British troops staged a minor-key reprise in Sierra Leone, where they helped the national army stop the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front from entering the capital, Freetown, where they would almost certainly have massacred the inhabitants. It is the one other place on Earth where there are boys named after Tony Blair.

On closer scrutiny, the Kosovo mission itself was far from clearcut. Western leaders, including Blair, made their plans on the mistaken assumption that a few days of aerial bombardment would convince Milosevic to call off his plan to drive both the KLA and the Kosovans out of the province. But there was much more at stake. Serbs saw Kosovo as the cradle of the nation. Few of them wanted actually to live there, among the despised Albanians, but they were prepared to fight bitterly not to lose it.

When Nato bombed, Milosevic stepped up his operation. Three-quarters of the prewar population of 1.8 million Kosovans were driven from their homes in 1999. Half a million found shelter inside Kosovo's borders, hiding in the woods or in abandoned homes; 800,000 ended up in refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia.

With no plan B, Nato dithered. The bombing campaign was expanded to the rest of Serbia including the capital, Belgrade, but dropping high explosives from high altitude is a blunt instrument. About 500 civilians were killed, half of them Serbian and half Kosovan, "collateral damage" as a result of mistakes and poor intelligence. On 14 April, Nato planes bombed refugee convoys in south-east Kosovo in the belief that they were military columns, leaving 75 dead. On 1 May, they bombed a bridge near Pristane, killing 39 on a civilian bus, and 12 days later killed between 48 and 87 civilians in a bombing raid on supposed military targets in the village of Korisha. The television centre in Belgrade was destroyed, as was the Chinese embassy, with the deaths of three Chinese citizens. The war crimes tribunal in The Hague investigated but ultimately opted not to prosecute.

In the face of these incidents, Tony Blair flew to Washington on 21 April to try to convince President Clinton to lead a ground invasion of Kosovo. Before the president's resolve could be put to the test, however, Milosevic abruptly capitulated. On 3 June 1999, he accepted a peace plan allowing a Nato-led Kosovo Force, K-For, to garrison the territory and safeguard the return of the refugees.

Salvation had come at the darkest hour, but it would be hard to describe the ensuing 15 years as a happy-ever-after. Those who can remember the Milosevic era are grateful simply to be living in peace in their home villages and towns, but even for them the discontents of freedom are beginning to weigh heavier. With every passing year, life seems less like a miracle and more like a challenge. The varied childhoods of the Toniblers and Blers tell the story of Kosovo in all its joys and disappointments. But for their generation, just being alive and free will no longer be enough.

* Pacifism *

Pacifism: World War II: why did we fight it? (Apr 2008) – see sm4...

Peter Wilby comments on “Human Smoke” by Nicholson Baker, which “puts the pacifist case against the second world war”. Britain fought to maintain the balance of power. At the end of 1941 most of the people killed in the war were still alive – so he argues the war didn’t help anyone. Wilby argues that the war started when we went to Poland’s aid, and he quotes A.J.P. Taylor in “The Origins of the Second World War”, to the effect that we didn’t try to assist Czechoslovakia, and they lost less than 100 lives. Poland lost 6½ million… [The extermination policy came in around 1942, when Hitler realised he faced serious military opposition.] Nor did we go to war to rescue the Jews: when Rabbi Wise tried to raise the threat to them in 1942, Roosevelt and the British Commons took no action. The war prevented any rescue in fact (and if Britain had made peace after the fall of France in 1940, the Jews might have just been sent to Madagascar). Eden merely expressed the “hope that the German government will refrain from exterminating these unfortunate people.”

Moreover, once we went to war we put ourselves on the same moral plane as the Germans: we were the first to bomb at night; Churchill did not allow food relief to occupied Europe; Russians found in previously Nazi-controlled areas were returned to Russia to be shot… [I would add the blanket-bombing of German cities, the “dam-busters” who only succeeded in killing Ukrainian POWs, and of course Hiroshima and Nagasaki].

A letter in reply from Geoffrey Goodman, ex-RAF (G 290408) says he cannot believe Wilby is serious: he should read Richard Evans: “The Third Reich in Power”, rather than Taylor or Baker. The Nazis had built 70 concentration camps within a few months of taking power in 1933 – well before Kristallnacht and the Nuremberg laws of 1935.

But the concentration camps didn’t at first involve genocide, and it is my belief that the “final solution” dates from later – especially from the Wannsee conference of January 1942. My view is, however, that pacifists and others who oppose discrimination and war need to be aware of the earliest signs of discrimination and persecution – since these can lead incrementally by escalation to enormous horrors. By incrementally I mean that the changes are so slight that most people don’t realise where the situation might be leading. Until it is too late.

This may be the weakness with Baker’s book: pacifism needs to stress what should be done before armed conflict breaks out...

Of course, Wilby is also making the point that we didn’t go to war with Saddam Hussein because he was an evil dictator, (which is the current justification now that we all know there were no WMDs...) The aim of the war was (as with World War II) to maintain a certain balance of power – and, I would add, this would be done by keeping control over oil.

* A Palestinian Peacemaker *

Guardian 16.08.10 article: Dr Izzeldin Abulaish from Gaza, 3 of whose daughters were killed in an Israeli raid in 2008 - 9, and another seriously injured, doesn’t seek vengeance and is against violence – has written a book ‘I Shall Not Hate’ to published in Canada in April, to be published in UK January. Translated into 13 languages… Charity: Daughters for Life. Gave a broadcast on Channel 10 in Israel which Prime Minister saw, and two days later the PM announced a ceasefire.

Abulaish has now gone to Toronto University as professor in global health.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/15/palestinian-doctor-izzeldin-abuelaish-gaza-war

* Peace memorials *

Woodford Green ‘protest against war in the air,’ and to commemorate failed 1932 conference at Geneva to ban bombing by planes, instigated by Sylvia Pankhurst, ‘All the love in all the mothers’ hearts cannot prevail against the stern economics of Capital’ said Pankhurst. (Letters, G, 170710, in response to proposed memorial to bomber command in Green Park… Other statues: Burghers of Calais, Edith Cavell, Fenner Brockway, Gandhi – see www.ppu.org.uk/memorials

War: Richard Drayton, G 140610 – re the gun battles in Kingston Jamaica: they are linked to the security establishments in the US, Britain and Canada; drones are being used... and ‘passes’… blanket surveillance of electronic communications... all tactics recommended in US manuals on counterinsurgency. For two years the Canadian Special Operations Regiment has trained Jamaican forces; joint US-Canada intelligence op being mounted from Kingston (acc to local press). History:

- in 1972 Michael Manley of People’s National Party elected as PM; he increased taxes paid by US and Canadian mining companies, opened relations with Cuba and defended Cuba sending troops to Angola when US and S Afr were arming anti-govt rebels; large CIA station in Kingsland; weapons flowed in , arson and bombings; trans-shipment of cocaine from S America began in late ‘70s; gangs at the centre of the unrest, including Lester Coke (Dudu’s father) – these criminals were enforcers for the Jamaican Labour Party and gave help to the allies of the Nicaraguan Contras… Drayton is Rhodes Prof of imperial history at King’s London.

************

* Poetry and War *

2^nd May 2011. Ivor Gurney: (from an article by Adam Thorpe, G 10.11.07)

The Silent One

Who dies on the wires, and hung there, one of two –

Who for hours of life had chattered through

Infinite lovely chatter of Bucks accent;

Yet faced unbroken wires; stepped over, and went,

A noble fool, faithful to his stripes – and ended.

But I weak, hungry, and willing only for the chance

Of line – to fight in the line, lay down under unbroken

Wires, and saw the flashes, and kept unshaken.

Till the politest voice – a finicking accent, said:

“Do you think you might crawl through there: there’s a hole?” In the afraid

Darkness, shot at: I smiled, as politely replied –

“I’m afraid not, Sir.” There was no hole no way to be seen.

Nothing but chance of death, after tearing of clothes.

Kept flat, and watched the darkness, hearing bullets whizzing –

And thought of music – and swore deep heart’s deep oaths.

(Polite to God) – and retreated and came on again.

Again retreated – and a second time faced the screen.

From Collected Poems by Ivor Gurney, Fyfield Press.

(See also ‘Poetry I Like’ file)

**************

*Quakers*

Anne Karpf wrote sympathetically about the Society of Friends in September 2011 during Quaker Week:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/28/quakers-religion-dawkins-sign-up

She makes the point that they ‘would sooner not believe in God than in pacifism’. Some do not believe in God...

Note the blog-site: http://www.quakerweb.org.uk/blog/about/ where Friends discuss issues of sustainability, a just economy etc.

**********

* Rape as a weapon of war *

1. Guatemala: between 1960 and 1996 more than 100,000 women were victims of mass rape during the civil war. The war was between CIA-backed rightwing generals and leftwing insurgents. 200,000 died in the conflict. Then general Jose Efrain Rios Montt grabbed power in a coup in 1982, and there was yet more brutality (G2 29.07.11 – Ofelia de Pablo, Javier Zurita, Giles Tremlett). Spain’s national high court has been investigating claims of genocide, but Montt has not been extradited, and is now a congressman. Maya were particularly vulnerable – caught in between and seen as the other. Spain’s national court has now agreed to investigate the mass rapes and gender violence. Mayans see the atrocities as an attempt to wipe out the Maya (by targeting the women especially).

There is a legacy of violence in Guatemala: in 2010 685 women were killed, and so far this year there have been 120 cases of rape, torture and even dismemberment.

Guatemala has been forced to start trials of human rights abuses, and arrest warrants prevent those accused of leaving the country.

2. Rape of men also occurs, and in some ways the consequences for the victims are worse – men are often unable to admit what happened, for fear of being shamed and seen as ‘women’, when the do tell their wives their wives often leave them. Horrific descriptions in article by Will Storr, Obs. Mag. 17.07.11:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men

The extent of this is not yet known, largely because of the shame experienced – Storr visits the Refugee Law project in Uganda – first example quoted is a man who was captured in Congo and raped three times a day for three years… he saw others raped, and some died of their injuries.

Journal of the American Medical Association, in 2010 published result of a survey: 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence. While over 4,000 NGOs have addressed wartime sexual violence, only 3% mentioned men.

G2 22.07.11 – Eleanor O’Hagan reports on failed accusation of gang rape by US service woman against colleagues in military contracting firm KBR. Adds that according to military reporter Adam Weinstein a US servicewoman is twice as likely to be raped as her civilian counterpart, as female US soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by the enemy, and possibly, Pentagon estimates, 90% of sexual-assault cases go unreported.

* Rape and sexual violence in the US armed forces *

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/09/rape-us-military?INTCMP=SRCH

- horrifying article, especially in the accounts of how victims are vilified or at least not taken seriously (for example the woman who, having just been raped by a fellow soldier, went into an officer’s office to complain without remembering to give the customary three knocks – he then made her do so many press-ups [“get down!”] that she was unable to say anything. Or the male soldier who was reporting to a doctor when the doctor received a phone-call as a result of which he said ‘there’s nothing wrong with you’ – despite the fact he had been beaten up and had blood everywhere.

**********

* Secrecy *

Guardian 150611, Daniel Ellsberg regrets that he didn’t reveal more of the papers he had at the time of the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers were released in 1971. He had other secret papers that showed that claims of an unprovoked attack on US destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf were lies – if he had reveled this in 1964 the Tonkin Gulf resolution – giving a blank cheque for war – would never have been passed according to Senator Morse (one of only two senators who voted against the resolution). Other documents proved that Johnson was lying when he claimed there would be ‘no wider war’ in his election campaign (he was in fact determined to escalate the war, even though he didn’t believe it could be won). The papers have recently been declassified…

Note the parallels with the Iraq war and ‘wikileaks’…

**********

*Soldiers are trained to kill – Giles Fraser*

See the Guardian article http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/12/afghanistan-men-without-safety-catch?INTCMP=SRCH for one reaction to the killing by a US soldier of 16 civilians in Afghanistan. (See also March 14^th piece by Seamus Milne which lists other violations by soldiers).

It’s not natural for us to kill each other, so methods have to be found e.g. psychological distancing (de-humanising), but troops need special methods. Brig Gen SLA Marshall wrote Men Against Fire in 1947 arguing that many soldiers actually couldn’t fire at the enemy, and the army etc have learned from this: targets are now made to look like people, video and computer games help make violence seem ordinary, a kind of ‘psychological warfare against our own troops’. War involves a process of systematic dehumanization says Fraser.

***************

*Syria – western intervention?*

Seamus Milne has a good piece in Guardian 06.06.12 – against western intervention. Massacres have occurred, and most agree they are the work of shabiha, i.e. pro-government sectarian militias – but the regime blames them on the opposition (Free Syria Army). This is similar to the situation in Kosovo 13 years ago, when contested killings led to western/NATO bombings (outside UN). However, intervention in Syria would cause civil war and regional conflagration: the internal struggle in Syria has already become part of a western and Saudi proxy war against Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. In fact the US has been giving (‘non-lethal’ and ‘communications’) support to Saudi Arabian and Turkish military support for the opposition.

Milne claims the intervention in Libya last year led to an increase in the death toll by a factor of 10 to 15, and left a country of lawless warlords, torture and ethnic cleansing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/05/syria-un-intervention-bashar-al-assad?INTCMP=SRCH

**********

* UN peacekeeping *

See Wikipedia web page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all_UN_peacekeeping_missions

Guidelines for UN: http://pbpu.unlb.org/pbps/Library/Capstone_Doctrine_ENG.pdf

NB wiki notes on page defining peacekeeping perhaps need amending to use UN distinction between peacemaking and peace enforcement?

**************

* ‘websites and other resources’ – additions *

www.abolishwar.org.uk

*****************

World War I:

Coming up to 1914, discussion is taking place on how to commemorate it...

Oldest items first:

Interesting piece by Matthias Strohn, senior lecturer in war studies at Sandhurst, Guardian Tues 23^rd July 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/first-world-war-remember-world-conflict

Other articles: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/22/national-archives-kew-appeals-middlesex-tribunal on conscientious objectors...

Review of Frank Furedi: First World War: Still no end in sight (Bloomsbury), Observer 26^th Jan 2014, by Yvonne Roberts – argues there was widespread support at the time (in contrast to current disillusionment, he claims: in fact he says too many people see the war through this atmosphere of disillusionment). The war marked the end of empire, deference, white racial superiority, and the docility of the masses – and it was followed by epidemics, revolutions, failures of states, currency collapses, unemployment, dictatorship and fascism... Hence our disillusionment with institutions and with authority. Sees ‘how to ensure that popular consent serves as the foundation for authority’ as the ‘question of our time.’ Conflict now, he says, is over cultural issues (homosexuality, abortion, marriage) – ‘culture wars’ have replaced wars of ideology. Argues for re-politicising democracy. I agree with Yvonne Roberts – hard to see this happening!! And isn’t the description of current times over-simple? I find most generalisations of this type hard to take.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/26/furedi-first-world-war-still-no-end-review - comments are interesting!

Adam Tooze: The Great War and the Re-making of Global Order 1916 – 1931 (Allen Lane). How the war re-shaped the world in terms of America becoming a super-power – how weak the enemies of the pax Americana (e.g. Russia) actually were – how the depression led to Roosevelt wanting to abandon America’s world role in order to exit the depression, which led to the collapse of the gold standard, and countries strengthened the state to deal with economic problems. A few countries (especially Germany, Japan, Italy and the USSR) then set out to challenge American superiority with extreme nationalism, and militarism. ‘The American challenge forced fascist and communist regimes to devise forms of political enlistment that had no precedent.’ (Mark Mazover’s review, Guardian 26^th June 2014). Raises the question of whether the US will stick with a view of its indispensability and how much it will scale back its commitments?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/19/the-deluge-great-war-remaking-of-global-order-adam-tooze-review

*****************

World War II - The Zohn family

May 2008: Have been checking the stories of the Zohn family, helped by my parents to flee Austria early in the second world war. Surprised to find that Harry Zohn (Fritzi’s brother) went on to become a well-known professor at Brandeis University – died in 2001 (born 1923). Well-known as a translator, of many German texts (Martin Buber, Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin, Kurt Tucholsky for example) and of texts on the Jewish experience, e.g. Bruck uber dem Abgrund (A bridge over the Abyss – reflections on the Jewish experience…)

See: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB133EF931A25755C0A9679C8B63# - for Harry Zohn’s Obituary – mentions that Elsa is still alive.