This article was written by Professor Richard Falk, currently the UN Special Rapporteur For Palestinian Human Rights.
Richard Falk is an International Law and International Relations Scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years. Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
There are several pressures that push war in the direction of the absolute, and imperil the human future. Perhaps, the foremost of these is emergence, use, retention, and proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as the development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki there have been several close calls involving heightened dangers of wars fought with nuclear weapons, especially associated with the Cold War rivalry, none more serious than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. To entrust such weaponry to the vagaries of political leadership and the whims governmental institutions seems like a Mt. Everest of human folly, and yet the present challenges to nuclearism remain modest and marginal despite the collapse of the deterrence rationale that seemed plausible to many during the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Underneath the tendency to develop for use whatever weapons and tactics that technology can provide is the fragmented political identities of a world divided into sovereign states. The inhabitants of these states of greatly varying size, capabilities, and vulnerabilities, have long been indoctrinated to view their own state through the idolatrous eyes of nationalism that view the extermination of the enemy as acceptable if necessary for national security or even desirable to satisfy national ambitions. The ideology of nationalism, nurturing the values of unquestioning patriotism, have led to an orientation that can be described as secular fundamentalism, vindicating militarist worldviews however dysfunctional given the risks and limits associated with gaining desired political ends by relying on military superiority. The crime of treason reinforces the absolutist claims of the secular state by disallowing defenses based on conscience, law, and belief.
As I have pointed out in other contexts, the militarily superior side has rarely prevailed in an armed conflict since the end of World War II unless also able to command the moral and legal heights wherein are located the symbols of legitimacy. The political failures of the colonial powers despite their military dominance provides many bloody illustrations of this trend of miltarist frustration that did not exist until the middle of the last century. Because of entrenched bureaucratic and economic interests (‘the military-industrial-media complex’), the experience is denied, military solutions for conflicts continue to be preferred, and futile recourse to war goes on and on.
One further check on the excesses of warfare is supposedly provided by the inhibiting role of conscience, the ethical component of the human sensibility. This sentiment was powerfully and memorably expressed by some lines in the Bertolt Brecht poem, “A German War Primer”:
General, your bomber is powerful
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.
This ‘defect,’ a driver is both a human cost, and maybe a brake on excess, as Brecht suggests a few lines later:
General, man is very useful
He can fly and he can kill
But he has one defect:
He can think.
Of course, military training and discipline are generally effective in overcoming this defect, especially as backed up by the nationalist ideology discussed above, while international humanitarian law vainly tries to give support to thinking and respecting limits. The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi surviving leaders even went so far as to decide that ‘superior orders’ were no excuse if war crimes were committed.
In the nuclear age this process went further as the stakes were so high. I recall visiting the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) at the height of the Cold War. SAC was responsible for the missile force that then targeted many cities in the Soviet Union. What struck me at the time was the seeming technocratic indifference of those entrusted with operating the computers that would fire the missiles in contrast to the ideological zeal of the commanding generals who would give the orders to annihilate millions of civilians at a distant locations. I was told at the time that the lower ranked technical personnel had been tested to ensure that moral scruples would not interfere with their readiness to follow orders. I found this mix of commanders politically convinced that the enemy was evil and apolitical and amoral subordinates a frightening mix at the time, and still do, although I have not been invited back to SAC to see whether similar conditions now prevail. I suspect that they do, considering the differing requirements of the two roles. This view seems confirms by the enthusiasm expressed for carrying on the ‘war on terror’ in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
In this period new technological innovations in war making accentuate my earlier concerns. The reliance on drone attacks in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) removes the human person altogether from the war experience, except as in the role of programmer, and even here reliance on algorithms for targeting, removes any shred of responsibility. When mistakes are made, and innocent civilians are killed, the event is neutralized by being labeled ‘collateral damage,’ and an apology is issued but the practice goes on and is even extended. More important is the chilling effect of removing that human presence, both as a person of one’s own nation being at risk and as a source of potential questioning and even refusal. It should be recalled that the anti-war opposition of American soldiers in Vietnam exerted a powerful influence that helped over time finally to bring this failed war to an end.
What is at stake ultimately is the human spirit squeezed to near death by technological momentum, corporate greed, militarism, and secular fundamentalism. This web of historical forces continues to entrap major political actors in the world, and dims hopes for a sustainable future even without taking into account the dismal effects of the gathering clouds of climate change. Scenarios of future cyber warfare are also part of this overall process of destroying societies without risking lives directly. The cumulative effect of these developments is to make irrelevant the moral compass that alone provides acceptable guidance for a progressive human future.
NOTICE: The following 2 videos have actual graphic scenes of revolting, disgusting, fearful, sickening violence, evil, and the depravity of man’s brutality toward man from the Past. This is not for the weak at heart.
If we cannot face the evils from our Past, and learn from them Today, we will be ill-equipped to deal with them in the Tomorrows of the Future if humanity does not change it’s values and ways?
For Now we have Faith, Hope and Love, but the Greatest of these is Love.
1 Corinthianians 13
The following secret video of US forces killing civilians in Iraq is what catapulted Wikileaks to the forefront of public awareness
Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels said if a lie is repeated often enough, it will be accepted as the truth. Christianity has said for so long Sodom was destroyed because of gay sex, that interpretation is not questioned? I question it?
And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do JUSTICE and JUDGMENT; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;I will go down now, and SEE WHETHER they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and IF NOT, I WILL KNOW
Genesis 18
Now here is God saying, something is happening in Sodom. It´s not good. I don´t know exactly what it is, but I´ll check it out and then I´ll know for sure.
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment;
God knows Abraham is a just man, wise in his judgment.God still doesn´t know for sure what the problem is in Sodom, but Abraham, in his concern pressed the Lord.
That be far from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from you: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
And Abraham drew near, and said, Will you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? What IF there are fifty righteous within the city: will you also destroy them and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are there?
Abraham is holding God´s feet to the fire in the manner of speaking, saying to God, is ¨collateral¨ damage acceptable to the Great God? Collateral damage is totally acceptable to the world powers these days.
Abraham is very bold with the Lord, pressing for a commitment.
And he said to Him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: What if there shall be 30 found there? And he said, I will not do it, if I find 30 there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: What if there shall be 20 found there? And He said, I will not destroy it for 20’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: What if 10 shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 10’s sake.
That’s good reasoning with God anyway you look at it, the stereotype for Jewish bargaining talents.
Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Abraham got the word of the Lord, but this implies the angels have orders to go into town, mingle with the people, and look for at least ten righteous people.
What would you be doing if the internet didn’t exist? No TV. radio, telephone, newspapers, movie theatres, public transit, electricity or indoor plumbing? No manufacturing plants or punch clocks and no clocks at all except sunrise and sunset? No air conditioning? Life would be so basic. Just surviving one day at a time would be an accomplishment. No knowledge about what is happening in the world beyond the city walls except when strangers come to town.
The streets were small and narrow, teeming with people looking for something, amusement, entertainment, anything to do to pass the evening.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but WE WILL ABIDE IN THE STREET ALL NIGHT.
And he PRESSED UPON THEM GREATLY; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
Lot wanted to get the information from the strangers firsthand, and he bugged them and bugged them until they abandoned their instructions to stay in the streets all night to find 10 righteous people.
The people would recognize strangers, but the angels must have had an aura about them that caused the Sodomites to pause and whisper to one another as Lot led them through the city streets to his abode. Lot wanted them all to himself.
As Lot feasted with the angels behind closed doors, word quickly spread through Sodom about these mysterious strangers. Curiosity was building. Where are they from? What news can they tell us about the larger world beyond the our city walls?
But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
ALL THE PEOPLE, OLD AND YOUNG FROM EVERY QUARTER. We have to assume women were included in ALL the people. Did they have a giant orgy in mind? Old, young, male and female? ALL the people?
The whole city was curious about the angel/strangers.
And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men which came in to you this night? bring them out to us, that we may KNOW them.
I have no idea when and where it started, but some Christian somewhere read that somewhere else in the Bible, probably when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was visited by an angel in human form to tell her she will be the mother of God and she said, ‘how can this be since I have not “known man” Not known man means to be a virgin, so “to know them” was extrapolated to mean having sex.
I just don’t see that connection there in reading the story by this one line: bring them out to us, that we may KNOW them, and building a case that God destroyed Sodom because of gay sex.
What is worse, is people believe it because it’s preached from some pulpits, and don’t read the story for themselves and think with some realistic imagination to make up their own mind, nor have the ability to see the Spirit of the letter in their own “personal” relationship with God, but go by what other people tell them to believe. In the final analysis, it is not between you and them, but between you and God.
And Lot went out at the door to them, and shut the door after him,
Bring them out to us that we may know them.This is the third ¨KNOW¨”in the story. Bring them out! We want to know them. We want to know what they know about the outside world?
A detail in this story is that Lot shut the door behind him so the people did not know what was happening behind the closed door, neither did the angels know what was happening outside.
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
The first thing Lot tells the crowd is you can´t touch the men, but you can do what you want with my virgin daughters. Is this righteous? Is Lot a loving, responsible parent? I don´t think so!
And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will NEEDS BE A JUDGE; now will we deal worse with you, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
The people were pissed off at Lot by his free offer of his daughters. I supposed some would think they must be gay or they would want Lot´s daughters, but that´s not what the story says.
ALL THE PEOPLE said, this fellow Lot is new in town and he would judge us. WE want to know what the strangers know. We don´t want your daughters. They had righteous indignation over what Lot thought what they wanted and were angry.
But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
At that point the men-angels only put out their hands from behind the door, and pulled Lot in, and didn’t really know what the commotion was all about!
The angels should have continued on their mission to spend the night in the streets to find 10 righteous people in the city, but they did not even come outside to see what the commotion was all about, and pulled Lot into the house.
Not only did the angels not do what they were supposed to do, they stayed with an unrighteous man who thought nothing of offering his daughters to a mob.
The rest of the story gets very bizarre.
And the men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law, your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, take out of the place. For we are destroying this place, because their cry has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that MOCKED unto his sons in law.
Lot had many defects of character it seems.
Verses 30 to 36 I cannot imagine. Lot got so drunk, he didn´t know his daughters seduced him. He was so drunk, he impregnated his virgin daughters. Being that drunk, how could he get it up and not even know it?
In 1985 I was extended the rare honour and recognition of being invited to lunch with The Apostolic Nuncio to Canada. That’s the Pope’s Ambassador.
Mindful of how Jesus talked to the establishment religious leaders, I was also mindful while he lives in me, I am not he. I am a sinner like the Pope, Presidents, Prime Ministers, CEOs and everyone else without exception.
Passing through the main Dining Hall with it’s seven foot fireplace and table seating at least fifty, The Nuncio, Charge D’Affairs, Secretary and I entered a beautifully decorated, intimate Dining room with a table for twelve. The dinnerware had a gold band around the edge with the Papal tiara crown in gold at the top. It was a formal setting. with the whitest linen tablecloth and flowers.
As the guest, the man for all Seasons and Reasons served me first and the Secretary last. At that point I deliberately picked up the dessert fork at the top of the plate to eat the rigatoni meat sauce appetizer with the most wonderful aroma just to see what would happen?
The Pope’s Ambassador stopped me, and pointing to the fork on the side said, “Use that one.”
Replacing it, I said, “Excuse me, Your Excellency. It’s been over ten years since I left the business world where I negotiated multi-million dollar deals in Board Rooms and fine restaurants. I’ve lost touch with that sense of refinement.
To tell you the Truth, Your Excellency, since I’ve been walking with Jesus, most of the people I encounter can’t even afford to eat good food, let alone have matched dinnerware.” Jesus was brutal talking to religious leaders.
Being a Diplomat and recovering, The Nuncio asked, “What’s on the mind of youth?” I answered, “Sex, drugs, music, peace, love, friendship, money, security and work, not necessarily in that order of priority.”
“Oh! It’s just like Sodom and Gomorrah was his reply. I replied, “Surely Your Excellency knows the Prophet Ezekiel said what the sin of Sodom was in Chapter 16:48.It was pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters and she was haughty. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. It had nothing to do with sexual activity.” On that, The Apostolic Nuncio shushed both hands at me saying, ¨Eat! Eat!¨
All the nominally Christian Societies Today, fit within the reasons for the destruction of Sodom as described by the Prophet Ezekiel
Sitting in the front seat of the limousine with the man for all Seasons and Reasons living in the gatehouse with his Wife, and driving me home after lunch, he told me his wife is a Cormier. It was a surprise learning of that Co-incidence or design? Especially because a year earlier, in 1985 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau quit his job 2 weeks after RCMP VIP Security questioned me at length on my attitude toward him? It was a surprise to me he quit, and an even greater surprise when I learned he moved from the Parliamentary House to the Cormier House in Montreal, he bought 2 years after I entered his Life. For the last 7 years of his Administration, I was in the position to stand with him Face to Face and talk with or pass Pierre Trudeau a note without any Intermediaries.
Imagine if your Family Name was connected like that to both Political and Religious Powers? Co-incidence or design?
The RCMP have the Records on all that, like the US Secret Service has records on my presence in Kansas City during the 1976 Republican National Convention.
It was a surprise to me when the Secret Service called me out of the compressed crowd in the Lobby of The Crown Center Hotel for questioning, everyone looking up to the President’s Podium, symbol of Power, set up on the Secret Service restricted Mezzanine. The unexpected surprises continued. Instead of questioning me in some anteroom, the Secret Service Agent led me to stand right at the President’s Podium and questioned me Face to Face in view of the masses below and the 3 Networks broadcasting live. With my shoulder length hair, beard and wearing my trademark #13 jersey, it certainly was a Revolutionary Image standing at the President’s Podium in the Spirit of ’76, and the Secret Service has Records of it!
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I have no delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it. How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Your silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water: Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore says the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: And I will turn my hand upon you, and purely purge away your dross, and take away all your tin:
On May 2, 1978, The Ottawa Citizen published a column by Special Correspondent Joseph Kraft headed, “Radicals in Check – Islamic Revival No Threat To West.”
Mr. Kraft served President Kennedy as a speechwriter, and was well connected to the powerful decision makers in Washington, getting his information directly from the Horse’s mouth so to speak.
I wrote the following letter to The Ottawa Citizen in reply to his column, sending a copy to all the Party Leaders in Parliament and the heads of all Religions in CanaDa, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, including every Prince of the Roman Catholic Church. The Citizen did not print it, and the only one to acknowledge it personally was the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, Leader of the Official Opposition at the time.
It is only with the benefit of 33 years hindsight can it be seen Today’s world has generally evolved along it’s lines. While the projections were inspired by Biblical terms in 1978, the details are being reported in secular terms by the mass media Today.
Two weeks before the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war, I personally handed a copy directly to General Rick Hillier, the former Chief of the Defence Staff of CanaDa at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa after a Military Funeral for a young Canadian killed in Afghanistan.
Coincidentally, on that Time Line two years later, I was working as a contract worker for the Department of National Defence out the bowels of the National Printing Bureau on Rue Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) in Hull. In fact, the building was designed by Ernest Cormier who also designed The Supreme Court of CanaDa. Being lowest on the Totem Pole, co-incidentally, I was let go by DND earlier on the same day General Hillier quit or was pushed out as CDS. That is still a matter of speculation.
I met him at the door to the CTV studio in downtown Ottawa 3 days later as he was entering to be interviewed on his separation from DND service, and he distinctly recalled the letter and our brief meeting two years earlier.
I wrote to both Joe Clark and General Hillier twice with the request they make some kind of generic, non committal comment confirming the basic Truth of this report, but didn’t get a reply from either person to my email and obviously they have not commented here.
Click on any image to expand and be able to read the script.
It was a surprise to me to discover the symbol I mention in my handwriting is the plaque of the Architects and builders of the House of Commons which is The Star of David.
And he said to Him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: What if there shall be 30 found there? And he said, I will not do it, if I find 30 there.
