Home > New Year’s Resolutions - 10 Ways to Stop the War

New Year’s Resolutions - 10 Ways to Stop the War

by Open-Publishing - Monday 2 January 2006

Wars and conflicts International Gideon Polya

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS - TEN WAYS TO STOP THE WAR

The latest UNICEF report (December 2005) estimates that in 2004 the under-5 infant mortality was 122,000 in Occupied Iraq, 359,000 in Occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the occupying country Australia (noting that in 2004 the populations of these countries were 28.1 million, 28.6 million and 19.9 million, respectively) (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry...).

About 1,300 under-5 year old infants will have died in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan on Christmas Day 2005 alone and 0.5 million will die in the coming year due to criminal non-provision by the US-led Coalition of life-preserving requisites demanded by the Geneva Conventions (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm).

These horrendous figures are consonant with estimates from the latest UN demographic data that the post-invasion excess mortality (avoidable mortality) and under-5 infant mortality in the US-occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories now total 2.1 million and 1.7 million, respectively (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-p...).

The appallingly high civilian mortality in US wars derives from the nature of high technology war that minimizes politically-sensitive US combat deaths at the expense of “enemy” civilian deaths in gross contravention of the Geneva Conventions. Thus the ratio of “enemy civilian deaths” to “US combat deaths” has steadily increased over the last 70 years: 18 (World War 2), 24 (Korean War), 277 (Indo-China War), 12,259 (Gulf War & Sanctions War against Iraq), 15,716 (Afghanistan War) and 324 (Iraq War) (see Senate Inquiry submission #112: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/commit...).

Decent people can help stop the war (and coincidentally promote the health and wealth of themselves, others and the planet) by simply following the fundamental Free Market principle of Free Choice - and in consequent Ethical Dealings doing what is good for themselves, the planet and the innocent victims of US state terrorism:

1. No drinking (Coalition countries such as the UK, US, Denmark, Italy, Japan and Australia are major players in the global alcoholic beverage market of about $900 billion per annum (pa); abstinence is good for your health; 1.8 million people die globally each year from alcohol-related causes).

2. No smoking (Coalition countries, notably the UK and the US, are major producers of this dangerous product that has an annual market value of about $1,000 billion; about 5 million people die annually world-wide from smoking-related causes).

3. Avoid processed foods when possible (Coalition countries are major players in the processed food market that is worth about $3,000 billion annually out of global food sales of about $4,000 billion pa; fresh food is cheaper and healthier both for you and a resource-challenged planet - but clearly there are important pasteurization, freezing, pressing, grinding, preserving and canning exceptions for your “peacenik” shopping list).

4. Avoid Coalition goods, services, people and organizations when possible (we certainly should not financially support or associate with those complicit in mass murder, mass infanticide and horrendous human suffering. Should Asian or Muslim overseas students study in Australia or in the universities of other Coalition countries involved in egregious passive genocide of Asian and Muslim infants (see: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/oc...)?

5. Minimize use of private transport (US wars in the Middle East and Central Asia are linked to profligate use of increasingly scarce oil resources at the expense of the global environment and sensible use by chemical industry; Coalition countries, notably the US, the UK, South Korea, Japan and Australia, are major automotive industry players; walk or take public transport; any time you drive or fly your taxes are killing “enemy” Asian infants; walking is good for your health).

6. Avoid mainstream media (Alternative electronic media can provide ethical reporting, analysis and entertainment at minimal cost to the consumer and our dwindling forests and polluted rivers; why subsidize environmental degradation and continuation of egregious warmongering, racism, lying and holocaust denial?)

7. Support pro-peace citizens in organizations, business and politics (support pro-peace humanists and resolutely oppose child-killing proto-Nazis at all levels of society through ethical investment, purchasing, dealing and voting).

8. Intolerance of racism, bigotry, lying and war-mongering (we would not tolerate noisome flatulence, flagrant nose-picking or threatening behaviour in a restaurant - we should surely be utterly intolerant of obscene, proto-Nazi public advocacy leading to racist war, mass murder and passive genocide).

9. Minimize use of resources and be resolutely Green (US wars, US Empire, UK-US democratic imperialism, globalization, First World constraint of the Third World and greenhouse gas-driven global warming are all fundamentally about profligate, greedy and inequitable resource utilization; half the world (3 billion out of 6 billion people) lives on less than $2 a day and yet the US, with 5% of the world’s population, controls half its resources; resource use profligacy supports Coalition corporations and the associated taxes support militarism and passive genocide; the annual economic benefit from saving what is left of wild nature would exceed the annual cost of doing so by a factor of over 100 (see: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/conte...).

10. INFORM EVERYONE - silence kills and silence is complicity. Help save the kids, help save the world and save your health, your wealth and your SOUL. Lower your blood pressure by doing something practical against war and mass murder. Give this List of 10 News Year’s Resolutions to 10 other people and tell them to tell 10 more people etc. When George Bush reads this Stop the War List on the door of a White House john, the war on women and children will be over.

Dr Gideon Polya
Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia
e-mail: gpolya@optusnet.com.au
Credentials: Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently editing his book on global mortality - numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" or consulting his website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpo...