An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" - Mahatma Gandhi

Dear friends,

The events of these past years, months, weeks, days and hours seem to have brought the world on the verge of an Armageddon. Violence is everywhere and from violence nothing good can come out.

This blog wants to appeal to NON VIOLENCE as the only, real answer to the madness of our times and as the only way to reach peace and justice.

I re-publish today an article I wrote last year on Thursday, July 07, 2005 in the immediate aftermath of the London bombings.

In peace and solidarity,
Gabriele Zamparini

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Thursday, July 07, 2005

London Blasts: Don't let them win
By Gabriele Zamparini

London, the city where I live, has been attacked. Ordinary people are paying the price, once again. Killing innocent people is an infamous act, never legitimate. Never justified. Never. But if we want to understand what’s going on without hysteria, we must look at the full picture. Again, not to apologize. But to understand. And hopefully to do something to build a better world.

I was living in New York when the September 11th attacks happened. I saw the people of New York meeting spontaneously in the streets and the squares of Downtown Manhattan. Staying together. Talking and singing for peace. Not revenge. I witnessed how the power used those events for its own agenda. I remember the manipulation of the events by the media, that corporate media that was beating the drums for war. And I feared the rise of a totalitarian regime.

There are still many questions on what exactly happened that day. But since, Afghanistan has been bombed and innocent people there, people like you and me, are still dying because of our Governments’ actions. Iraq has been invaded and occupied. No connections whatsoever linked Iraq to the September 11th attacks. And none of the alleged reasons given by our ruthless leaders were true. More than 100,000 Iraqi innocent civilians have been murdered, most of them women and children. Many young boys and girls from the United States, the United Kingdom, from Italy and many other countries lost their lives. Young boys and girls who didn't even start their lives were sent to kill other people, people who did nothing to them or to their own country. They were sent far away from home, through a brain washing process that involves complicity and unity by all sides of the establishment.

And then the massive human rights violation at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib…

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to fight the “War on Terror”. But war IS terror.

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to keep our cities safe. Then Madrid and now London.

All this and much more, we were told, was necessary to build democracy in Iraq. Yet, no Iraqi wants foreign occupation.

In this day of sorrow, our solidarity and our thoughts must go to the innocent victims of these cruel and infamous acts in London. But our love for these brothers and sisters must not be an empty and hypocritical gesture of circumstance or convenience.

This is a time for reason, honesty and open discussion. Those who target innocent civilians are infamous terrorists who deserve our contempt and must be held accountable. Always. Doesn’t matter if they terrorize innocent civilians with a bomb placed on a bus or with much more expensive and sophisticated weaponry paid for by our tax money. Let’s not let them win.

***

I have been asked to clarify my thought in relation to the Peoples' right to Resist Foreign aggressions.

My piece was about violence in general and violence against civilians in particular.

Peoples have the right - and international law recognizes this right - to defend themselves against foreign aggressions.

I have always supported the Peoples' right to RESIST illegal, violent, military, foreign aggressions, invasions and occupations.

On a broader issue, we need also to consider that in modern warfare, 90% of the victims of all conflicts are civilians.

There is no doubt in my mind that all the moral and legal responsibilities for this carnage has to be found in the Western governments and their supporters.

Gabriele Zamparini