Thoughts on the Current Situation
Today’s world is increasingly and bitterly divided. Western nations are being led to believe by too many of their leaders that all evil stems from Islam. We are told that Moslems are different. Policies of exclusion are promoted. Policies of inclusion have been set aside. The Rule of Law has been seriously prejudiced. Imprisonment without trial, secret interrogations, control systems, symptomatic of the banning orders in South Africa under Apartheid, which the whole world condemned, preventive detention, all strike at the heart of a free and open society.
We are being told that these breaches in our own principles are necessary to fight terrorism.
Do we ever ask ourselves how followers of Islam see us? If we cannot do that, the divide between the West and Islam will become greater and may lead to conflict through the whole of this century.
They would see the West as hypocritical, teaching principles of democracy which the West only supports if the results are satisfactory to the West.
They would see breaches in basic rights, in Abu Ghraib, in the rendition programmes, in the continuing practice of torture, which has been demonstrated to be serious and ongoing.
Moslems would believe that Western policies in relation to Israel and Palestine are prejudiced in favour of Israel. Perception becomes a reality which motivates action. The West has done very little, often nothing, to dispel that perception.
They would believe that the war in Iraq, as much as anything, is a war for the control of oil.
They would believe the policies in relation to Iran are hypocritical.
Statements by the United States that Iran and North Korea are governed by rogue regimes which should be changed, do nothing to promote peace and much to promote conflict. If a regime is told it must be changed, what will it do? It will seek to deter, even the most powerful nations if it can. The possession of nuclear weapons would offer a deterrent. North Korea and Iran are alleged to be seeking nuclear weapons. Against this, Israel possesses about two hundred nuclear weapons and the means of delivery, which the West accepts without dispute.
Earlier, outside the Non Proliferation Treaty, India sought nuclear weapons and achieved them and the means to deliver them. As a consequence, Pakistan pursued nuclear weapons and has achieved them, to counterbalance a perceived threat from India. Proliferation is already with us.
The West is partial in its opposition to the possession of nuclear weapons. The Non Proliferation Treaty, in Article 6, commits all parties to work for disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons. The original five nuclear states have shown no inclination to move in that direction. If they had, India would not have pursued nuclear weapons.
The failure of the West to pursue its own stated objectives has indeed promoted proliferation of nuclear weapons and will continue to do so unless policies are changed.
Nuclear weapons are no longer necessary to the defence of Europe or the United States, or indeed of any country. Without nuclear weapons, United States military supremacy is guaranteed, perhaps for decades. It is time for this to be understood, for nuclear weapons to be abolished, for major powers to show some leadership that might give the world a chance for peace and security. Continuation of current policies is likely to lead to two grave and serious dangers:
- The clash of civilisations which Samuel Huntington wrote about, a clash which is not necessary and which can still be averted.
- To a continuing proliferation of nuclear weapons which will put the world at even more serious risk.
It is time for action. It is time to pursue a just world.
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