Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Credibility comes from the past

In many posts I have made note of how history gets in the way of peace. Often I use the Palestine/Israeli war as an example of how history blurrs the progress of peace. So here we are having to listen to certain leaders talking about standing up for law and citizens in Syria yet wanting to bomb the very same people. The invasion of Iraq is and was just as deplorable as using chemical weapons in Syria. Thus the credibility of those who invaded Iraq must hold themselves to the same standard as they hold Syria. In that light we must ask where is the consequences for those that invaded Iraq? Now the political option for solving Syria is ever present. What is missing is the diligent work to be done behind the cameras. A two or four hour meeting with high level representatives will not solve the Syrian war. The onbly way Syria will return to peace is a group of people that are focused on the return of peace order and good governance to Syria. At the moment it is just an adhoc group with no clear leadership or direction. The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council will always play cold war childish games. This leaves the ngo community and middle power countries to step up. The situation in Syria is of such concern that the G20 meeting was derailed because of it. We were to get some agreements on dollar valuation, global economic policy to deal with coruption and tax evasion. Very little of this was accomplished at the the recent G20. It seems as though the world is drifting aimlessly and there is no one on the horizon that seems capable of leading. All we can do is just keep working away at peace, somehow we will get there. It just seems a very long and difficult road.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Syrian Solution

The situation in Syria was allowed to happen. The illegal weaponisation of the rebels along with the poor control of the borders are issues that should have been locked down two years ago. Here we are today wasting energy on debating whether or not a military strike should be allowed. The single largest effort to resolve this issue should be the complete control of weapons going into Syria – there should be a complete halt on all weapons going into Syria immediately. Pointing fingers, blaming and seeking out who is responsible for the gas attack needs to stop. There is not one country that is blame free. This is our world and we allowed Syria to destroy itself because we did not have the courage to do what we all know had to be done. Still we are arguing over how to resolve the situation. Enough blood has been shed. Lock down the borders and take every piece of weaponry possible. Also the current government has to be supported. Even though the current government is far from perfect they are legally in charge. Due to that, any foreign troops that do enter Syria must acknowledge and support the laws and current structure of Syria. What is so frustrating is that we all know this is the way to go but it will never happen. There are too many gutless leaders calling the shots. The current set of leaders are hell bent on power grabs, cold war ideology, one up-manship and childish warmongering to make the deweaponisation plan work. Why must we always kill each other to obtain peace? That is such an oxymoron and yet it is the primary method of bring peace. Put in the extreme trade barriers of not one more weapon and lock down the borders so tight that even a mouse gets questioned. Oh wait, that solution is too expensive. We would rather spend a trillion dollars on weapons and kill people. We have wasted two years for no reason at all. With each passing day the situation grows worse and more difficult to solve. Already hundreds of thousands of children have spent the majority of their lives in refugee camps. Cultures are dying, communities are destroyed, families torn apart, history is lost and what little connection to a peaceful Syria these children had is now replaced with hate, misinformation and a destabilized understanding of the world. Why, because the leaders of the world have acted childish and irresponsible.As bad as it is these leaders still will not do what is necessary. Lock down the country and take every weapon out, only then can discussions/elections and rule of law be established. Of course it will take an enormous amount of courage and effort but no more than what it took to bring peace to Iraq or Afghanistan. Oh wait both of those were failures.