|
CPNN Administrator
|
 |
Posted: Sep. 08 2013,07:33 |
 |
Here is a timely argument against an American attack on Syria, an open letter from Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to President Obama: (The original Spanish version is published in La Nacion of Argentina. See below for English translation)
"¡Escucha el clamor de los pueblos!", le exige el argentino al presidente demócrata en el título de la carta.
"La situación en Siria es preocupante y una vez más los Estados Unidos, erigéndose en gendarme del mundo, pretende invadir Siria en nombre de la «Libertad» y los «derechos humanos»", comienza, con tono crítico, la carta.
"Armar rebeldes para luego autorizar la intervención de la OTAN, no es algo nuevo por parte de tu país y tus aliados. Tampoco es nuevo que Estados Unidos pretenda invadir países acusándolos de posesión de armas de destrucción masiva, que en el caso de Irak resultó no ser cierto", expresa Pérez Esquivel, y menciona que Estados Unidos "ha apoyado el régimen de Saddam Hussein que utilizó armas químicas para aniquilar a la población kurda y contra la Revolución Iraní y no hizo nada para sancionarlo porque en ese momento eran aliados".
"Sin embargo ahora pretenden invadir Siria sin siquiera saber los resultados de las investigaciones que está haciendo la ONU por autorización del mismo gobierno Sirio. Ciertamente que el uso de las armas químicas es inmoral y condenable, pero tu gobierno no tiene autoridad moral alguna para justificar una intervención", opina el Nobel argentino, para luego citar al Secretario General de Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, quien dijo que un ataque militar en Siria podría empeorar el conflicto.
Pérez Esquivel menciona que tanto la Argentina, como el Papa Francisco y "hasta el histórico aliado de Estados Unidos, Gran Bretaña", rechazaron la intervención.
"TU PAÍS NO TIENE AUTORIDAD MORAL"
"Tu país está transformando la «Primavera Árabe» en el infierno de la OTAN, provocando guerras en el Medio Oriente y desatando la rapiña de las corporaciones internacionales", continúa, al inicio del fragmento más áspero del texto.
"La invasión que pretendes llevará a más violencia y más muertes, así como a la desestabilización de Siria y de la región. ¿Con qué objetivo? El lúcido analista, Robert Fisk, ha precisado que el objetivo es Irán y postergar la concreción del estado palestino, no es la indignación que producen la muerte de cientos de niños sirios lo que los motiva a ustedes a intervenir militarmente. Y justamente cuando ha triunfado en Irán un gobierno moderado, donde se podría tratar de contribuir a lograr escenarios de negociación pacífica a los conflictos existentes", comenta Pérez Esquivel.
"Esa política será suicida de tu parte y de tu país", opina.
"Siria necesita una solución política, no militar. La comunidad internacional debe dar su apoyo a las organizaciones sociales que buscan la paz. El pueblo sirio, como cualquier otro, tiene derecho a su autodeterminación y a definir su propio proceso democrático y debemos ayudar en lo que nos necesiten", subraya Pérez Esquivel.
El Nobel de la Paz se dirige entonces directamente a su par con contundencia: "Obama, tu país no tiene autoridad moral, ni legitimidad, ni legalidad para invadir Siria ni ningún otro país. Mucho menos luego de haber asesinado 220.000 personas en Japón lanzando bombas de destrucción masiva".
¿A QUIÉN OBEDECES?
"Por eso te pregunto Obama: ¿a quién obedeces?", cuestiona, tras mencionar una encuesta de la agencia Reuters según la cual "el 60% de los estadounidenses se oponen a la invasión que quieres llevar a cabo". "Tu gobierno se ha convertido en un peligro para el equilibrio internacional y para el propio pueblo estadounidense", fustiga a continuación.
"Estados Unidos se ha vuelto un país que no puede dejar de exportar muerte para mantener su economía y poderío. Nosotros no dejaremos de intentar impedirlo", continúa, y recuerda un viaje que realizó a Irak en la década de los 90. "Vi un refugio lleno de niños y mujeres asesinados por misiles teledirigidos. «Daños colaterales» los llaman ustedes", critica.
"Los pueblos están diciendo ¡BASTA! a las guerras. La humanidad reclama la Paz y el derecho a vivir en libertad. Los pueblos quieren transformar las armas en arados, y el camino para lograrlo es «DESARMAR LAS CONCIENCIAS ARMADAS» [sic]", dice Pérez Esquivel hacia el final del texto.
Finalmente, Pérez Esquivel termina con una mención a otro premio Nobel de la Paz, Martin Luther King, a quien el presidente estadounidense homenajeó la semana pasada, al cumplirse 50 años de su emblemático discurso de "Yo tengo un sueño". "Obama, nunca olvides que siempre recogemos los frutos de lo que sembramos. Cualquier ser humano debería sembrar paz y humanidad, más aún un Premio Nobel de la Paz. Espero que no termines convirtiendo el «sueño de fraternidad» que anhelaba Luther King en una pesadilla para los pueblos y la humanidad"..
* * * * * * * * * *
English translation published by Democratic Underground:
Open letter to President Barack Obama
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Hear the outcry of the peoples!
The situation in Syria is an object of serious preoccupation and once more the United States, assuming the role of the world's policeman, proposes to invade Syria in the name of "Freedom" and "Human Rights".
Your predecessor George W. Bush, in his messianic madness, invoked religious fundamentalism to launch his messianic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. When he declared that he talked with God, and God told him that he had to attack Iraq, he did so claiming it was the message of God to export "freedom" to the world.
You have spoken, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the Reverend Martin Luther King, also a Nobel Peace Laureate, of the need to complete the "Dream" of a shared table, of he who was the most significant expression of the struggle for civil rights against racism in the first slave-holding democracy in the world. Martin Luther King was a man who gave his life to give life, and because of this he is a martyr in our own time. They killed him after the March on Washington because he threatened civil disobedience rather than complicity with the imperialist war against the people of Vietnam. Can you really believe that a military invasion of another people can realize this dream?
Arming rebels in order to authorize the intervention of NATO is nothing new for your country and your allies. Nor is it new for the United States to propose to invade countries accusing them of possessing weapons of mass destruction, which in the case of Iraq turned out to be untrue. Your country supported the regime of Saddam Hussein when he deployed chemical weapons to annihilate the Kurdish people and against the Iranian Revolution, and there was no talk of sanctions, since at that time they (Saddam and Iraq) were your allies. But now you propose to invade Syria without knowing the results of the investigations being realized by the United Nations with the authorization of the Syrian government. There is no doubt that the use of chemical arms is immoral and to be condemned, but your government has no moral authority whatsoever to justify an intervention.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, has stated that a military attack on Syria could make matters worse.
My own country, Argentina, which is now exercising the Presidency of the Security Council of the United Nations, has made public its stance against a foreign military intervention in the Republic of Syria, refusing to be "an accomplice in new deaths."
Pope Francis has also called for a globalization of the movement for Peace and decreed a day of prayer and fasting against the war for September 7, and we ourselves will observe this call.
Even your historical ally, the United Kingdom, has refused (at least for the moment) to be part of this invasion.
Your country is transforming the "Arab Spring" into a NATO inferno, provoking wars in the Middle East and unleashing the pillage of international corporations. The invasion that you propose will only lead to more violence and more death, as well as the destabilization of Syria and of the whole region. To what end? The lucid analyst, Robert Fisk, has noted that the objective is Iran and the postponement of the establishment of a Palestinian state; it is not indignation at the death of hundreds of Syrian children that moves you to intervene militarily. And this at the moment when a moderate government has been democratically elected in Iran, under which it is possible to undertake negotiations and peaceful solutions to existing conflicts. The policy put forward by you and your country could be suicidal.
Syria needs a political rather than a military solution. The international community should support those social organizations that work for peace. The Syrian people, as any other, have a right to self-determination and to define their own democratic process and we should help them to achieve this where they need us.
Obama, your country does not have the moral authority, the legitimacy, nor the legal base to invade Syria or any other country. Much less considering you have assassinated 220,000 persons in Japan by using bombs of massive destruction.
No Congressperson of the United States can legitimize what cannot be legitimate, nor legalize what cannot be legal. This is especially true if we take into account the statement, a few days ago, of the former U.S. President James Carter: "The United States does not have a functioning democracy."
The illegal wiretapping done by your government against the people of the United States is hardly efficient, since according to a public survey done by Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/us-syria-crisis-usa-poll-idUSBRE97O00E20130825), 60% of U.S. citizens oppose the invasion that you want to undertake.
This is why I ask you, Mister Obama, to whom do you obey?
Your government has become a danger for international equilibrium as well as for the people of the United States. It has become a country that cannot resist exporting death to maintain its power and its economy. We will not cease to try to impede this.
I was in Iraq after the bombing campaign that the United States undertook in the 1990s, before the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein. I saw a refuge full of women and children assassinated by guided missiles. You call these "collateral damage."
Peoples are saying ENOUGH! to wars. Humanity calls for Peace and the right to live in freedom. The people want to turn swords into ploughshares, and the way to achieve this is to "DISARM THE ARMED CONCIENCES."
Mister Obama, you must not forget that we always reap the fruit that we sow. Any human being should be sowing humanity and peace, especially one who has a Nobel Peace Prize. I hope that you will not end up converting the "dream of brotherhood" that Martin Luther King hoped for into a nightmare for peoples and humanity.
Please accept my greetings for Peace and Good Will
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Noble Peace Laureate
September 4, 2013
|
