Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Hard Rain Journal 6-14-06: Wrongly Premised “War on Terrorism” has Increased Danger from Terrorism, and Ignored Greater Risks

Hard Rain Journal is one of four components of the Words of Power blog. It is posted daily, and provides updates and insights on developing stories. Words of Power, which delivers in-depth commentary, and GS(3) Intelligence Briefing, which provides global risk-related news, are posted on an alternating, bi-weekly basis. GS(3) Thunderbolts are posted as appropriate to deliver timely news on developing stories that require urgent attention.

"I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest...
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten...
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'...
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."

Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Hard Rain Journal 6-14-06: Wrongly Premised “War on Terrorism” has Increased Danger from Terrorism, and Ignored Greater Risks, A New Study Confirms

The Oxford Research Group has released a study, "Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century", which underscores what Words of Power has been championing -- the thinking of the political leadership of the US and the UK has to return to the 21st century. The crude 19th century geopolitics of the Bush-Cheney cabal, and Blair's capitulation to it, is crippling the US and its closest ally, and leaving the world divided and directionless. The report even echoes the phraseology of Words of Power, e.g., "sustainable security," and confirms the fundamental premises of my work, i.e., that security and sustainability are interdependent, and that you cannot achieve one without the other, and that the security implications of Global Warming are profound, and need to be addressed as the highest priority. The report also concurs in stressing the importance of advocating and implementing the UN Millennium Goals, as vital to success as we move forward.

The US-led "war on terror" is increasing the risk of terrorist attacks and distracting governments from greater threats to global security such as climate change, a think-tank warned in a report. The Oxford Research Group urged countries, especially the United States and Britain, to rethink their security policies to counter future instability.
"The war on terror is a dangerous diversion and prevents the international community from responding effectively to the most likely causes of future conflict," a press statement about the report said….Instead of terrorism, the report cited climate change; competition over resources; socio-economic marginalisation and global militarisation as the main threats to peace and the likely causes of future conflict…."This deeply flawed strategy is consuming hundreds of billions of dollars, creating more recruits and supporters of terrorism than it defeats and is diverting attention from threats to security that are far more serious, lasting and destructive than that of international terrorism," the report found. It noted that the war in Iraq has entered its fourth year and the conflict in Afghanistan is moving into its sixth year. "Yet both countries are increasingly unstable and violent, while the Al-Qaeda movement is as active as ever," the authors of the report said….It suggested a different strategy focused on addressing the fundamental issues that create instability:
-- Renewable energy and conservation to counter climate change;
-- energy efficiency to combat resource competition;
-- poverty reduction programmes to defeat marginalisation; and
-- halting development of weapons of mass destruction to stop global militarisation.
"These provide the best chance of averting global disaster as well as addressing some of the root causes of terrorism," the research group said.

US-led war on terror increases risk of terrorist attacks: think tank, Agence France Press, 6-14-05

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