Several of the world’s most militarily powerful nations have finally made an
agreement – sorry, a “deal” – with the government of Iran. Put simply, this
agreement gives the International Atomic Energy Authority the right to check on
all Iran’s nuclear facilities. Result: Iran will not be able to build a nuclear
weapon (well, not in the near future, anyway). But a number of the countries
involved in the deal already have nuclear weapons themselves!
Writing in about 1890, Bahá’u’lláh (the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith) stated: “Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men. These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal.” Did He have some insight into nuclear radiation? In 1911, His son (Abdu’l-Bahá) warned a Japanese ambassador: “There is in existence a stupendous force… Let us supplicate God… that this force be not discovered by science until spiritual civilisation shall dominate the human mind. In the hands of men of lower material nature, this power would be able to destroy the whole earth.” In 1945, nuclear weapons were dropped on two Japanese cities, killing about 200,000 people. In the period after World War II, the number of countries with such nuclear weapons rose, and currently stands at nine.
Are they necessary at all? Why can we not have a universal peace treaty, uniting all the nations of the world in a universal agreement? All national borders would have to be agreed, and the arms of each nation would have to be limited. At the same time, the people of the world would have to agree that *any* national government breaking this treaty would be removed from office. Unless and until we do this, the world will continue to lurch from one crisis to another, and our attention will endlessly have to switch to trying to fix the next “deal”.
Writing in about 1890, Bahá’u’lláh (the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith) stated: “Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men. These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal.” Did He have some insight into nuclear radiation? In 1911, His son (Abdu’l-Bahá) warned a Japanese ambassador: “There is in existence a stupendous force… Let us supplicate God… that this force be not discovered by science until spiritual civilisation shall dominate the human mind. In the hands of men of lower material nature, this power would be able to destroy the whole earth.” In 1945, nuclear weapons were dropped on two Japanese cities, killing about 200,000 people. In the period after World War II, the number of countries with such nuclear weapons rose, and currently stands at nine.
Are they necessary at all? Why can we not have a universal peace treaty, uniting all the nations of the world in a universal agreement? All national borders would have to be agreed, and the arms of each nation would have to be limited. At the same time, the people of the world would have to agree that *any* national government breaking this treaty would be removed from office. Unless and until we do this, the world will continue to lurch from one crisis to another, and our attention will endlessly have to switch to trying to fix the next “deal”.
Timely! It's extremely worrying to see constant reprisals and counter reprisals - and pompous statements from Politicians who don't seem to learn that loose words cost lives...
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteDear Paddy,
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the "interests" in the Pentagon, Ft Meade and Langley, and elsewhere, do not seek to undermine this deal in the interests of arms manufacturing shareholder dividends, or just plain masculine machismo aggression and hatred, and seek to provoke an armed conflict, such as with the 2nd Iraq War, and probably many. many others such as the Vietnam War, and that as in the effort to utterly destroy Syria, the effort to do so was defused and subverted, successfully and effectively by the wisdom, humanity and great intelligence of Mssrs Putin and Lavrov, by cashing in on an offhand comment by Mr Kerry. I fear that IF an armed conflict with Iran is allowed to go ahead, Iran will be destroyed as effectively as has Libya and Iraq, by a pincer movement by Russia from the north and the US from the south, and would not be in the interests of the masses of the peoples of Iran, who, like Libya, Yugoslavia, Nicaragua, Syria, Indonesia and many others would suffer untold misery and tragedy, in the interests of an ideological obsession of promoting an economic system, in which the sovereign government of a nation is ruled and directed by corrupt, immoral, inhumane and greedy business interests, a state which I believe has been defined both by FDR and Mussolini as "fascism". I have always been opposed to such a state, which I feel is more inhumane, than a nearly equally oppressive regime of communism. At least communism pays lip service to the good of the masses. Fascism doesn't even have THAT to claim for itself. Sorry, rambling a bit, but I hope you get the gist of it. Do you share my perspective?
Lots of love,
Pete.
As far as I am aware only a few former states have volutarily given up nuclear weapons including the Ukraine and Khazakstan, all are former Soviet states. Khazakstan and the Khamchatka peninsular were the areas where Soviet nuclear tests were done in the 50's to the break up of the Soviet union, and have a terrible legacy of toxic abandonned sites. The US of A still has thousands of nuclear warheads and huge stockpiles of chemical weapons. Russia under Putin is re arming with a new generation of Nuclear weapons as are possibly the Chinese, Until all countries are represented on the U.N Security council and a true united "world Parliament" as envisioned in the writings exist the old macho games of bullis and dictatorships will continue.
ReplyDeleteWITH SINCERITY AND SADNESS Ian
Since I wrote this blog, one of the parties to it has decided to change its mind - it wasn't such a great deal after all! My blog of March, 2016, while not directly about political deals, does touch on the short-sightedness of a system which involves endless deals to enter - or drop out of! It is called "But we want so much more".
ReplyDelete