WE EXPECT A NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE PRESIDENT TO …

Arshad M. Khan

President Obama in his acceptance speech in Oslo reiterated the concept of just war – an idea proposed by Reinhold Niebuhr in 1932.  Quoted often by people trying to justify illegitimate wars against so-called intractable enemies, no one presents the context of his thesis.  First, it was written during the twin gathering storms of Nazi expansionism and Japanese imperialism.  Second, it was in response to his brother Richard’s call for Christian nonviolence in obedience to God’s commandments and a trust in His ability to protect the innocent.  Second guessing God on the most important commandment leads surely down a slippery slope to moral bankruptcy.

And Mr. President, please do not recount the tired example of Adolf Hitler.  Who knows what would have happened if the declaration of war had not united the German people behind their government.  For all we know Hitler might well have been assassinated by people angered by the destruction of German democracy and the politicization of civil life.  No war and countless millions of lives saved.  Jews would have continued to live happily in Europe and the Israel / Palestine issue would not exist.

Just war requires an imminent threat.  Not even the wildest imagination can consider the Afghan insurgents a credible threat to the U.S.  A terrorist attack?  Perhaps, but it is even more likely when we are busy killing civilians there at an astonishing rate.  The average kill ratio in a drone attack is 2% meaning 98 innocent civilians, usually women and children, die for every two insurgents.  Knowingly killing civilians negates Niebuhr’s just war, and according to Judge Richard Goldstone constitutes a violation of the norms of modern international laws of war – a polite way of calling it a war crime.

We expect a Peace Laureate President to fight for the basic needs of his people.  In a society where older laid-off workers find it extremely difficult to find work, the least we can do is provide health care.  To cover the unemployed 55-64 age group with Medicare would cost $1.65 billion each year.  Our additional 30,000 troops being dispatched to Afghanistan will cost $30 billion.  Reducing the number by 2000 would easily cover the extra cost of Medicare with change left over to help desperate schools in our failing education system.

We expect a Peace Laureate President to sign the Anti-personnel Land Mine Treaty banning their use.  We, to our shame, are among the countries who have not signed.  Our acceptance of the treaty would remove the fig leaf used by many major powers and alleviate the distrust and fear of being caught at a disadvantage.  Yes, we have the North and South Korean border to defend but surely our military ingenuity and overwhelming firepower can devise an alternative.

We expect a Peace Laureate President to be at the forefront of the campaign to ban cluster bombs.  Many of these munitions fail to explode, and later victimize farmers plowing fields and children who pick them up as toys.  To date the Convention on Cluster Munitions has 103 signatories and 24 ratifications.  Just like what happened with dum-dum bullets and other horrors of human invention, our ability to defend ourselves is not going to be markedly diminished if we rescind the use of cluster bombs but we will certainly reduce the pain and suffering endured by innocent civilians.  The issue would gather further momentum under our leadership and we would regain some of the respect and moral authority we seem to have surrendered in many parts of the world.  The time to act is now and the cost to us insignificant.

We expect a Peace Laureate President to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on November 20, 1989 the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child.  In the intervening twenty years every member of the UN has signed and ratified the convention except us.  It requires member governments to appear periodically before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and be examined on the status of child rights in their country.  Surely, our country can defend our treatment of children and doubtless it would benefit us to be seen as fellow members of the world community.

We expect a Peace Laureate President to work genuinely towards a world free from the menace of nuclear weapons.  President Obama’s rhetoric in this discourse was listed as one reason for the award and his acceptance is an implied contract.  But rhetoric is not enough.  In the final analysis, he will be judged by his actions.  Should he fail to do anything in this arena, an honorable man might return the medal and the prize money at the end of his term in office.

---