Search Query: Peace

Search Results

You searched for "Peace" and here's what we found ...

Oklahoma City and 9/11

by
The Oklahoma City bombing 10 years ago holds an important lesson regarding the 9/11 attacks. It is a lesson about terrorist motivation and the consequences of U.S. government policy. After the Oklahoma City bombing, U.S. officials immediately discouraged discussion about Timothy McVeigh’s motivation for committing his terrorist attack. Whenever someone pointed out that McVeigh bombed the federal building in retaliation for the federal massacre at Waco two years before, the response was, “Oh, so you’re saying that McVeigh was justified in doing what he did? Are you defending his actions?” The reason that U.S. officials wished to suppress discussion about McVeigh’s motivation was obviously their desire to suppress discussion of what federal officials had done at Waco. Fortunately, however, their attempts at suppression were not successful. Ever-growing critiques of the Waco massacre slowly raised the consciousness of the American people to such an extent that ultimately it became difficult to find very many defenders of what had occurred at Waco. And notice ...

The Farcical Definition at the Heart of the War on Terrorism

by
A recent denunciation of U.S. government foreign policy offers insights into a paradox of the war of terrorism. On January 24, 2006, the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation denounced the U.S. government for backing the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor. In the following decades, a quarter million East Timorese residents died as a result of this incursion. The commission declared that U.S. “political and military support were fundamental to the Indonesian invasion and occupation.” The Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor were among the most barbaric actions of the late 20th century. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta the day before the invasion and gave U.S. approval. The primary concern of U.S. officials seemed to be to get back to Washington before the bloodbath began. Kissinger told Suharto, “We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it ...

Book Review: A History of Force

by
A History of Force by James L. Payne (Sandpoint, Idaho: Lytton Publishing, 2004); 296 pages; $23.95. Tune in to most news broadcasts and you will probably hear one or more stories dealing with the use of force: armed conflicts in the Middle East; crimes; riots; and more. It often seems that we live in a violence-saturated world. Perhaps so, but political scientist James Payne argues in his new book, A History of Force, that over the long sweep of history, human beings have become significantly less inclined to use force. Optimistically, Payne concludes, “As far as we can tell from the historical record, we live in a much more peaceful world than has ever existed. Humans are less vicious, less inclined to inflict physical injury than they used to be.” Not only are things better than they used to be with regard to violence, but they are, the author believes, going to continue to improve. Payne arrives at his conclusions from an ...