War and Peace American style is a failure!

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

Will it hold? Apparently not as bloodshed and carnage continue in the Ukraine despite heroic efforts by the leaders of Germany and France to stop it.

But the shaky agreement crafted last week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande appears to be falling apart this week as have all the other attempts at peace keeping before it.

And who’s the bad guy in this piece like Hitler was in World War II? Most would say Vladimir Putin, the former KGB head and current, for all intents and purposes, Tsar of Russia intent on resurrecting the former glories of the Soviet Union. And there’s a lot of truth in this because Putin is clearly a nasty piece of work and a cunning leader to boot.

But there’s also another actor in this ugly conflict that threatens to spread far beyond the battered borders of the Ukraine. Most would not call him a villain, but he’s certainly no angel considering his ironic role in the conflict. And who is this, you ask?  None other than former Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the most powerful country in the world. Yes, that guy – US President Barack Obama, who never seems able to resist the opportunity to inject US force into a dispute no matter how far that dispute is from American shores.

In this case, Obama has offered to supply Ukrainian President Petro Proshenko, as corrupt a leader as can be found anywhere, with “improved equipment” so that he can slaughter his countrymen more effectively. Surely not the kind of offer you’d expect from a Nobel Laureate? But that’s what Obama did and they call Putin the “villain.”

Maybe in his heart, Obama want to pursue peace, but he’s just a pawn in the clutches of the Military Industrial Complex, the sinister force former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans about shortly after World War II.

And when you consider the American military and the industries that supply it have bombed 25 countries since the end of World War II (Global Research Newsletter May 4, 2011) the only conclusion you can come to is that the US is         

a bellicose country that doesn’t yet realize you don’t promote peace by constantly waging war.

Surely there’s a pattern here?  A pattern that’s never going to bring about “peace.”

Chancellor Merkel clearly sees the pattern. That’s why she and Hollande met with Proshenko and Putin in Minsk last week and crafted an agreement to stop the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine where most of the fighting is taking place. And what was driving Merkel and Hollande to make this singular deal with the devil? Not the fact that Putin is clearly supporting the Ukrainian separatists that want to re-join Mother Russia, but the fact that Obama is following the standard American peace making script – praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

That’s like trying to douse a fire with gasoline and Merkel made this stingingly clear to Obama with her extraordinary rebuke to the world’s most powerful leader.

“I cannot imagine a situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian Army leads to President Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militarily,” she said.

 Zap! That was the most impressive putdown delivered by a world leader against an American president in recent history and it made Obama look like the naïve, boy scout, leader he manifestly is and the US itself the Big Bad Bully always thinking it can solve any problem by force and failing every time it tries whether it’s Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or the dozens of other countries it has dropped bombs on over the years.

My advice to the president comes from John Lennon – give peace a chance!”

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The end is not nigh, but it’s getting nearer

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

“She’s alive . . . She’s beautiful . . . She’s complex . . . She’s finite . . . She’s hurting . . . She’s worth defending . . . She’s our Mother.”

Thus begins the most stunning video I’ve seen in my life and I’d like to share it with you before it’s too late. Please take me seriously because it’s all of us that’s threatened. You, me, every one we love. Every form of life on the planet. The planet itself. No one escapes this Grim Reaper because the Grim Reaper is us. Our greed, our materialism, our indifference to what’s happening right before our eyes that we refuse to see because we’d rather believe in the myth of our invincibility and that the rules don’t apply to us.

Well they do, but before I try to say more in my pathetically, inadequate way, see the video for yourself and try to deny that you didn’t feel the earth move a bit beneath your feet. Using our wonderful technology, the very technology that’s leading us over the abyss, turn your computer on and Google “She’s alive – Bittu Sahgal.” If that doesn’t work, go to YouTube and do the same. What you’ll see first looks like the eye of a Cyclops, but it’s really the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone Park, the third largest hot spring is the world and filled with pigmented bacteria and steaming microbial mats, a fate not dissimilar to what awaits humankind if  all of us don’t smarten up.

Don’t read any further. I said words are inadequate. But after you’ve viewed this astounding video rejoin me and I’ll attempt to explain what it says to me.

http://youtu.be/nGeXdv-uPaw

Glad to have you back. If that video doesn’t grab your gut, nothing will. As for its canary-in-the-mine-shaft message to all of us, I can only tell you what it says to me. We’re doomed! No, not tomorrow. Not likely this year or even the next decade, but we’re getting damn close. Think back to the video. Remember all the shots of the water rising? We all know why – Global Warming – but how many of us are willing to raise a finger to stop it? Precious few, and from a climatological point of view, it’s nothing short of a tragedy for all species of life on earth today. The UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change says industrial pollution by mankind is responsible for 95 per cent of the global warming we’re now experiencing. And what’s that warming doing? It’s melting the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs with sea levels predicted to rise between six inches and two feet (18 cm to 20 cm) by the end of this century. More than 100 million people live within three feet (one metre) of mean sea level. The implications are obvious. It won’t be long before New York starts to look like Venice and millions will be displaced in Southeast Asia, Europe, Florida and Richmond to name but a few. The oceans are also becoming acidified from atmospheric pollution, coral reefs are dying and fish stocks are in free fall, which could lead to large-scale food shortages world-wide.

You also saw the clear-cutting of the tropical rain forests in the video. Miles and miles of once green land turned to brown and barren wasteland much like the once lush clear cut blocks in the forests of BC, another chainsaw massacre. And then there were all those coal-fired generating plants belching smoke in the air over China and the people on the streets below many of them wearing face masks. I’ve been to China myself and can tell you that the Great Wall is as close to the suburbs of Beijing as the North Shore Mountains are to Vancouver, but you rarely see it through the smog.

And just in case you think Canada doesn’t share the blame, what about the Tar Sands of Alberta? They are so big they can be seen from outer space! When waterfowl land on the treatment ponds they die within minutes while the discharge goes into the already heavily polluted Athabasca River and is blamed for a rash of cancer deaths in Fort Chipewyan downstream.

Let’s cut to the chase. We’re a greedy and reckless species. We think mainly of ourselves unlike the brave souls being killed by poachers as they try to protect the forests and wildlife of the Amazon Basin. The attitude in the Industrial West is: “I’m all right Jack.” Let Nature take care of itself. Her bounty is unending. Don’t talk to me about a carbon tax to wean us off oil. That’s drug addict talk. We’re addicted to oil and if we don’t use the intelligence the Creator gave us to beat our addiction only one fate awaits us. Catastrophe!

Make sure you see the video.

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Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and tries hard to be an optimist despite all the assaults on Mother Earth.