War
Trend Will Soon Face Its End
Tuesday,
January 27, 2009
By
Ivan Simic
History
has it that there was not yet a single year without war, and that war has been
fought since time immemorial. Therefore, the biggest question today would be: Is
it really possible to end wars? Throughout our human history we heard many
politicians, leaders and rulers saying that there will be no more wars and that
things will change, but nothing has changed. Even today, there are around thirty
ongoing wars in the world.
Consequently,
how and who will end wars: the United Nations, Non-Government Organizations,
International Laws and Conventions, who?
The
United Nations was established to stop wars between countries, to provide a
platform for dialogue, and to maintain international peace and security, and
justice. The UN has very noble charters and articles; however, the UN is not
capable to maintain international peace and security. In one word; the UN is not
influential and strong enough because some Member States do not respect the UN
Charters.
Why
the UN is not capable to maintain international peace and security? Perhaps,
statements by the former US President George W. Bush and the former US
Ambassador to the UN John R. Biden, will provide some answers. President Bush
said: "free nations will not allow the United Nations to fade into history
as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society." Ambassador Biden said:
"There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the
international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower,
which is the United States."
Because
of such statements and hegemony of some Member States to get their will
throughout, the UN is not able to prevent wars; it can only assist Member States
in humanitarian issues and try to maintain peace with peacekeeping missions,
after all military operations ends. The only serious resolutions issued by the
UN will be visible when the Security Council passes its power to the General
Assembly, and therefore, when the General Assembly get serious in its business
and start working as one voice to bring peace to the world.
When
it comes to NGO's, well, they are private
institutions which are not directly a part of a structure of government, but
relies significantly on funding from governments, individual donors,
foundations, corporations. Currently, there are over 5 million NGO's around the
world, out of which 0.1% is actually doing their jobs in terms of supporting and
helping people in distress. Other 99.9% can be divided in two categories: ones
who lobby for their financiers and others who do nothing at all, just waiting
for easy money to come.
Pertaining
to the International Laws and Charters, they are more or less associated with
the United Nations, and without the UN they do not stand any chance of survival.
Then,
how to prevent wars?
We
saw that the international organizations and laws are not able to do anything
serious to prevent wars; therefore, the answer for this global phenomenon lies
in the domestic laws, not international. In order to prevent future wars we
should focus our attention on domestic issues first. In relation, here are some
possible solutions as to how to prevent wars, through terms called the Head of
State and Referendum.
According
to the definition, the Head of State is the general term for the
individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative
of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other
political state. In terms of protocol, states are distinguished as monarchy or
republic, depending on the style of their head of state. Different state
constitutions establish different political systems, but four major types of
heads of state can be distinguished:
- the
non-executive head of state system, in which the head of state does
not hold any executive power and mainly plays a symbolic role on behalf of
the state;
- the
parliamentary system, in which the head of state possesses executive power
but the exercise of this power is done on the advice of a cabinet;
- the
presidential system (sometimes called 'imperial'), in which the head of
state is also the head of government and actively exercises executive power;
and,
- the
semi-presidential system, in which the head of state shares exercise of
executive power with a head of government.
In
everyday life, the Head of State is a legal representative of the
people-citizens of the country in which he/she was elected. His/her duties,
therefore is to serve and work in the best inertest of the Nation which he/she
represents as the Head of State.
Consequently,
if the Head of State-collective office wishes to start a war and think that war
is in the best interest of the nation, than it behooves on them to go to that
same war. There is no better way for the Head of State-collective office to
justify war than to be personally involved in one. They should not hide behind
their desks and behind diplomatic immunities while soldiers die in the battle
field, they should go and fight; and it should be their honor.
This
is nothing new to the world; many years ago Head of States and rulers went to
wars to fight, for example: Genghis Khan, Saladin, Alexander the Great,
Cleopatra VII, Julius Caesar, Napoleon I, Adolf Hitler, among many others.
Maybe, when they find themselves in the middle of war and on the line of fire,
then they will realize how wars are dangerous, and hopefully end them.
Since
there is no chance that we will see the Head of State brave enough to go to war,
let's see more appropriate and reasonable solution to prevent war trend, called
referendum.
A
referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either
accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new
constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected
official or simply a specific government policy.
In
contemporary days, war can be declared and started with the decision of the Head
of State-Monarch-collective office, however, that needs to be changed. Before
the government decides to engage in war, government should ask citizens for
their approval. Approval to engage in war should be asked through the War
Referendum. It is nothing personal, however, certain decisions are best taken
out of the hands of governments and determined directly by the people,
especially when it comes to war.
Referendum
is the best way to identify the spirit of the nation, and many countries have
used it, for example: In Venezuela, in the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004
voters determined whether or not Hugo Chavez, the current President of
Venezuela, should be recalled from office. In Spain, in 1986 referendum approved
Spain's membership to NATO. In Brazil's 2005 referendum, 122 million voters
decided to continue to allow the sale of firearms. In Iraq, two years after the
United States-led invasion, the current Constitution of Iraq was approved by
referendum.
There
is also one very popular referendum called the independence referendum, a type
of referendum in which citizens of one territory would decide whether that
territory should become an independent country. There were many successful
referendums for independence in the past, such as: 1990 Slovenia independence
referendum, 1991 Croatian, Macedonian, Georgia and Ukraine independence
referendum, 1993 Eritrean independence referendum, and most recent 2006
Montenegrin independence referendum, among others.
Also,
here is the list of some expected independence referendums which will be held in
the near future, such as: Scottish (the UK), Bougainville (Papa New Guinea), New
Caledonia (France), Quebec (Canada), Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
among others.
Still,
there are some countries that do not like to use referendums, such as: Canada,
the United States, Chile, the Netherlands, among others. Imagine how many lives
would be saved if the US government had used a referendum before engaging in the
Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Some
politicians say that referendums are too expensive to be held, but are they. For
example, in Denmark referendums usually happen every time when new treaties of
the European Union have to be approved. Therefore, referendums are not
expensive, wars are.
We
can see that many important issues are determined by the people through
referendums, but never when it comes to wars. Why there is no war referendum?
Because there is no nation in the world which will vote in favor of war, and
government officials knows that.
Maybe,
this is the time when we the people should take the matter into our own hands
and stop this war trend since nobody else can.
