Iran Nuclear Deal

As the Republic of the United States of America (RUSA) backs out of The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or “Iran Nuclear deal”, there are many questions being asked. The first question is, Is the plan worth keeping? Obviously some are saying no and some are saying yes. To make sense of this situation we must understand what is lost in the discussion is the context of trust.

Being absolutely honest is rare and even more so within the context of any Middle East peace talks. The issue of nuclear weapons is a “trap door” issue with Israel. They will not say if they have weapons or not. This sets out a dialogue such as this:

Iran - “Israel does have them so we must also have them to safe guard ourselves”.

Israel -“If we did have them, we would be in full legal status to use them”.

Iran - “You want us to trust you when you will not even state a clear answer on a such a critical subject. History tells us not to trust you”.

Israel - “You are the ones not to be trusted”

Iran - “It is you who is not trustworthy”

Israel - “No, you are”

Iran - “you are”

Israel - “you are”

This is the exact reality of the situation. We have a classic Joseph Heller catch 22 taking place in the Middle East. To solve this insanity a leap of faith must be taken. That is exactly what The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is. With leaps of faith, you have to make the landing at least and hopefully the next two step after the initial landing to judge success. At present we are just making that initial landing and it appears we are going to crash in a spectacular fashion.

Here we are today, mistrust is once again the hurdle we stumble on. Each side wanting the other to make the first step but neither wants to let their guard down due to the mistrust. Both sides become angry at the slightest of perceived infractions. This is quickly followed by a few bullets and/or missle strikes. Then we all climb back on the merry-go-round rhetoric of - “you started it”.

What is the world to do? Well for this person, the solution is for the world leaders to take the unprecedented step of forcing peace. This is done by enforcing a complete and total military weapons ban. Through a United Nations Resolution, the world steps in with overwhelming presence to evaluate and monitor every single shred of evidence in the entire region concerning weapons. A force of five hundred thousand peacekeeping personnel should be a minimum troop commitment.

That plan has been submitted many times already. Each time the response/reasons given for not doing it is that the world does not have the courage to implement such a drastic plan. So we continue on each day as we build more weapons, deepen the hatred, point fingers, scream, yell and actually kill eachother. All this takes place as we say we are working to bring peace. Back to the drawing board we go with another scratch upon the wall of attempts. God help us.

Personal wars

During the past two months there have been situations where Canadian soldiers have expressed their thoughts on life in conflict zones. In all seriousness, these expressions have been a constant in the lives of those that have gone to war/conflict zones. For many that do speak up, they talk about the ever present battle of trying to understand the horror of what they witnessed. They talk about the hoplessness/helplessness or the uncontrolable situations they were surrounded by. As they are slowly pulled away physically from those areas their minds, hearts and character of self remains behind. A large part of who they are is left behind in the hell of war. During the past few months there have been breakthroughs for some where the war has come to a good peaceful end. For others we can only hope the nightmare ended when they could take no more.

Peace is not easy. The reality of being left in a hopeless situation is all too often common. The mental war rages on behind the eyes of courage. That war is often supressed due to the some desire of not wanting to be a burden. This feeling of not being a burden becomes its own enemy to everyone. Thus the cycle of chaos, destruction, segragation and sorrow compounds. Being in such a situation is more worrisome when you are the person sent in to bring peace and order coupled in with a list of constraints. These constraints are so limiting that you effectively must sit on the sidelines as you watch the population being slaughtered. How does anyone remain peaceful, let alone sane in such a reality?

It is popular to say that everyone wants peace, is that really true? How far do you go to defend your values? Such questions are integral to understanding the importance and responsibility of being at peace. No matter what social structure you may live in, there are fundamental realities of being at peace. One such reality is that peace is described as perfect balance. That means there are equal forces on either side. In terms of sanity, your day must be 50% sane and 50% insane. true why would anyone test anothers resolve to the point where killing each other becomes rational? That has be the central theme of thought for the past month or so when looking at the world.

What is disheartening is that others do feel it is okay to test anothers resolve on such a level. This is the slippery slope which everyone should take great care while traversing it. Unfortunately there seems to be a plethora of risks being taken with little care of everyones lives. Such actions are pushing the entire world to the boiling point. It seems as though we are spinning out of control.

This spinning is why the question of defending your values becomes so prominent. Being at peace carries the responsibility of standing up when Do you take such a stance as firm as – to the death?

Ungovernables

Whether we realize we are building society every minute or not, society is being constructed by our thoughts and actions. Of late, we have seen how vulnerable we are to half truths, coruption and apathy. These intrusions upon our society have come to a point where questions are not even asked about it. What is ironic is that many people claim to be great at critical thinking and communication. At this point we maust ask oursleves, What are we building?

Take for example the group of people who ransacked a street in Hamilton Ontario Canada a few weeks ago. A group of people marched and caused damaged together while holding a banner stating they are "ungovernable". How did they even get together as a group? Who made the sign, who decided to carry it and ultimatley what collective purpose are they banding together to popularize? Are they trying to inform the public about irony, oxymorons, idocy or perhaps their meeting was just a mystery of chaotic happenstance?

In all reality we know what an ungovernable, anarchistic society looks like and that is Syria right now. Knowing that, why would anyone want to promote such a society? To answer such a question it might be helpful to use a cliché – “the subject of a persons complaints or accusations are more about that individuals needs and wants than what is taking place outside their life”. Where does that leave us with building our societies?

For example, the axiom popularized by Winston Churchill, “Democracy is the worst form of government except all others we have tried thus far”. In that statement the questions arise, “What is the best form of government and what are we doing to implement that form”.

No matter where you live in the world there are basic rules everywhere which begin with respect for each other. Although the frameworks, systems, laws and cultures vary, each society is rooted in similar foundations of peaceful existience. Within that interplay, each person needs to have their own point of decision, to make their own experiences, to have their own sphere of understanding and ultimately live a successful life.

When a person begins to feel that society is out of control the individual seeks control. This is exactly what has taken place in Syria. This is most likely why a band of “ungovernables” went on a rampage in Hamilton as well. There is also the reality where you create chaos and then bring order just so you can be the one to be seen as the person who brought peace to chaos. Such a tactic sounds stupid but this is the reality of many peoples thought process. Then again there are those who cause havoc so they can watch the mayhem. A form of sadistic behaviour.

With these types of people rampaging across the world, we must look at how these actions provide informtation to improve society. Clearly we need more of an involved and informed citizenry. We need to strike a greater balance for peaceful discussion when difficult situations arise. We need to provide avenues for the public to release their anger in a positive manner. We need to improve education on being peaceful. We need everyone to improve their skill sets in areas of peaceful societies.

Chaos, fake news and easy living.

During the past month I have been working on a youth model government exercise. The need for such an exercise hinges on three factors.

One, there is an onslaught of harmful chaos griping the world at this time.

Two, the life of instant gratification is doing a tremendous amount of dammage.

Three, our individual responsibility towards governance is being used against us as a weapon of war.

These factors are a very real threat to peace around the world. In all truth, the threats are not new yet they do take on a different form. We have the trojan horse situation taking place within the technology sector, we have planted news stories in our social media and we have the groups inciting apathy, idiocy, ignorance and/or hatred.

Having worked at building societies which endured years of war, these tactics are easily noticed. What will always remain is the ease in which youth become influenced. That is how we get youth joining Daesh in Syria. This is where the point three comes into play. Each of us must do our part to counter the chaos, give support to the fact the road of happiness is unending – not instant and that each of us relies on the other to ensure a peaceful society.

For years we have seen the efforts put into studies that say one thing and another study which points to the exact opposite side of an argument. If you want, you can get a study done that points to the impact of Jupiters orbit on the size of eggs. Should we be concerned about such a study? Well not to any great extent but it might be good for a laugh and the math would be of great interest. The point is not so much the content but the reality of such a study being done.

Part of living in a society is that we must understand where the information we receive is coming from and for what purpose. This is the trust we have seen eroded in the sources of information. What is so alarming is that we have been through this erosion of trust many times and yet we still fall for it. At present the RUSA is dealing with the Russian media influence. Here in Canada we had to deal with the same thing when the RUSA conducted similar operations during the late 1950's and early 60's. Now it comes back and we must be prepared for the same influence from more places.

We need to sort through the chaos of information, we need to work hard to gather the best intelligent information and we must know to stop spreading harmful information. These three points are the reasons for youth to be educated on proper research, proper debate, proper conflict skills and proper community building.

We have experience what happens in Syria, Libya, Yemen, RUSA and even in our own communitites when we lose focus of the diligent hard work needed to maintain a peaceful society. How often have we asked politicians to stop the partisan mud slinging? It takes a strong dose of calm resolve to pull back. It takes each of us to act in good faith. That is our responsibility to each other and ultimately, to our own selves. Our communities do not unravel unless we actually do the unravelling.

 

In the end we find out that easy living is rarely satisfying nor easy. We find out that our hard work is more rewarding for us. We also find out that being peaceful is not about just getting along. Peace is about valuing each other, supporting those who falter, knowing when we falter ourselves and having the courage to face up to it.  

A weaponized population good or bad?

Having the experience of living societies that have more guns than needed, designated as a war zones and basically lawless, there is some insight I have on having the population being armed. Also, having the experience of living in a society that is designated as one of the most peaceful societies, I have some realistic examples of what gun control can do and not do.

There is some truth in the fact that it takes a person to operate the gun for it to do harm – so does a hammer, a sword and even a nuclear weapon. This is why the saying that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun can hold water. In this argument we are relying on the good nature of humans to win the day. If that is the argument then we are going to always ramp up the weapons or to use an old term “an arms race”. This theory was deemed quite ridiculous in the 1980's on an international scale yet, it is still very much alive on the individual level.

If you have had the pleasure (sarcasm) of living in society that is fully weaponized your first task will be to do whatever you can to stay alive (fight/kill others). Next you will have to do whatever you can to gain leverage to exit the area and/or end the shooting (ceasefire agreements). Next, if you are lucky enough to stop the shooting you will seek to disarm as many people as possible (demobilize and disarm programs). These are three of the most notable steps in ending any war since the very first two people started throwing rocks at each other.

Within that scenario you will understand that you are in a state of perpetual shooting and weaponizing until you are not. The moment you turn that corner towards a successful ceasefire, the weapons are dropped/collected.

Then we have the argument that only bad guys will have guns if we do not allow good guys to have guns. There is some truth to that. Another truth is that the bad guys can never be relied upon to listen to the rules anyway. If everyone has a handgun, the bad guy will just throw grenades and car bombs. In effect we will just perpetuate an arms race in our own communities. Case in point is Daesh (ISIS). Sadly that will always be a reality because some people are just idiotic, selfish assholes.

Do we live in fear of such people? Some do live in fear and that is how we get an overly weaponized society. Should we live in fear of the idiotic, selfish asshole, NO. However, we live in a world that is far from perfect and this argument about gun control will walk the lines of moral rights and legal rights.

 

In such arguments we must understand that what is legal is not always peaceful. Next we have to understand that just because there are laws, it does not stop anyone from doing anything.

What does work is the collective community working together with compassion and resolve to maintain peace. We are left with the cliché that it takes a community to raise a child. The community does not wait for the shooting before something is done. Before anyone says the obvious – no this is not an easy solution. In fact it is much more difficult that having everyone own a gun – and that is the primary problem we face. Peace is too difficult. We live in a time where the quick and easy life is wanted more than the peaceful life. The irony is that too much of the quick and easy has brought many societies to destruction throughout history. It is easier to buy a gun than to care for your neighbour.

Guns are a reality. With wise ownership and good judgement, there are no problems. Unfortunately we live in a world where common sense tends to lean more towards idiocy than wisdom. There is no issue with a person who has a solid grasp of peaceful existence owning a gun. Now, if you want to give everyone a gun go live in Syria and see what life is like.

When irony meets hypocrisy

Held within the prophecy of living in interesting times is the reality that such times are not easy, are filled with drama and of course excitement. At this moment we are living in very interesting times. As we live through these moments we seek answers, solutions, reasons, causes and meaning. During such a moment a question came to mind concerning the law of physics that states – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The question is - what is the equal reaction of peace to the destruction of war?

What is the peace equivalent of a missle strike, a mass shooting or a car bombing? How do we let off a peace bomb? What act of peace rivals what is taking place in Syria? These are the thoughts that must be explored in order to bring the world into peace. From these thoughts there must be action. Also, we must take into consideration that hatred is fueled by love. This is the ironic reality in which we struggle to understand hyprocritical action. When irony meets hypocrisy, the collision results in the birth of insanity, violence, frustration, stupidity and we experience the torment of hell. Sadly such a reality is often self inflicted and self perpetuated.

We need to know our own minds first – totally to be at complete peace. If the equation of equal reactions stands up to truth then where are the opposites of Daesh? Where are the peace bombs going off to rival the car bombs, missle strikes, mass shootings, and where are the peace camps that rival refugee camps? In some realm of thought a refugee camp is a peace camp – perhaps?

At this point, the mental capacity to carry on such a thought exercise has produced a deep sorrow for those who are suffering the brutality of war. Hopefully those who battle an internal war such as an illness or an external war, will find peace.

Build peace or wage war?

Of late, I have been doing a great deal of work on the importance of civil society in peacebuilding. One reality that came across my mind is that civil society has a tremendous role in the destruction of peace so it should have an equal role in the building of peace. As the world works, an example of just such a situation comes to the front of attention in the form of the school shooting in the RUSA, Florida.

The school shootings can be an anology of what is taking place in Syria. Although the scale of destruction is different, the sparks that ignite violence can be seen as similar in each circumstance. We can see the personal path of groups like Daesh as similar to that of the person who opens fire on a school. We see the isolation of the other, the internal conversation that festers within the closed group or mind, the need to lash out, the need to get revenge, the need to feel some control and the “insanity of their words and actions”.

Then we have the outside group or civil society. These are the people who see the destructive behaviour taking place. Often the destruction takes place slowly and society can brush it off, even though it is the destruction of society we are witness to. Such situations are not comfortable for many of us. This is true for every single person in society. Since there are a great many factors swirling around in this situation, the scope of the equation can be overwhelming.

What is meant by the scope of the equation is this:

A personal problem manifests itself and that person gives warning signs. When or if those signs are noticed something must be done. What needs to be done, do you have the capacity to do anything and of course there is the decision - are you willing to get involved? Each and everyone of us faces these situations everyday. We see people struggle with life everyday and we make snap decisions.

As we deal with these situations we must take into consideration the reality that we may never really know the impact we make when acting in a peaceful manner. It is easy to look back as ask why something was not done. The only reasonable answers is that no one really thought their actions would make much difference and that nothing bad was going to happen by ignoring the warning signs. Those thoughts are the most basic issue of why peace efforts are such a difficult reality for many to grasp onto.

We know the impact of a bullet, a bomb or a missle. It is difficult to truly know the impact of giving your time to help another. It is even more difficult to help those that are already understood as worthless, troublesome, weird or out of touch with reality. However these are the links in the chain of peace that will break if left alone.

Peace is a continous task filled with moments of struggles to help eachother. Also, we must keep in mind that we have to take care of our own internal peace. Each of us must seek out healthy methods to vent frustrations as well. As we go about such tasks we find that it takes greater courage to be a peaceful person that it does to be a violent, destructive and harmful person.

As we go about our day, each of us carries a responsibility to ensure civil society either builds peace or wages war.