Interactive Opinion Editorials, March 2004, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
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The Al-Jazeerah Mission for "Peaceful Solutions to International Conflicts" Questioned
By Hassan El-Najjar and Scott Murphy
Al-Jazeerah, March 1, 2004
Scott Murphy:
I found your propaganda not only misleading at best but downright offensive to those of us that helped liberate those people from a government the likes of which the world has not seen since Stalin.
You seek "Peaceful solutions to international conflicts"? I guess we should have tried this approach, my bad........
Dear Mr. Hussein,
We find your treatment of the Iraqi people deplorable. I would very much appreciate it if you and your sons would leave the country so the Iraqi people can leave in peace.
Thank you for you cooperation,
Sincerely
Your Friend, George Bush
Sounds pretty damn stupid, doesn't it? It would have about as much of a chance for success as a similar letter to Bin Laden asking him to stop international terrorism!
Hassan El-Najjar:
Although your words sound sarcastic at best, I’d like to tell you that there are peaceful solutions to international conflicts and these are followed by the United States right now with North Korea. The negotiations have been successful because they are multilateral. Six nations are involved: The US, Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. Results are positive so far. The US can achieve its objectives without a bullet shot, without Americans or Koreans dead or injured. What’s wrong with that?
Another example of peaceful solutions for international conflicts has been the US-UK negotiations with Libya, which lasted for more than two years and the results are also positive. Libya took responsibility for the Lockerby explosion, compensated the victims’ families, and gave up its weapons of mass destructions. In return, sanctions were lifted. American oil companies are returning to Libya right now and no Libyans or Americans are being killed or injured. Is this wrong? These has been achieved by long negotiations that lasted for two years.
In the case of Iraq, the Bush administration had the intention of invading Iraq since day one, as Secretary Paul O’Neil said. There were no negotiations between the US and Iraq. Period. The UN was ignored, and the declared reasons for the war, WMD, turned to be non-existent. What are the results of this unnecessary war on Iraq? Thousands of Americans and Iraqis are dead and injured and a whole country is destroyed and still living in chaos for more than a year.
Yes, there are always peaceful solutions to international conflicts. You just need the will to choose them over war. And once there is will, there will always be a way.
With peaceful solutions, you create friends and trade partners and this is the Al-Jazeerah Mission. It's not propaganda and it's not stupid. War is stupid. It's a failure of reasoning, and it creates enemies.
In interactive editorials, the Editor of Al-Jazeerah answers questions and or responds to comments of readers, which are more general than readers' responses to specific articles or issues. It is an effective method of interaction in electronic journalism, particularly because it addresses readers' concerns.
Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar is a sociologist and cultural anthropologist. He is the editor of Al-Jazeerah. He has written The Gulf War: Overreaction and Excessiveness 2001. Amazone Press.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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