THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO WAR-

Dr. Neil Arya

THE RECORD

Monday November 5, 2001 p A11

Physicians for Global Survival has taken a strong stand against bombing. Saturday's paper detailed many of the reasons. There are alternatives. This group has a particular expertise in the relationship of war, peace and health. Doctors see this as a public health emergency of the highest order and not just in terms of victims who will die in Afghanistan.

The military may be best to fight war, but the problem of terrorism requires a more holistic human security approach that neither the military nor politicians seem capable of providing. Ideally speaking doctors look at human health more broadly and with prevention in mind.

Our technological and economic superiority has been shown to be vulnerable to penknives and boxcutters. Some will say we have to stand with the government in time of war. But think of Amber Amundson, the widow of 28 year old Craig Amundson, a US Officer who lost life in Pentagon crash. The sole parent now of two children, she wrote in the Chicago Tribune to say that military action is not what her husband would have wanted in response to his death. Similarly the parents of Greg Rodriguez, who lost his life on the 103^rd storey of one of the World Trade Centre buildings wrote a note for a vigil explaining their opposition to military action in his name. The Public Health Association of New York City in the epicentre of the bombing came out strongly against military action only a week after September 11th.

What alternatives might we propose? In the short term-end the bombing. Treat this as a police action, where human lives are protected. To regain the respect of Afghanis we must move back from our role as a combatant to our traditional role as honest brokers: peacekeepers and peacebuilders, putting our own financial resources in such an effort.

The recent conviction in New York of the Bin Laden-linked perpetrators of the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 points to the effectiveness of strengthened law enforcement in dealing with terrorism. Internationally recognized structures such as the International Criminal Court, the UN and its Security Council must be supported. After time of isolation, refusing to participate in Kyoto, the Biological Weapons Convention, efforts to limit small arms or its obligations under the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, the US now sees some benefit to international collective action. Perhaps we might encourage the US Congress to ratify accession to the ICC whose provisions might have allowed the US a mechanism to deal with terrorists in a framework of law.

Increased international control of money supply networks and border controls may be necessary but must be balanced with effects on civil liberties.

While many in the US administration are talking about a flexible response including the option to use small nuclear weapons, what might be more helpful are concrete steps towards nuclear abolition. Reducing stockpiles will reduce the threat that terrorists can acquire fissile materials for suitcase or backpack bombs, and the threat that nuclear weapons will spread to other states, some of which are unstable or even hostile powers.

We should also move immediately to more monetary and logistic support for peace processes not only in the Middle East but in Afghanistan. A meeting of the Loya Jirga-the Grand Assembly of Afghans would cost less than $1 million a fraction of the $40 million that Canada is directly committing to the war effort. Support also for peace processes in Rome around the King of Afghanistan, and in Cyprus and Peshawar around the Mujahaddin, which have been going on for years are essential to ultimate success.

A public health model denies the quick fix that military and political leaders want. While many patients want to deal with problems like obesity with fad diets or surgery such as stomach stapling, I must tell them that it is lifestyle changes, decreased food intake in a balanced way and exercise are the only proven ways to work in the long term.

Similarly dealing with root causes political, social, and economic injustices would be in accordance with enlightened self-interest. Respect for human rights, democracy and good governance, more equitable distribution of resources, investment in education especially female literacy and health care give people alternatives and investment in the stability of their governments. Perhaps a Marshall Plan like investment in Afghanistan after this conflict will safeguard us more than any further military build-up. True security is founded upon co-operative, just and equitable relationships with others. Canada should move in the above direction and encourage our US allies to do the same in self-interest.

In February the President-elect of Physicians for Global Survival, child psychiatrist Joanna Santa Barbara spent two weeks in Afghani refugee camps in Peshawar, Pakistan on a peace education project. They have developed primary school primers to deal with alienation and prejudice that war brings. Dialogue also began with leadership in Peshawar, Kabul and Northern Alliance controlled territories. These are meant to focus attention of leadership on supra-ordinate goals, the long-term interests of their people, including their own financial and leadership state which might better be achieved through non-armed means. Canadians can also help with dealing with refugee issues and aid and relief to those in camps.

Indeed there were and are a number of more productive alternatives to bombing. What is needed in sober second thought and thinking rather than reacting and looking at our own long-term interests; not just what might make us feel that something is being done in the short-term.

(Physicians for Global Survival is the Canadian affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. IPPNW has led international delegations into zones of conflict and post-conflict in Iraq, Kosovo, and the Middle East. PGS has 800 physician members and about 5,000 supporters. Neil Arya is the President of PGS and Co-Vice President of IPPNW)