Nipawin - Thursday, October 18, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis
desert interrelated universal values better world intrinsic crime stick and carrot	"They rob, kill and rape and this they call Roman rule. They make a desert and call it peace." - Calgacus, British leader (Agricola by Tacitus) We live in a very complex world where events are interrelated in time and space, and if we refer to our endemic social killings, something happening in Afghanistan can trigger something happening in Pakistan, and this in turn can trigger something else happening in Kashmir, and so forth. Our world has become a power game and therefore a game where there is no choice but to support economic power with military power. As a consequence, war, economic power and military power are all interconnected. Under this understanding, Bush's coalition to bring peace and justice to the world by waging a long war against terrorism and having a new world order of the type Pax Romana, thumb up or thumb down, is not worth a cent. We need justice and we need democracy, and justice and democracy are universal values which cannot be monopolized by any people or any country. We must understand that social systems have an element of inertia, or better an element of self maintaining themselves unless we are intelligent enough to continually change and create a better world for everybody. If we have a system to fight the drug war and we are not intelligent enough to change this system for the better, the drug war will continue for ever. If we have the most powerful military force in the world, and we are not intelligent enough to change for the better, then military wars are an intrinsic way to defend our unique way of life. We cannot fool ourselves and believe our patriotic leaders as they wrap themselves in their national flags and tell our soldiers to go to war against unknown terrorists around the world and for an unknown number of years. I think that we have to be intelligent enough to work for a better world where peace and justice prevail, and I don't think we have to wage a new war against terrorism, when we know that terrorism is really a against any country and any civil people on earth. If instead to stabilize the world with a Pax Romana, that is president Bush's declared stick and carrot international policy, we want to bring peace and justice, then a new approach away from the build up of military forces should be followed.
geopolitics	When we consider that the external debt of the World Watch forty-seven poor countries is some $422 billion while the rich countries spend some $427 billion for their military expenses every year, then the best leverage policy to bring justice in the world would be to cancel the external debt of poor countries, have new economic policies for sustainable development, and reduce military spending. But what I hear from our leaders and their talking heads, everywhere and every time, is the word 'geopolitics,' which reminds me again of the Pax Romana!
----------References:
	Mons Graupius, The battlefield where Britons fought against the Romans in the Summer of AD 83, and where 10,000 Britons died and only 360 Romans fell. In Agricola by Tacitus http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/monsgraupius/monsgraupius.html
	VRoma Home Page, Barbara F. McManus, The College of New Rochelle http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/romanpages.html
	"FORGIVE AND FORGET" WON'T FIX THIRD WORLD DEBT, Worldwatch News Release, 26 April 2001 http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/010426.html