Ian Brown: Illegal Attacks (2007)
NHK World talks to a representative of the Japanese organization of nuclear bomb survivors, who has called President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize very encouraging to bomb survivors:
Senji Yamaguchi, who leads the Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organizations, said he knows from experience that it is very hard to call for nuclear abolition in the United States because the public still supports possession of nuclear arms.
Yamaguchi said Obama is extremely courageous to call for nuclear abolition as a US president. Yamaguchi said he hopes Obama will overcome difficulties to achieve his goal. In 1982, Yamaguchi became the first survivor to speak about nuclear abolition at a UN assembly.
Matashichi Oishi, who was exposed to radiation from a US hydrogen bomb test while on a fishing boat in the South Pacific in the 1950s, said he hopes Obama's prize will help the movement toward nuclear abolition. But Oishi said he has mixed feelings about the awarding of the peace prize to the president of a country that has used nuclear bombs.
Anti War song by Ian Brown from The Stone Roses with Sinhead O'Connor. Seems appropriate today, as Oslo says it has "attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."
So what the fuck is this UK
Gunnin’ with this US of A
In Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan
Does not a day go by
Without the Israeli Air Force
Fail to drop it’s bombs from the sky?
How many mothers to cry?
How many sons have to die?
How many missions left to fly over Palestine?
‘Cause as a matter of facts
It’s a pact, it’s an act
These are illegal attacks
So bring the soldiers back
These are illegal attacks
It’s contracts for contacts
I’m singing concrete facts
So bring the soldiers back
What mean ya that you beat my people
What mean ya that you beat my people
And grind the faces of the poor
So tell me just how come were the Taliban
Sat burning incense in Texas
Roaming round in a Lexus
Sittin’ on six billion oil drums
Down with the Dow Jones, up on the Nasdaq
Pushed into the war zones
It’s a commercial crusade
‘Cause all the oil men get paid
And only so many soldiers come home
It’s a commando crusade
A military charade
And only so many soldiers come home
Soldiers, soldiers come home
Soldiers come home
Through all the blood and sweat
Nobody can forget
It ain’t the size of the dog in the fight
It’s the size of the fight in the dog on the day or the night
There’s no time to reflect
On the threat, the situation, the bark nor the bite
These are commercial crusades
‘Cos all the oil men get paid
These are commando crusades
Commando tactical rape
And from the streets of New York and Baghdad to Tehran and Tel Aviv
Bring forth the prophets of the Lord
From dirty bastards fillin’ pockets
With the profits of greed
These are commercial crusades
Commando tactical raids
Playin’ military charades to get paid
And who got the devils?
And who got the Lords?
Build yourself a mountain – Drink up in the fountain
Soldiers come home
Soldiers come home
Soldiers come home
Soldiers come home
What mean ya that you beat my people
What mean ya that you beat my people
And grind the faces of the poor
Comments
Thanks for this--your blog brings windows I can't find anywhere else on Japan.
I wonder why Yamaguchi-san, though, thinks that the American public supports the possession of nuclear weapons. I respectfully disagree.
The US has a huge anti-nuclear weapons movement that began with the first test and bombings in 1945. The largest anti-nuclear rally in world history was held in 1982 in NYC--over 500,000 people participated--most were Americans.
According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the push we're seeing now for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons has its roots in the protests of 1970's and 1980's which resulted in disarmament treaties and the end of the "Mutually Assured Destruction" mindset and policy. We're seeing children and grandchildren of anti-nuclear weapons activists following in their forebears' footsteps.
What amazes me is that there are still people in the world who think that violence, weapons, war are effective or are who so greedy, that they prostitute themselves for military-industrial interests--after the 20th-century, the bloodiest century in world history--and at a time of planetary environmental crisis.
Here's another song, "Universal Soldier" by Buffy Saint-Marie
He’s 5 foot 2 and he’s 6 feet 4
And he fights with missiles and with spears
He’s all of 31 and he’s only 17.
And he’s been a soldier for a thousand years
He’s a catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jane
A boarders, a Baptist and Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t ‘ve killed
And he knows he always will kill
You’ll for me my freidn and me for you
He’s fighting for Canada.
He’s fighting for France.
He’s fighting for the USA.
And he’s fighting for the Russians.
And he’s fighting for Japan
And he thinks we’ll brought an end to war this way.
He’s fighting for democracy,
he’s fighting for the reds
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one, who must decide,
who’s to live and who’s to die.
And he never sees the writing on the walls.
But without him,
how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He’s the one who gives is body
as a weapon to the war.
And without him all this killing can’t go on
He’s the universal soldier
And he really is the blame
But his orders comes from
far away no more.
They come from him.
And you and me.
Oh, brothers can’t you see.
This is not the way we put an end to war
BTW, Howard Zinn's insightful and sensitive piece on the Obama Nobel win echoes your thoughts: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/10-3
Jean
P, that opinion poll deserves a post of its own.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org
Hmm, if they did a bigger poll, would anyone actually support these weapons...? Are they even "weapons" as per the usual definition? We know they cannot be used, because the damage is so terrible.
'Mutually assured destruction' - not quite the most positive term one came across a 14 year old in the 70s. Along with '4 minute warning'.
Military-industrial complex - nice. Lest we forget the deliberate lying the government in this country perpuated to the UK into the war. Check this out from a few days ago...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/09/rowan-williams-iraq-war-memorial