I didn’t realise that there was a World War 3, until the banner of the Perdana Global Peace Forum screamed ‘Criminalise War — Stop World War IV‘. Eh? I am always the last to know.

Which may be a good thing because according to the speakers at the forum, we are all doomed to die a most horrible death, unless someone bitch slap that war-waging Bu$h and haul his sorry ass to rot on the deserted island of Repentance.

In case it isn’t obvious enough to you, I spent most of my productive hours yesterday at Putrajaya attending the second day of the Perdana Global Peace Forum 2006 because… uh, TV Smith asked if I’d be interested to go.

Several other bloggers were invited to the closed-door panel session and we had to register at the event and a hot chick handed to us media tags… Neat!

There were 5 panellists — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (a man who needs no introduction, at least in Malaysia so I’m not even going to start), Dennis Halliday (important Irish, ex-UN Assistant Secretary General), Professor Francis A. Boyle (important American whose experience in law is at level infinity), Dr. Helen Caldicott (important Aussie who doesn’t really like the current Oz administration or any other government administration for that matter, founder and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute), Hans Von Sponeck (important German, ex-UN Assistant Secretary General) and Professor Michel Chossudovsky (important Canadian economist, active member of the anti-war movement in his home country). Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir (businessman and youngest son of Tun Dr. Mahathir) moderated the session.

The Tun started off by stating that war is about killing people, period. He mentioned the Japanese occupation in Malaysia and that he lived through its horrors, hence the reason he feels so strongly against war. Dude, I totally know what you mean. My own grandparents survived the war, not without their own terrible stories from nightmarish experiences which I managed to extract out of my reluctant grandmother not so long ago. Suffice to say, it was a horrible, horrible unstable time.

True, I found it a tad ironic for the Tun to be talking about peace. It is sort of a running-joke among Malaysians — even when they had the first Perdana Global Peace forum last year, we were beside ourselves giggling (go search for archived blog posts and comments from other people if you so wish). It is indeed difficult to separate home from international affairs especially when the former struck us so hard and deep for 22 years.

But separate we must. If the threat of nuclear power-play is carried out just to let the world know who has the biggest dick, we ALL suffer. Your who’s-got-this-AP, why-Proton-in-the-first-place (and the rest of the 22 Questions) would be so insignificant that you seriously wouldn’t give a shit at the end.

So all the speakers talked about how illegal, unfounded and unjust it would be to strike Iran (all because of oil, other reasons they give are flukes). They gave very nice speeches…

Edited 24 June: Unfortunately I lost a couple of paragraphs from here onwards because my WP editing is a bit fucked up. Below is an image of what I thought when one of the speakers mentioned several countries having their nukes already targeted at Iran…

I mentioned that Dr. Caldicott gave a strong, stirring speech on how the war in Iran WILL affect us here in Malaysia, and it is not an ‘other people’s problem’ as we may have thought it is. Thankfully FA found it acceptable to quote from my now-lost paragraph, and this was what it was:

… You see, the nuclear bombs that they are planning to wipe out Iran with – they are REALLY huge; heavier and more massive than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Something about depleted uranium, the flow of the wind, hazardous effects! Translated, Malaysia is downwind from Iran and we WILL receive the hazardous air that contains all the bad bad particles that WILL contaminate OUR air, water and food. Kids developing cancer at 3, ALL your babies born without skulls and other important limbs and organs! Getting fucked for no reason does not even begin to describe it.

And below is an excerpt from the movie ‘Team America’ on what I think of the UN’s effectiveness.

Kim Jong Il: Hans Brix? Oh no! Oh, herro. Great to see you again, Hans!
Hans Blix: Mr. Il, I was supposed to be allowed to inspect your palace today, but your guards won’t let me enter certain areas.
Kim Jong Il: Hans, Hans, Hans! We’ve been frew this a dozen times. I don’t have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?
Hans Blix: Then let me look around, so I can ease the UN’s collective mind. I’m sorry, but the UN must be firm with you. Let me in, or else.
Kim Jong Il: Or else what?
Hans Blix: Or else we will be very angry with you… and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.

Professor Francis A. Boyle talked a little about international laws. During the Q&A session, a hot chick said something that I was thinking of all along…. “erm international law didn’t really work…” When America invaded Iraq, did they give two hoots about international laws? Every other country admonished them that the move was illegal, but Iraq is still fucked today, isn’t it? You can’t stop someone from doing what they have been meticulously planning to do all along, within their jurisdiction or not. Greed knows no bounds and I think we are all slowly becoming aware of what else could happen, and to whom it could happen to. By the looks of things, it could and would happen to me and you.

Pok Ku says that no matter what else you believe, who else you support, you have every reason to be afraid. In his own words,

[…] I am scared of the Coming Nuclear Wars. I am scared stiff of the fate that might befall my children and my grandchildren […]

[…] no matter what political affiliation you have or, what religion you belong to, be very very scared. Whether you are an UMNO member, an MCA member , a Gerakan member or DAP member, you will be affected by WW4.[…]

And this is the important question, ‘what can you do?” Bearing in mind that I am but the least of all insignificant minions at the pitiful mercy of those far more powerful than me, not much. I can’t stop Bush and his friends. Hell, I am far from being eligible to vote in the US elections. I do not have important friends within my network, unlike Datuk Paduka Marina Mahathir.

(even then I don’t think she is capable of physically stopping Bush).

Nukes used to be used as the last resort. Today it is but a natural part of the war-mongering states’ tactical plans. Since when has it been acceptable to kill by the millions, endangering other millions AND mother nature because the neo-conservatives can’t wait to get their dirty grubby hands on other people’s oil? Add this with “We are afraid you would eventually bomb us, hence we are striking you first”, “Your country is not democratic enough, so we are here to make you do things the way we did back home”. Perhaps I am not putting this succinctly enough, nor am I capable of asking more in-depth questions complete with further analysis and research, but at its superficial level, I don’t think that this is right, and that is how I feel. I don’t think it is right to subject civilians to the horrors of the before, during and aftermath of war as they are facing now in Iraq, their children maimed and doomed before they are given a chance to live. I don’t think it is right for 18 year old American soldiers to be risking their lives in a senseless war while their families are glued to the televisions for any news at all. Misplaced patriotism to leaders who infuse them with wayward information via a biased media network.

I don’t think using nukes as war weapons is right at all.

Who cares what I think, right? If YOU think the same, if YOU have to power to elect your leader, PLEASE elect someone who thinks the same as YOU do. Please inform your friends, your family that the threat is very real and may be very near.

If you have any on-line articles that serve to expand on this topic, feel free to post them in the comments. For now, chew on these:

How good is American intelligence on Iran’s bomb?
NGO Warns U.S. Against Attacking Iran
Peace under nuke threats…Facts from USA
A fixation with Iran
The madness of bombing Iran
Malaysia’s Mahathir warns World War 4 looming
Q&A: Iran nuclear stand-off
Would an attack on Iran be legal?

Parting shot: