October 2: Take Action Against Missile Defence
Posted on Thursday, September 16 at 16:33 by sthompson
Defence Minister Bill Graham still insists that BMD will not result in the weaponization of space; however, even a cursory glance at the US Missile Defence Agency website shows that BMD is designed to culminate in the creation of space based weapons.
With the looming possibility of Canada joining the United States on possible collaboration on a Ballistic Missile Defence plan, the 38th General Council at its August 2003 gathering in Wolfville, Nova Scotia stated that "many activities in pursuit of national security do not in fact serve to protect civilians; and that a stable social and political peace globally cannot be created or sustained by repression or military superiority." Human security and wellbeing, the Council confirmed, is "achieved through the development of social, political and environmental conditions that support the welfare of people inside and outside the state."
Background
Research shows that the pursuit of Ballistic Missile Defence will actually make us and the rest of the world more vulnerable to attack - not safer. The technology needed to intercept nuclear-armed ballistic missiles is not available in anything approaching a reliable defence.
Furthermore, any effort to create a missile defence capacity, even a very flawed one, will only encourage others to expand their offensive capacity to overwhelm any defence that might be mounted. The result will be more nuclear weapons - not less, greater arms competition, and a world more at risk of nuclear annihilation.
More specifically, the proposed BMD violates Canadian values and approaches on multiple levels. It forces Canada to:
* Rely on pre-emption and military superiority over a rules-based international security order,
* Favour counter-proliferation over nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament;
* Insist on the weaponization of space; and
* Seriously undermining a Canadian capacity for independent contributions to international peace and security through multilateral disarmament and security efforts.
The United Church of Canada's opposition to this proposed missile defence flows out of a long tradition of support for disarmament, arms control, and a nuclear testing ban as evidenced in numerous General Council policies adopted since the mid fifties. For example, the 25th General Council in 1972 affirmed that the United Church opposes "the testing and use of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world" condemning it "as being a miscarriage of man's stewardship for human life, the earth and the resources of creation as revealed in Christ". Subsequent policy over the years has reaffirmed this position.
The 38th General Council called on the Canadian government to instead invest its resources and efforts on:
* War Prevention and Peace building;
* Disarmament;
* Stewardship (i.e. honouring creation - including space - as an abundant source of life and bounty and the common heritage of all humanity forever, free from weapons); and
* Accountable Public Institutions.
Take Action
Given our historical faith commitment in favour of peace and disarmament, we encourage interested members of congregations and congregations to:
* Participate in local events planned by the Canadian Peace
Alliance
[ http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/index.html ] and/or organize prayer vigils and events around the October 2, 2004 Day of Action.
* Find out more about the Ballistic Missile Defence initiative and
The United Church of Canada's opposition to it by reading the background information available
http://www.united church.ca/peace/disarmament/missiledefence.shtm
* Use the poster and background sheet sent to all congregations in the August Infopac or download it here http://www.united-church.ca/infopac/2004/august/pdf/missiles.pdf.
* Let us know about the events and initiatives you are involved in by contacting Choice Okoro [, national staff person for Human Rights & Reconciliation Initiatives.
Let our voices be heard on October 2, 2004!
For more information, contact:
Choice Okoro
Programme Officer, Human Rights & Reconciliation Initiatives Justice, Global & Ecumenical Relations Unit
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Etobicoke. Ontario M8X 2Y4
Tel: 416-231-5931
Voice Mail: 416-231-7680 Ext
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I plan to bring supporters and members of the local Blue-Green society
to the closest event (Moncton?).
With members' cooperation we should be able to do some advertizing on
campuses for the 2nd, as well.
The proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles is a fact and won't be stopped by short sighted Canadians yelling at the Canadian government. Go to Iran, Pakistan, India, North Korea, China etc. etc. and make their governments stop developing nuclear missiles, that would make the need for defence go away.
In fact, considering Iranian government ministers have said they will use nuclear weapons as soon as they're ready, the United Church of Canada should send a large contingent of protesters to Tehran where, if successful, they would do a lot more good.
The government of Canada must take real responsibility for the people of Canada and that includes defence. Canadians should take some interest in our own sovereignty and contribute towards our own defence instead of giving the defence of our country entirely to the Americans and then being hypocrites by slighting them for their generosity. Canada should have signed the partnership agreement on Ballistic Missile Defence a long time ago, we owe it to future Canadians.
BTW - I have bridge to sell you - hardly used too.
All of that plus, IT DOESN'T WORK! Why do people only want to believe the hype and not read or listen to the facts, it isn't just the little people who are saying it doesn't work, scientists are saying it, Americans are saying it, the U.S. investigated the claim about their patriot missiles during the first Gulf War and found out that they had not hit one scud missile, although it was reported nightly on CNN that they had. So if it doesn't work and we present it as if it does, how long do you think it will be before someone decides to test it???
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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?
You talk about this as a means of defense. In reality, even if they deployed this (assuming it works) and didn't fire one missile, laser, or whatever on populations on earth this is already an offensive weapon since if no one can attack the US they can attack anyone who opposes them at their whim, including opposition to the US's ideas of how the world economy should run and not just military opposition. The real reason why these other countries are interested in nuclear weapons is because of fear of being attacked by the same. You would think that after 50 years of a cold war we would understand this by now.
As for Canadian citizens going to the other nuclear and would-be nuclear countries to protest their nuclear plans, we are citizens of this country and are responsible for the actions of the government that we elect here first and foremost. As for those other countries, it is the government of Canada's responsibility to engage them and encourage them to turn away from nuclear weapons by dialogue. This is a true defense of the Canadian people by our government since by doing so we do not generate enemies to defend ourselves from but rather friends that we can have some relations with. Of course, this also means that we would have to break with US foreign policy that has created this situation to begin with. Also, Canada should act as a true friend to the US and get them to do a little self-introspection. It is my impression that many American citizens are still completely ignorant of their history in creating these situations. This is exacerbated by an ignorant and dishonest president who stands in the US Congress and gives a speech where he says that the US has done nothing to make Arab people hate them.
You say that supporting missile defense is protecting our sovereignty and then say that we should take the role of grateful suckups to the US for providing us with defense. This isn't sovereignty; sovereignty is making decisions independent of another country. Who do we have to defend ourselves from except enemies of the US after we ally ourselves with them.
The Bali bombing was meant to attack Australians and for some reason some people just assumed this was because they're in Iraq, but as the bombers said themselves, they wanted to kill Australians because the Aussies liberated East Timor. The Islamics were upset at losing that territory, it is primarily Christian and they wanted to keep the island and drive out or eliminate those who don't practice their kind of 'faith'.
The Andalusians(also known as Spanish) were attacked because they drove out Islam 500 years ago, the Andalusians have learned a different lesson from being attacked however, while other countries believe in themselves and their right to exist as they are, the Andalusians have decided to change themselves to suit their attackers preferences instead. That's fine if 'Spain' means that little to them anyhow.
The two french journalists in Iraq were kidnapped and threatened because Islamic fundamentalists don't like domestic french law, while it is strange that France didn't immediately cave in to the demands of their 'partners in peace' also known as terrorists, this is just another example showing that Canada and Canadians can be targets too.
Listen to the terrorists and their sponsoring regimes such as Iran and Syria, and the NGO's that sponsor terrorism such as Al-Qaeda. They are the ones who support attacks on Westerners and have specifically mentioned Canada as a place to attack. They have already killed dozens of Canadians outside our borders and they say that they want to kill Canadians inside Canada. All you have to do is pay attention to what they are actually saying and actually doing, just get a little better informed and you'll be able to see that we could very easily be attacked just because we're us.
If you think fundamentalist religious killers are actually Liberals in suicide vests and won't attack us, there's still enough development of nuclear weapons and missiles going on in the world that some other group or nation could threaten North America. North Korea threatened the South and that patsy Bill Clinton caved in immediately and gave them everything they wanted. Now that they have had more time and money to devote to weaponry they've become even more of a threat - if Pyongyang insists on Alberta oil or Vancouver gets pasted, Ottawa could do little about it except hand over the oil, that's no way for us to make a living here in Canada.
But if you actually believe what you wrote, then it confirms that some people will believe anything. Enlightening.