25 November 2023

Thankfulness Buried in the Rubble

child crying

[Photo: Child crying, by Reji Jacob. (CC BY-SA 3.0)]

By Robert C. Koehler
Source:  CommonWonders

Editor's Note
I am struggling to find the word for when things happen in tandem and don’t have the expected association and are definitely not humor. We have irony that embodies one part of this but definitely lacks the humor component of irony. And we have “coincidence” which still tends to convey mild happiness. Does “tragic irony” capture the cruelty and perfidy of so much of the relations between the European invaders and the Native Peoples of the Americas (and elsewhere across the globe where they perceive themselves as the rightful rulers)?

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Category: History and Patterns, Israel, Palestine, Robert C. Koehler, Truth & Truthtellers, Ukraine, War and Conflict | Comments Off on Thankfulness Buried in the Rubble
6 September 2023

Peace and War: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Urgently Needs a Dialogue for Peace

By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

Mankind is Being Traumatized and Losing its Hopes for Peace and a Sustainable Future

The trajectory of peace and war between Russia, Ukraine, and the West reflects the pursuit of unbridled ambitions and insane geopolitics at the height of cheap military triumphs and fame. The egoistic class of leaders operating global institutions claims “success” by raping the earth, destruction of human habitats, and bellicose chauvinism without any accountability.  The unending war quickly became an economic warfare – accelerated weapons sales to warring parties and money making. The Transcend Media Service – Norway (8/21/23), reports that the “top 5 US weapon contractors made US$196B in 2022.” These inept leaders lack humanitarian consciousness and are well paid and well-fed to have distorted the criterion of fundamental human values, morality if any, and standards of honesty. They solely rely on making bogus statements of peace and conflict for public consumption. It is evidence of tragic abnormality and much evil in 21st-century global affairs – an amassed collection of unthinkable junk history.  If the leaders were honest, they should have faced the current challenges. If President Putin and President Erdogan (Turkey) could meet in Sochi to discuss the grain deal and prospects for peacemaking, indeed, if the US, NATO, and the EU wanted to resolve conflict and make peace they could open a dialogue with Russia and China. 

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Category: Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D., Peace, Russia, U.S., Ukraine, War and Conflict | Comments Off on Peace and War: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Urgently Needs a Dialogue for Peace
22 August 2023

Could We Save Humanity From Being Destroyed by Ignorance and Perpetuated Animosities?

[Graphic: Imagine Peace, John Maschak, 2015.]

By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

Global Warriors Besiege We, the People in Draconian Conflicts

More than 1.5 years of the ongoing catastrophic conflict between NATO, Russia, the EU, and Ukraine being a victim exposes absurdities and contradictions for their strategic interests. Russia had plans to act with massive forces to destroy Ukraine and limit the affluent NATO for its futuristic militarization plans. The leaders having unbridled ambitions and power acted from violent assumptions of hatred, secret intrigues, and animosities, and killings overwhelmed the daily thinking process of a society. A nation no matter how normal it claims to be, cannot function as normal beings to co-exist with itself or make any positive contributions to human change and progress coming from such a negative space. While truth-telling is ridiculed and maligned, global leaders pushing war as a means of peacekeeping is like scum floating on a torrent. Despite hollow claims of peace and moral values, no moral and ethical behavior is seen in the sudden and inexplicable plunge into human wickedness.  Even the warmongers cannot predict what the end game is going to be. Evil happens when conscientious men do nothing. God created the Heavens and Earth as a trust to fulfill all human aspirations and to flourish human generations since time immemorial. It was not meant to be bombed and destroyed by sheer ignorance and wickedness. Are we neglectful of our origin and encompassed reality?

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Category: Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D., NATO, Russia, U.S., Ukraine | Comments Off on Could We Save Humanity From Being Destroyed by Ignorance and Perpetuated Animosities?
26 July 2023

Conflict Beyond Reason: A Dialogue to End the War Is Desperately Needed

[Photo: Ryan Smithright, flickr]

By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

The NATO summit at Vilnius, Lithuania ended without any tangible move toward peace. It was more a show of solidarity while actually enlarging and sustaining the conflicts between Russia, Ukraine and NATO. Out of nowhere, the Wagner group offered some unexpected hope to many Western protagonists for disruption in the conflict but instead, it demonstrated Russian leadership’s capacity to manage an unthinkable conflict situation with ingenuity and political integrity. Perplexed American and NATO leaders were stunned and speechless at how Russia could overcome a difficult internal crisis that they wished would destabilize Russia. In every age and time, egoistic leaders have pushed humanity to war and the dehumanization process ends from NOTHING to NOTHING.

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Category: Europe, Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D., NATO, Peace, Russia, U.S., Ukraine | Comments Off on Conflict Beyond Reason: A Dialogue to End the War Is Desperately Needed
30 April 2023

Global Peace and Conflict Resolution: China’s President Xi Jinping Initiates Peacemaking Between Russia and Ukraine

[Photo: Mountains of Destruction in Ukraine. Emergency Live]

By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

Editor's Note
The war drags on in Ukraine and there are intimations that things are not going as well for Ukraine as is reported in the U.S. corporate media (Medea Benjamin, Leaks Reveal Reality Behind U.S. Propaganda in Ukraine:

“So, despite denials by the Pentagon, a document that shows a higher death toll on the Ukrainian side may be correct, since it has been widely reported that Russia has been firing several times the number of artillery shells as Ukraine, in a bloody war of attrition in which artillery appears to be the main instrument of death. Altogether, some of the documents estimate a total death toll on both sides approaching 100,000 and total casualties, killed and wounded, of up to 350,000.”

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Category: China, Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D., Peace, Russia, Ukraine | Comments Off on Global Peace and Conflict Resolution: China’s President Xi Jinping Initiates Peacemaking Between Russia and Ukraine