Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00316)

The following remarks by Dr. Robert Muller are being circulated around the
Internet. I don't know who the original author is.

Zack Lansdowne


>Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United

>Nations, now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica
was one of

>the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked in support

>of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in San Francisco to be

>honored for his service to the world through the U.N. and through his

>writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty, Dr. Muller surprised, even

>stunned, many in the audience that day with his most positive assessment of

>where the world stands now regarding war and peace.

>

>I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by his remarks. What

>he said turned my head around and offered me a new way to see what is going

>on in the world. My synopsis of his remarks is below:

>

>"I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so honored to be alive at such

>a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in our world

>today."

>

>( I was shocked. I thought -- Where has he been? What has he been reading?

>Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What is he

>talking about?)

>

>Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history of the world has

>there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and

>conversation about the very legitimacy of war".

>

>The whole world is in now having this critical and historic

>dialogue--listening to all kinds of points of view and positions about

>going to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation the
world

>is asking-"Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there enough evidence

>to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant an attack?

>What will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a war? How

>will this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful alternatives?

>What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real
intentions

>for declaring war?"

>

>All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of the United Nations

>Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for exactly this

>purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than fifty years to

>realize that function, the real function of the U.N. And at this moment in

>history-- the United Nations is at the center of the stage. It is the place

>where these conversations are happening, and it has become in these last

>months and weeks, the most powerful governing body on earth, the most

>powerful container for the world's effort to wage peace rather than war.

>Dr. Muller was almost in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of this
dream.

>

>"We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world community, are WAGING

>peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must not let up.

>It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense proportions. It

>has never happened before-never in human history-and it is happening
now-every

>day every hour-waging peace through a global conversation. He pointed out

>that the conversation questioning the validity of going to war has gone on

>for hours, days, weeks, months and now more than a year, and it may go on

>and on. "We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes, troops are being moved.

>Yes, warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor is angry and upset and

>spending a billion dollars a day preparing to attack. But not one shot has

>been fired. Not one life has been lost. There is no war. It's all a

>conversation."

>

>It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in the most

>significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in the

>history of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever

>before-not before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new and

>it is a stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and responsibility.

>

>In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being formed. Russia and

>China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented outcome. France and

>Germany working together to wake up the world to a new way of seeing the

>situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history of the world are

>taking place--and we are not at war! Most peace demonstrations in recent

>history took place when a war was already waging, sometimes for years, as

>in the case of Vietnam.

>

>"So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what "waging peace " looks
like."

>No matter what happens, history will record that this is a new era, and

>that the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a global
dialogue

>looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global community at the

>legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate to go to war.

>Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of that nation are

>being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink, and allowing

>all nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision to go to
war or

>not.

>

>Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York Times article that

>pointed out that up until now there has been just one superpower-the United

>States, and that that has created a kind of blindness in the vision of the

>U.S. But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are two superpowers: the United

>States and the merging, surging voice of the people of the world.

>

>All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert Muller, one of the

>great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing short of a miracle and

>it is working.

>

>