Category: Jan Oberg

Danmark for Fred Med Fredelige Midler

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Af Jan Øberg

Et initiativ til grundlæggende forandring af Danmarks udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik

Motivering, formål og debatvejledning
Danmark for Fred med Fredelige Midler
Oprettet 14 February 2012

1) Dansk udenrigspolitik er blevet altfor voldsbetonet

I de sidste 20 år er dansk sikkerheds- og udenrigspolitik blevet orienteret mod voldsanvendelse i en grad, som vi både forundres og forstemmes over. Vi bombede i Jugoslavien i 1999, vi er i Afghanistan til ingen synlig nytte, vi var med endnu en folkeretsstridig krig mod Irak og optrådte som besættelsesmagt i 4 år og senest har hvert eneste medlem af Folketinget stemt for at Danmark deltog i bombningen af Libyen. En ny international opinionsundersøgelse viser at 37% af danskerne synes man skal bombe anlæg i Iran og 27% at der er brug for en troppeinvasion. Hvad er det for mentalitet og psykologi, hvad er det for viden denne militante opinion bygger på?

2) Alle partier for krig

Det var under en socialdemokratisk ledet regering, den “aktivistiske” volds-fremmende politik blev indledt, nemlig i Jugoslavien. Read More »

Iran, the EU and what we should have learned by now*

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By Jan Oberg

On Monday the 23rd of January 2012, the EU’s 27 members unanimously decided to stop their oil import from Iran on July 1 this year. That sort of policy is considered benign in comparison with warfare. It won’t be when seen in the long run.

Sanctions usually have the opposite consequences of those “intended”. Secondly, as we know from the Iraq case, they are part and parcel of a build-up to war and will have, in the longer run, devastating, cruel consequences for innocent civilians whose lives are already hard.

How come EU leaders seem not to see the counterproductivity of their decisions? Do they not know that they contribute to a build up to a war that will be much more catastrophic than that on Iraq both for the region, for themselves and for the economy they otherwise try to keep from even deeper crisis?

Virtually everyone speaking on behalf of their country or the EU as a whole point out the risks of escalating the conflict; it may eventually lead to a spiral, one or more counter measures by Iran and a tit-for-tat dynamics that could – could – go out of hand. The next they therefore say, as if to soothe their own fears, is that war must be avoided and that, rather, sanctions and other types of pressures serve only one purpose: to get the Iranians to the negotiation table.

Don’t they know the basics of psychology?

This is pathetic and militates against everything one knows about psychology.Read More »

New website promoting pro-peace work

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By Jan Oberg

At 25, TFF’s Board has decided to move the Foundation in a new direction which we call pro-peace: more imagination, proposal-making and healing, slightly less emphasis on diagnosis and prognosis.

In medicine and health it is well-known that the patient won’t recover no matter how much the doctor criticizes the disease or predicts the patient’s death within a year or two.

Only when some constructive action is taken to bring about recovery and health, will the patient get a chance to survive.

Here’s 3 minutes about TFF’s new, diversified Internet presence, a first step to move in the mentoned direction.

There is also an appeal to you because one thing will not change: that TFF is people-financed and all-volunteer. We need your help the Foundation to stay truly independent of government and the corporate world and remain experimental, and outspoken.

© TFF Video Productions 2012. Please share and embed!

Kim Jong-Il has died – Isn’t that an excellent opportunity for new policies?

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By Jan Oberg

Most media focus on the nervous reactions, that this event may trigger instability and perhaps foreign-directed “provocations” as ambassador Donald Gregg is saying here. Well, it’s hard to know.

But while there could be a kind of successor problem or even a military takeover, one could also see Kim Jong-il’s death as an opportunity for improving relations both regonally and with the West.Read More »

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

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By Jan Oberg

Congratulations to the three staunch women!
And then there is the positive and the negative.

Positive:
Women, non-violence, Africa and that the prize was not once again given to war-makers and -criminals. Also, that it was not – as rumoured – awarded the EU.

Negative:
Focus on human rights rather than anti-militarism as embedded in Nobel’s will, two of the women have very strong ties to the United States and are already pelted with awards, there and elsewhere; once again mainly to a politician (who by the way has invited the U.S. to establish its African Military Command in her country) rather than to researchers or people who have had the civil courage to criticise the United States and/or the West in general.It seems unbelievable to me that they have – this very year – avoided Tunisia and Egypt as well as (once again) people like Daniel Ellsberg, Richard Falk, Johan Galtung, Gene Sharp and many others who meet Nobel’s criteria much more clearly.

Read Fredrik Heffermehl’s path-breaking analysis, Nobel’s Will the website of which is here.