[Peace-discuss] Four Cool Things You Can Do In A Cease-Fire

[Robert Naiman]

Four Cool Things You Can Do In A Cease-Fire
Robert Naiman

When Israeli warplanes starting bombing "women, kids, houses and
villages" in Lebanon, as Arlo Guthrie might say, and the Shiite
militia Hizbollah started raining rockets down on Israeli towns and
cities in response, a lot of people -- not a lot of people that
matter, apparently, but a lot of people, like the Secretary General of
the UN, and the President of France, and a lot of other folks whose
opinions would probably be taken very seriously if  they happened to
be saying what the U.S. government would like them to be saying -- a
lot of people seemed to have the same immediate reaction. It was,
"Let's try to stop this. Let's call for an immediate ceasefire." It's
a kind of a natural idea I think. A lot of people think that people
shooting at each other and dropping bombs and rockets on each other is
a bad thing, the kind of thing that one should try to stop; and the
sort of people who tend to think that's bad also tend to think that
dropping bombs and rockets on people who aren't dropping bombs or
rockets on anyone and don't even have any bombs or rockets to drop on
anyone, even if they wanted to,  is even worse. Go figure.

But it turns out that the President of the United States and his
Secretary of State are not necessarily members of this group of
woolly-headed do-gooders. Their view, apparently, is that stopping
people from dropping bombs and rockets on other people immediately
could be a Very Bad Thing, because you might not stop people from
dropping bombs and rockets on other people forever. And then what
would you really have accomplished? But a lot of folks -- practically
the whole world, it seems, but not anyone who seems to matter, quite
yet -- are still seduced by this Band-Aid, this quick fix, this duct
tape of an Immediate Cease-Fire. So the President and his Secretary of
State have been running around badmouthing an Immediate Cease-Fire,
trying to get people to see that this isn't really something that you
want. It's only something that you think you want.

As an American, this makes me nervous. Because if you live in the
United States, you can't help but have a healthy respect for the
ability of the marketing gurus in Washington to convince people,
sometimes, that things are the opposite of what common sense would
tell you. And I think it would be a Very Bad Thing if the President
and his Secretary of State were to succeed in convincing people that
an Immediate Cease-Fire was a bad thing, just because it might not
last forever.

So, I would like to put my two cents in for the idea that an Immediate
Cease-Fire is a Very Good Thing, even if it only lasts for a year, or
a month, or a week, or even a day. And the reason, which you might not
realize, if you haven't had the "opportunity," as our Secretary of
State might say, of being in a situation where people are dropping
bombs on you, is that there are some Really Cool Things that you can
do, if you are in that situation, and if people that are dropping
bombs on you would agree to stop doing that for a little while, that
are really hard to do if you can't get them to stop dropping bombs on
you.

Thus, in order to counter the bad-mouthing, I have prepared the
following list of Four Really Cool Things You Can Do in a Cease-Fire.

1. Get Food and Water. Maybe you didn't know that people were going to
start dropping bombs on you. Maybe you didn't stash a big supply of
food and water in your cellar. Maybe you ran out. Maybe it hasn't been
safe to go outside. If the people dropping bombs on you would stop for
a little while, you could go out and get some food and water. Maybe
someone who has food and water could get to you.

2. Run Away. Maybe, as much as you like your house, and your town, and
your neighbors, maybe, now that your town is having bombs dropped on
it, you would just as soon be someplace else, at least for a while, if
only you could get out safely. If the people dropping bombs on you
would stop for a little while, maybe you could go somewhere else.

3. Evacuate the Wounded. The only thing worse than being badly injured
because somebody dropped a bomb on your house is being badly injured
because someone dropped a bomb on your house and you can't get to the
hospital because the roads and the bridges and the ambulances and the
trucks and the cars are also being bombed. If the people dropping
bombs on you would stop for a little while, maybe wounded people could
get to the hospital.

4. Bury the Dead. OK, maybe you don't think this is an emergency. Dead
people can be pulled from the rubble later. But if your town were
bombed, and some of your friends or relatives were missing, wouldn't
you want to know what happened to them? If they were killed, wouldn't
you want to bury them before Running Away? If the people dropping
bombs on you would stop for a little while, maybe you could dig
through the rubble for your friends and relatives, Evacuate the
Wounded, and Bury the Dead.

I don't claim that this list is exhaustive. I'm sure that there are
other Cool and Useful Things that you can do, when people are dropping
bombs on you, if people agree to stop doing that, even temporarily,
that are really hard to do, if no-one can get them to agree to do
that. But I claim that this list is sufficient. If you agree with me
that it is, I hope that you too will raise your voice for an Immediate
Cease-Fire in Lebanon.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org