Peace Be With You

Peace be with you , Shalom , Salaam alaikum , shanti: These can be the most beautiful words to hear in any language .
What can be better than having peace externally in the form of no interpersonal, criminal or military conflict? . Inner peace also being the ultimate form of personal virtue to strive for . After all when we look at all the great thinkers , mystics , philosophers and spiritual leaders throughout world history the common link was that they sought some kind of inner peace and stability ,having found this for themselves then proceeded to give this to any one who had the ears to listen , eyes to see or nous to comprehend.

Peace , Pax , Eirine (Greek goddess and personification of peace) all represent what most of us at least say that we strive for.

Yet unfortunately like its cousins: Love , justice and Happiness the word Peace has suffered to the point of being cheapened and violated .It has been used and abused to a degree that it barely has any real meaning.

For example only today we hear that President Barack Obama(born August 4, 1961)the 44th and current President of the United States has been awarded the 'Nobel peace prize' .Just what is this peace prize?

Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1801-1872) was a Swedish chemist and engineer. Apparently he was also an armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite.In his last will and testament , he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes and Since 1901, the prize has honoured men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, for work in peace and now economics.

So President Obama has been awarded a 'peace prize ' , an award in the memory of an arnaments manufacturer. The meaninglessness of the whole concept of what our society values as peace becomes more unclear as we explore this.Not only for the President's very short record on promoting or maintaining peace but more so when we look at the pantheon of some of the other great and good peace loving individuals standing proudly alongside him on their pedestals that have also been awarded this 'Nobel peace prize ' and other similar prizes or honours.

Henry Kissinger (born May 27, 1923)was , national security advisor and later secretary of state for the USA from 1969-1977 .Along with North Vietnamese Politburo Member Le Duc Tho,Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1973, for their work in negotiating the ceasefires contained in the Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam," signed on the previous January .Mr Tho rejected the award, telling Kissinger that peace had not been really restored in South Vietnam. Kissinger wrote to the Nobel Committee that he accepted the award "with humility." The conflict continued until an invasion of the South by the North Vietnamese Army resulted in the ignominious retreat of the American forces and their allies in the North Vietnamese Pyrrhic victory of 1975 .

During that ugly war , Kissinger spread the mayhem and blood letting chaos as the mastermind behind the secret bombing campaign of Cambodia tastelessy called 'Operataion Menu '.This lasted at least two years from March 1969. The justification for this campaign was onstensibly to prevent units of the North Vietnamese Communist guerillas from using these areas as bases to rest , re arm and continue their attacks on the South of Viet nam.
The most conservative estimates of the death toll reach 100 000 , although many alternative sources claim up to six times that . The people displaced reached several million .The people of Cambodia as a result of this were to suffer much worse fate as the whole country descended into a madness of the Khmer Rouge , a totalitarian regime that took power at the time and was known for the notorious despot , Pol Pot whose reign was responsible for the deaths of over one million of his own citizens.

So kissinger , This ' white Dove' of a man has many more achievements under his belt much much too many to mention here. His influence in the murder On September 11 1973 of Salvadore Allende, the elected president of Chile is well documented as well as the persistent interference and support for murderous dictatorships throughout the Latin American countries for decades after .

A tiny country that he still carries the blood stains of, is Cyprus , where in 1974 , a military coup was arranged from Greece's junta government , backed by Kissinger , the result being , an invasion of the island by Turkey putting to end the fears that the Cypriot government at the time was too friendly to the Soviets and could have turned to communism. Britain , then as today indulged in its characteristic poodle politics and did not perform its legal duty to prevent the invasion by Turkey (of course ) .

Apart from This 'peacenik' other great camaigners for peace include Theodere Roosevelt in 1906 for his role in brokering a peace between the war between Russia and Japan .Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919 ) was the 26th Presdent of the United States.As a military leader before being president , he was known to round up his own volunteer cavalry regiment recruited from cowboys 'The Rough Riders' to fight a war in Cuba in 1898 , which according to many led to the USA bullying that island ever since. At the time he was a keen supporter for American military exploits and had been quoted to say "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one".

Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the USA (December 28, 1856–February 3, 1924)was awarded the Peace prize in 1919 for his part in forming the 'league of nations ' an intergovernmental body which aimed at preventing another world war after the end the first world war. History showing that he failed miserably.Apart from this attempt at peace ,he also bombarded the Mexican coast, sent troops to occupy Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as maintaining troops in Nicaragua :all acts of American imperialism that linger on to this day

Another award of great prestige if not outright meaninglessness is 'The presidential medal of freedom', America's highest civilian honour.This five pointed white star is awarded by American presidents only to people considered to have made an 'Especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States ,or world peace ,or cultural or other significant or private endeavours '.

Yes this medal was awarded to Mr Tony Blair( born 6 May 1953), former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007.
It was awarded to him by the 43rd and former president of the United States , George W Bush (born July 6, 1946 ),during the last death throws of Bush's asministration earlier this year.

Tony Blair is known for leading Britain into several wars including Iraq, Yugoslavia , Sierra Leone and Afghanistan .He is no 'Buddha' , he has taken this country to war by literally lying to his people and his cowering subordinates for what seems to many as no other reason than pure 'poodle' like obedience to Bush or even for more sinister reasons of a quasi religious nature and delusions of grandeur.

For this reason maybe his award is appropriate as he has fit the bill in a strange way to the 'contribution to the security of the United States ...' but for 'world peace ...?.' It is difficult to agree as since the invasions of several countries mentioned , internecine violence in those countries lingered on , and international terrorism has increased .

So There we are: Nobel 'peace' prizes, 'The presidential medal of 'freedom' '....
Such is the degradation of language today , masking behind it , its total opposite in its raw brutalilty .

The American film director Michael Moore, on hearing of this award to Obama was heard to say :'congratulations Mr President for receiving the Peace prize , now please go out and earn it!....'Nothing can be closer to the truth , and already Obama is showing signs of perpetuating and intensifying the war in Afghanistan rather than really looking for alternative ways of raching a solution . Perhaps peace is not really sought as sincerely as some of us would like to believe .

So Peace, being such a rare and valuable commodity is quite difficult to attain as well as illusive to define judging by the decisions made by these committees that dish out the awards .

I wonder if these dead presidents of the USA - that received such peace awards after lives of sabre rattling and 'rough riding ' are really sleeping in eternal peace? Or if that killer Kissinger or the uncouth clot GW Bush Junior
or that wily wastrel Blair live with any innner peace? I can only wish them Shalom , Salaam Alaikum , Pax , peace be with you ...........And may that be what they themselves mean by peace.