Pacifica Commentary for June 27, 2003

Hello, this is Blase Bonpane with a comment.

I was fortunate to have an hour with Jonathan Schell this week. That interview will air

soon on my program WORLD FOCUS at 10:00 AM Sunday Mornings.

Jonathan Schell has a new book, The Unconquerable World, Power, Nonviolence and

the Will of the People, published by Metropolitan Books New York.

In this book Schell makes a historical analysis of war using examples from von

Clausewitz.

Carl von Clausewitz was born in 1780 and died in 1831. His master work, ON WAR has

been called the greatest formal analysis of war ever made. If the five or six people who

have taken power in the United States had read this book they might not have invaded

Iraq. Here is the situation as described by Jonathan Schell as he interprets the analysis

of von Clausewitz:

"The victor or his proconsul has taken up residency in the capital of the defeated nation.

He issues an order. Do the defeated people obey? Do they "do his will?" Perhaps he

thought he had won the victory when the enemy forces dissolved, but now it turns out,

that decisions made by civilians far from the field of battle will determine whether he was

truly victorious after all. For the war, "cannot be considered to have ended so long as

the enemy's will has not been broken."

In view of the fact that the Bush administration is living in the 19th century we might

look at von Clausewitz analysis of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

Napoleon won every battle on his march to Moscow. The Russian forces retreated

steadily, until he finally occupied the city. …weren't the Russians beaten? All readers

of Tolstoy's War and Peace know, the will of Russia was intact. It was Napoleon who

was on his way to ruin."

Leaving the comments of Schell on von Clausewitz we are forced to ask ourselves, "Is

this not the history of the War in Korea? The War in in Vietnam? The Wars in Central

America? The War in Panama? The War in Yugoslavia? The War in Afghanistan and of

course, the ongoing War in Iraq?

There is a component which von Clausewitz could not imagine, however, and that is the

danger of unconscious and shallow humanoids plotting and planning the use of nuclear

weapons.

Jonathan Schell believes that in the 21st Century we must look to the philosophy of

satyagraha or living truth. The empires of the world have always known the truth. Their

error has been the biblical sin against the Spirit which is to know the truth and to

willingly act against it. Imperial War has never been anything less than rape, murder and

terrorism all in the name of a lie. Indeed the world is unconquerable by war but it surely

can be destroyed by war. Now is the time to practice direct action and non-cooperation.

Fear is contagious but courage is also contagious. Nonviolence and the will of the people

are the formula for power against empire.

For a free copy of this commentary call 323/852-9808…323/852-9808.

This is Blase Bonpane