Oppose the real danger
I really appreciated your article ("Taiwan stands up for peace," Feb. 23, page 17). It shows that finally the media is looking to other sources for information, rather than the pundits commonly quoted in mainstream news. Just because you receive a news release from a prominent office or PR company, does not mean that the information therein is newsworthy or something that the public wants to read about it.
Unfortunately, the day after I read your article on peace, I read another on Taiwan and Iraq that was a load of claptrap ("Taiwan must back US on Iraq: pundits," Feb. 24, page 1).
In the article, research fellows at Academia Sinica try to enlighten us by instilling fear that China might attack Taiwan if Taipei "misinterprets" anti-war protests around the world and in front of the American Institute in Taiwan. Holmes Liao (廖宏祥) of the Taiwan Research Institute's Division of Strategic and International Studies, says that "the majority of countries around the world -- despite anti-war calls from civilian groups within those countries -- do support US military action against Iraq."
What kind of logic is Liao inferring here -- that because most states support US terror, we should support it too? Does Liao also condone driving through red traffic lights because the majority of people do so as well? Strange reasoning for a research fellow.
Does it also follow that because most countries force their youth to learn how to commit mass murder, that it makes it okay to have wars? The Academia Sinica "thinktank" itself was a product of violence and war and it is suspicious that this academic body fears that we "misjudge the international trend of events."
In the same article, a Presidential Office statement is quoted, "The president expressed again that this nation supports US efforts against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction."
First, before international politicians begin stroking each other, they might look to see if their counterparts receive support in their own nation. Millions of people in the US feel that their own government is the world's number one terrorist and these people are working hard to break this government down.
Second, the US takes the lead in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction -- most modern war technology in use today was conceived, developed and sold by the US. So if Taiwan really does oppose terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, then Taipei should necessarily oppose the US. Any other stance is an ultimate contradiction.
Although the government of Taiwan, being one of the largest weapons purchasers in the world, is itself heading for scenarios of mass destruction -- its people want peace, not war.
How do we get peace? Ask any five-year-old and he or she will tell you,"Let's be friends, I'll drop my stick and you drop yours." It is only the wealthy, detached, male, power-holders who insist that you always need a bigger and stronger weapon in order to "keep peace." Such folly opens the opportunity to use such weapons and the potential for such an opportunity to occur keeps us all under a shroud of fear.
Such fear is what Taiwan supports when it supports US tyranny against Iraq and when it continues to purchase death technology from the US.
Chen Sheng-ren
Taipei
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