CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Do We Recognize a Global War When We See One?

A few days ago, I had the honor of participating in an international webinar organized by SHAPE—Serving Humanity and Planet Earth. As its name suggests, this project is focused on safeguarding humanity and the planet, and its acronym carries a meaningful symbolism: shaping. The theme I addressed, alongside distinguished figures such as Richard Falk, Joseph Camilleri, Chandra Muzaffar, and Helena Cobban, was Humanity on the Brink. The edge of the abyss, the total failure. Our aim was, in a sense, ‘Nietzschean’: to gaze into the abyss without allowing it to gaze back into us —without letting it pull us into its darkness.

This is an extraordinarily difficult task at a time when the United States and Israel are jointly entangled in a genocide that has now lasted two and a half years, while simultaneously engaging in aggression against Iran and Lebanon. Venezuela, too, is effectively under attack, and Cuba is subjected to what can only be described as a genocidal blockade.

The ambitions of the alleged “peace president” seem boundless; we follow and make record of his daily scandalous statements (each of them a breach of international law per se): “international law does not apply to me,” “I will bomb the Iranian island of Kharg just for fun,” “I can do whatever I want with Cuba.” The problem is that even a rational person becomes accustomed to such absurdities and begins to analyze them. But it’s hard to ignore a man who holds the power to press a “red button”. One never knows what he will say, nor what he might actually do, or how his actions will produce consequences far beyond those anticipated by him and his circle.

At the webinar, we spoke as intellectuals with conscience and genuine concern, drawing on knowledge and........

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