By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 18, 2025

Ah, those were the days. The UN had been blocked by a worldwide popular movement from approving of a war on Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair had dragged the UK along after secretly demanding that George W. Bush first attack Afghanistan, because Blair believed he would be better able to sell a war on Iraq once there was a war on Afghanistan. And once the destruction of Iraq was well underway, the UN crept out of some New York sewer pipe to support the occupation, er, excuse me, the peaceful transition to paradise.

Blair once had a meeting with Bush in which Bush schemed up plans to get a war in Iraq started, such as painting an airplane with “UN” on it, flying it low, and hoping to get it shot at. Then Bush and Blair wandered out to a press conference at which they swore they were doing everything possible to avoid a war. To my knowledge, neither the UN nor any “journalist” in the room that day has, since the exposure of the pre-press-conference conversation, publicly expressed the slightest concern.

Fun fact: no war has ever been launched by people doing everything possible to avoid it.

Bonus fun fact: no modern war has ever been launched by people not claiming they were doing everything possible to avoid it.

The United Nations has now voted — the “Security” Council that is (with Russia and China abstaining, as if they have some other planet to live on) — for an Orwellian “Peace Board” concocted by Donald Trump, to be run by Tony Blair, to oversee a military occupation of what’s left of Gaza.

If there were ever a moment for the nations of the world to save themselves, to step forward and override the Security Council through the General Assembly with a “Uniting for Peace” measure (such as this) this is it!

Sadly, some opponents of genocide raised in a culture unable to imagine solving certain problems without a military have convinced millions of people that any “Uniting for Peace” action must involve a military force. The Security Council has now provided the military force under Viceroy Blair. The General Assembly would now have to not only take bold action it has refused to take for years, but also reverse the action taken by the Security Council in the name of “peace,” and bar the use of a military labeled “peacekeepers” in favor of nonmilitary solutions beyond the imagination of millions of people. This is what one might call a big ask.

The alternative is the normalization of not just genocide but also colonialism. By this precedent, which country will elder statesman Benjamin Netanyahu oversee the Peaceplundering of in some future decade?

If that course is unacceptable, and the United Nations is thoroughly useless, and giving up is not an option, what should we do?

The fact that not everyone immediately knows the obvious answer to that question is the fundamental educational dilemma of our time.

We should of course multiply our nonviolent activism 1,000 fold. We should send daily flotillas. We should block the doors to all government buildings and the path of all weapons shipments. We should general-strike every country with a genocide-supporting government. Why should Italians have all the fun? We should not allow a moment’s tranquility to any war profiteer or to any elected official not actively working to

Arrest Israeli or any other officials facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.Prosecute Israeli criminals under universal jurisdiction.Establish a complete embargo on weapons or weapons parts to or from Israel and to or from any nation not upholding such an arms embargo on Israel.End diplomatic relations with Israel.End financial transactions, trade, and travel to and from Israel.Train and send unarmed civilian defense teams, food, medicine, doctors, and aid workers to Palestine.Develop a major public educational campaign about the genocide in Gaza and the propaganda that has facilitated it.Halt membership or support for weapons-dealing institutions that do not uphold an arms embargo on Israel: the Abraham Accords, NATO, etc.Prevent any support or participation in the War Board Occupation of Gaza.

How can we find the resources to do all that and also take on the devastating and omnicidally risky wars in Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere — with more coming in Venezuela, etc.?

The answer to that is much easier and simpler, and yet even more elusive for even more people. The answer is to stop distinguishing good from bad mass slaughters, to drop the idea of a theoretical good one, and to work for the immediate reduction and abolition of all militarism. Here’s the to-do list:

1. Make governments reduce military spending to zero.

The post The UN Has Voted to Put the Occupation of Iraq in Charge of Gaza appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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