Synanim - Peace not Povetry

Participated in the Peace not Povetry Synanim today. A little bit like a two-hour essay exam in college. It was fun, and also frustrating. I didn't know who my group members were and they didn't know me, but there were 6 of us and they all rated me as number 4. That was OK with me. They wanted to resolve the war in Iraq by withdrawing all troops in 30 days and sending in the Peace Corps. They wanted to impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and several others - not that I totally disagree with any of that but I really didn't see that fitting into any kind of a practical way to try to bring the war to an end. This was all done under some serious time restraints - you had to think fast and type fast. Here is my final post:

Ask for a public debate throughout the world. Emphasize that this is not just the end of the war in Iraq but hopefully THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF ALL WARS. Invite UN help. Ask the UN to set up a schedule of public events, to discuss how the war began, what went wrong, and what can be done now. Focus on the outcome.
Bring in people who have had experience working in this type of work before. Bring in some of the people who have benefited from this work, such as places in Africa, the Balkans, and South America.
The Carter Center in Atlanta has many resources that can help, they have access to many people who have done this type of work before, mostly in smaller places. There are other similar organizations - invite all of them to prepare a presentation of suggestions. Ask them to take part in a forum at the UN.
Invite past Noble Prize winners to speak to the subject at the UN.
The United States could ask the Security Council for their suggestions, then open that debate to the entire UN,
Invite neighboring nations (to Iraq) to help.
Some of them can help quietly and in the background. Perhaps they can send "peace troops" in who understand complexities of Iraqs language, religion and mores. They can help curtail terrorists by dealing with them in their homeland.
Israel needs to "understand" that it is part of this problem too, and part of the solution depends upon them restraining their actions and words.
Work with Iraqis to solicit information on peace.
Ask Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, to work separately, then come together and catagorize their problems and desires. Find mutual ground, and irresolvable differences. Then speak about those, perhaps at a UN forum. Again get professional help in working with them - again the Carter Center comes to mind.
Work with opposition parties in US. What are the good suggestions, what do they see as the problems and the causes of those problems. What do they see as opportunities.
That might be a little like this experience we are taking place in right now. Ask for discussions among the small towns throughout the world. There is a lot of wisdom there.
Check with Old Europe - they have had a lot of practice lately with this kind of thing. They have found that all of their wars have not accomplished much except destruction and reconstruction.
Admit our own errors publicly. Apologize. Work to create a Peace Agency in our own government.