It takes everyone for peace

(7 November 2022) For months, our daily lives have been dominated by war and the way it is reported. The coverage is marked by war rhetoric that only adds to our alarm.

Thoughts and minds are taken over by hostile language. Sanctions and arms deliveries lead ever further away from the goal of peace. Hope and the will for peace are paralysed. Since time immemorial, peoples have been led into war in this way.

Solution-oriented action looks different. Peter Maurer, the outgoing president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently said: “Diplomacy must be most active when the situation seems most hopeless.”

This peace-oriented approach must once again become a central component of Swiss foreign policy: no one-sided statements and condemnations and any actions must solely aim at giving peace a chance.

Let us remember: diplomacy and human reason prevented the nuclear combat in the Cuban missile crisis as well. – Everyone can counter the fog of war and resolutely stand up for peace among peoples!

Ulrich Meister, Menziken AG, Switzerland