When someone claims to be against war, they should be corrected right away: we must be against wars. To avoid misunderstandings and for a proper view of the overall issue, there are many wars around the world. Some hidden, others creeping, many forgotten and meant to be forgotten. Blood is the same color and all wars are wrong. No matter what. We must start from these statements, otherwise we fall into the rhetoric of war: the one near our backyard, the Western one, the one to defend at all costs because it touches the interests of our country and our families. That’s not how it is, and the warlords know it well—those who see their shares shoot up on stock exchanges worldwide as makers and suppliers of weapons, ammunition, cutting-edge military gear. They are the ones who profit from conflicts and many factories, as it happens, operate in Europe: Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, not to mention the ever-present United States of America. Of course they sell to those who defend themselves, but it is just as obvious that the concept of defense and attack changes depending on which side of the table you choose to sit. The war in Ukraine is about to complete its first year of conflict and we truly hope for a strong, clear and necessary moment where people can sit down and try to weigh words and actions different from the sheer and useless spilling of blood. In Sudan, instead, the conflict has lasted ten years: clashes between government and opposition and the cursed “ethnic cleansing”. Over there they send children to fight in a bastard game, deliberately little publicized by the Western world. There are the United Nations with a small contingent, but it really helps very little. Children die and no one seems to care. Just as the media worldwide stay silent about the dirty war in Ethiopia: more than two and a half million people have been forced to flee the conflict areas and live— a damned euphemism—crammed into four huge refugee camps where deaths from hunger exceed a thousand a day. Try to make sense of what is happening in Yemen where everyone talks about civil war (even this adjective should be banned when speaking of exclusively uncivil behavior), where over four million people have been forced to leave their homes and the problem intersects with the war between Ukraine and Russia since Yemen imports grain from those nations. The result is predictable: over four million people live in conditions of malnutrition. Then there are conflicts in Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, in Kashmir, a false peace in Afghanistan and in Palestine. That’s why when they tell you there is war, try to reply: there are wars, and we should talk about all of them and deal with all of them. For all of them we should demand an immediate ceasefire, a meeting at some table run by the international organizations set up precisely for this. That’s why some Sardinian associations decided to write a few clear, sharp points and turn them into a charter: the S’Aspru Charter, which will be presented on Sunday 15 January 2023 at the S’Aspru community of Mondo X Sardegna in front of Father Salvatore Morittu’s boys. All Sardinian MPs have been invited, and they will be asked to countersign that charter, a starting point to discuss and take a stand against all wars. It is no small message. It is, instead, a simple starting point that takes account of only one guiding star: Article 11 of the Italian Constitution. When you talk about war, remember you are talking about wars, and all armed conflicts are repudiated (a firm, clear, unequivocal word) by the constitutional charter and by the entire Italian people. We need words; there is a need to understand, to analyze and to simply say “stop”. Because it is simplistic and freeing to say “we are against war”, it is essential to state with a firm and decisive voice: “we are against all wars”, always. And we demand, loudly, a discussion table for the resolution of conflicts; we ask to promote and support the international organizations aimed at that purpose, and we ask it with the awareness that life is worth living for everyone in a dignified way. No one excluded. That’s why it is necessary to break the roar of weapons and savor the sweet silence of words. It starts from Sardinia with a small hope. Somewhere we have to begin.

Here, below, is the text of the S’Aspru Charter that the associations “intrecci culturali”, “Comitato #fermiamolaguerra,” “Acli Sassari” and the “ Circolo Laudato Sì – Sassari”, made up of members linked to the association Mondo X Sardegna and the volunteers of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace) have drafted and signed, and will propose to the Sardinian MPs: