pressure on Anti-War movement

Thursday February 20, 2003 12:10

by depp

The onus should remain on the war mongers to defend their war, those of us who protest should not let ourselves be sidetracked into a defensive position.

Sorry, Blair, Ahern etc. – why are we going to attack Iraq?
1. “WMD”? (no proof, no threat)
2. “Links to terrorists”? (don’t we all?)

Most people acept that 1 & 2 are exaggerated attempts to fool us into the war.

3. “To bring democracy” (I’d love it myself)

There’s no such thing as a Democracy Bomb. Democracy has to grow from the people upwards.

Now, the war mongers’ latest focus is on human rights;
4. “Because Saddam Hussein is an evil monster who kills his own people”.

There have been many articles/commentaries this week that put pressure on the Anti-War side, accusing us of siding with Saddam Hussein.

Those who say we must get rid of Saddam Hussein because he is brutal should be asked why don’t we get rid of all murderous world leaders, and all sham democracies?
Many of the Anti-war protesters are more anti-US (foreign policy) than pro Iraqi. That is ok. There is no need for shame re this. We see what the US wants to do worldwide, our eyes are not just on Iraq. The Iraqis deserve help, but so do many other nations’ people. Relying on the outside world to come and save you NEVER works properly. Ultimately, it is up to the Iraqi people to free themselves, and this they will no doubt achieve. Currently, we are killing them with sanctions – to stop the sanctions is the best way to immediately help Iraq. Send in UN peacekeepers, etc.
But no bombing, no invasion, no US military junta in power.
The UN should be about keeping peace not making war!

We cannot exclusively say Saddam is a tyrant, and not include other dictators (western friends). The hypocrisy is massive. If the UN wants to create some policy whereby it does not recognise any leader who has not been freely elected then that policy should be applied equally to ALL of those leaders. (How about royalty for example?) It is insane, unfair, immoral to select one leader and focus on him.

The main thrust of the Anti-War movement is not about the freedom of the Iraqi people. It is about stopping the US imperialists.
Remember, these US imperialists have a LONG TERM plan. They don’t need Iraqi oil now, but they might like it in 25 years. They want control over it now though.

The onus should remain on the war mongers to defend their war, those of us who protest should not let ourselves be sidetracked into a defensive position. We are killing no-one. We want no-one dead. We want peace. That’s what peace is – lack of death! We CANNOT let ourselves be accused in this way.

To summarise – when accused of letting Iraqis die I say

1) stop the sanctions
2) supply the Iraqi people with their needs directly, and protect this supply by UN peacekeepers if necessary.
3) There are many many other peoples of the world that need help too.