| In an unprecedented move, the families of serving British soldiers have protested against an ongoing war... |
Labour's war on Iraq must end!
WORKERS, DEC 2004 ISSUE
On 10 November, Military Families Against the War held a silent vigil outside Number 10 Downing Street. They handed in a letter saying, "This was a contrived war, a war of option, not necessity." They denounced the "illegal invasion" and accused the government of "morally unacceptable conduct". They demanded, "Stop the war, bring the troops home." This appears to be the first time that the families of serving soldiers have protested against a war while it was still being fought.
Ever fewer support the occupation of Iraq. This is shown by the actions of several countries preparing to withdraw their troops as well as by surveys of public opinion here in Britain. The Hungarian government will withdraw its 300 troops by the end of December and the Dutch government its 1,350 soldiers by 31 March.
In Britain, an ICM poll of 28 October showed that 61% disapproved of Labour's decision to send 850 Black Watch soldiers to Baghdad in support of the US attack on Fallujah. Only 30% approved. Meanwhile, the British commander in Iraq says that another 1,300 British troops are likely to be sent to oversee the January elections. The USA is sending another 22,000. Nobody else is sending any.
World reaction
Let us stop pretending. It is Blair who is leading reaction in the world right alongside Bush. He, not Bush, has started six wars in seven years, a series that began before Bush ever got to the White House. Blair launched the 1999 attack on Yugoslavia, without UN authorisation. He, not Bush, flew the world, lying for war on Iraq. Militarily, Blair depends on Bush, but politically Bush depends just as much on Blair. The link with Britain strengthened Bush, saving him from complete isolation, and from electoral defeat.
Labour's war against Iraq (for the Labour Party could have stopped it, but didn't even try) has weakened all that Labour holds dear. The link with the USA is in danger, the EU split, NATO divided, the Labour Party eviscerated, and Parliament, the Foreign Office and the intelligence services all discredited. But worse, Labour's war has made Israel intensify its killings of Palestinians, thrown the Middle East into chaos, worsened the risks of terrorism to Britain and elsewhere, and increased the danger of endless imperialist wars.
Civilians killed
The criminal Bush/Blair attack on Iraq, a country that has never attacked the USA or Britain, has so far killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, according to the latest estimates. (See "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey", by Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi and Gilbert Burnham, www.thelancet.com) The researchers wrote: "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths."
The occupation forces caused 84% of the deaths. Air-strikes killed more than 50,000 women and children. The risk of dying a violent death in Iraq is now 58 times as high as before the invasion.
The war has caused widespread abuses, including torture. Invariably counterproductive, torture is of course illegal, under the Geneva Convention, US federal anti-torture statutes and the UN Convention Against Torture, ratified by the USA in 1994.
Yet in 2001 President Bush secretly ruled, "I...determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world." When Blair was asked if he agreed with the White House lawyer (now the new Attorney-General) who said that the Geneva Conventions were "quaint", Blair replied, "Of course not. Neither do the Americans." Typically, Blair denies the evidence just given to him.
Rush hour vigil at the Concert Hall steps, Glasgow city centre. A vigil is held there every night at 5 pm to demand British troops be brought back from Iraq.
Abu Ghraib
This contempt for law resulted directly in systematic abuse, torture and murders in US-run prisons. Abu Ghraib was unusual only because it became notorious. The US state organises torture tourism: it kidnaps suspects then takes them to Egypt or the secret CIA prisons in Pakistan, Thailand, Singapore, etc, for intensive torture.
On 16 September 2004, Annan stated that the war on Iraq was illegal. Recent UN Resolutions have not endorsed the war as legal. The illegal invasion has now become an illegal belligerent occupation. The US occupation government in Iraq and its puppet have kept Saddam's labour laws, banning some trade unions and forbidding all strikes. In June 2003, US troops stormed the offices of the Iraqi Workers' Federation of Trade Unions and arrested its leaders. A senior Foreign Office man described the US's occupation policy as "a catastrophe from beginning to end".
Lessons from Israel
Ex-Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak told Vice-President Cheney late last year that the USA had lost in Iraq. He said that Israel "had learned that there's no way to win an occupation". The only issue was "choosing the size of your humiliation". The Israeli government has also concluded that the occupation cannot bring stability or democracy to Iraq. Yet now, with British support, US troops bull-doze Iraqi homes in Falluja in a terrible imitation of Israeli bulldozers in Gaza.
But Bush and Blair do not intend to withdraw the troops after the much trumpeted but now indefensible January election, any more than they handed over sovereignty last June.
They say they will keep troops there till the end of 2005, but it will be longer than that, if we let them. The US is building twelve military bases in occupied Iraq because it wants permanent control of Iraq's pipelines and oil.
Oilfields
The US government ensured that it, not the UN, seized control of Iraq's oilfields, so that it could privatise them. With the oilfields privatised, Iraq would have to leave OPEC, which requires its members to regulate oil output and export.
This would weaken OPEC's ability to regulate oil prices, undermining the economies of the Middle East's countries. No state invades and occupies another country for ideals, only for material realities; in this case, it's the oil.
So what happens after the fighting is done (if it ever reaches a point where a sane person can say it is done)? What legacy do America and Britain leave the Iraqi workers? A country shattered, a non-existent infrastructure, in hock to the very countries that caused this wasteland.
The words of Tacitus (circa 55-120 ad) neatly sum up the actions of the Americans and British, "They create desolation and call it peace."
Who will help? Not those who created the desolation. Not the Saudis whose oil rich economy is deep within the pockets of America. Not Kuwait and not Iran already staring down the barrel of George W's Bush rangers. The silence of countries like Syria and Jordan is deafening.
Only Iraqi workers can rebuild their country, and they will and do it in their own way. No one can tell them how to achieve this.
