Not since 1938 ...
has a major country threatened to go to war against an independent state for territorial gain. The implications of the actions and declarations of the United States' government since the assumption of the presidency by George W Bush are greater than those of the Mongol hordes who destroyed Baghdad in 1258. It seems that nothing has been learned in the last 700 years and our much vaunted democracy is just a veneer. Adolf Hitler, whose 12 year campaign of terror we thought impossible for anyone to surpass, is being left behind by a demagogue whose declared intention is to abandon all previous international treaties. Thus ends a century of international agreements which started with the Hague Conference of 1899 and which tried to bring world peace. The 21st century has begun with a world leader misrepresenting and distorting his country's democratic system, supported by our prime minister, who despite being an Oxford graduate, can see nothing strange in the language or the attitudes of George W Bush. Not content with breaching the UN Charter by threatening the leader of an independent state, a corrupt person for whom we hold no brief, they propose to install an illusory defence system of weapons in space which has actually been created to try and dominate the world. The speeches and actions of George W Bush since September 11, which our prime minister has fully supported, have done nothing to reduce the dangers of terrorism. Instead, whether by design or through ignorance, they have created further dissent and made more terrorists. Unless we act now to galvanise public opinion it looks as if the world will sink into a morass of anarchy, each state, pseudo democratic or totalitarian, able to pursue its own agenda including the conquest of its neighbours. The actions of Bush and Blair must be challenged and defeated or the world faces disaster.
In 2003 Iraq threatens nobody. Its people, crunched between the rock of Saddam Hussein and the hard place of the American president and Congress, are suffering intense deprivation. The United Nations has reported that since the Gulf war over half a million children have died through inadequate food, lack of medicines and insanitary conditions. Starvation, a massive refugee exodus and many deaths from insanitary conditions will almost certainly be the effect of a new war on Iraq, results which the British government has dismissed and has made no preparations to meet.
The parlous state of the Iraqi people is the result of 12 years of vicious sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, mainly at the behest of the US and British governments. During this period these two states have bombed military and civilian sites in a 'no-fly' operation which has never been sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Aid Agencies warn of impending disaster in Iraq Warnings of a disaster which would be made infinitely worse by a war have had no effect on the resolve of governments of the two states.
Their promise to adhere to the UN Charter and seek a new UN resolution can be seen to be an empty and false offer as the forces of war have already been deployed and may be impossible to withdraw. Any war on Iraq would impede the regular aid from United Nations' Agencies and voluntary agencies to families in Iraq. Even British Conservative leaders warned in a letter to the Times (30th November) that the government had not announced any plans to deal with the humanitarian effects of such a war.
In their letter Caroline Spelman and Bernard Jenkin (shadow Development and Defence ministers) reported that the Iraqi infrastructure was already very poor and that since the Gulf War only 70% of electricity supplies have been restored. They also said that the majority of the population depended on the 22 million food parcels supplied from the UN oil for food programme. Conservative questions about government plans and precautions asked during the Commons debate were ignored. Before Christmas five leading British relief agencies including Oxfam and Christian Aid appealed in a letter to the Financial Times. They warned that a new war on Iraq would cause immense suffering. The agencies also warned that an attack, if it targeted civilians, would breach Article 54 of the additional protocol of the Geneva Conventions. This prohibits attacks on "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population". The protocol adds "In no event shall actions against these objects (such as ports, roads, railways and power lines) be taken which may be expected to leave the civilian population with such inadequate food and water as to cause its starvation or its movement".
At the same time UNICEF and UNHCR (the UN organisation for refugees) warned that resources were inadequate for the relief demands expected. UNHCR has already suffered a 25% reduction in its budget for 2002. Clare Short, The Minister for Development and a member of the Cabinet has also expressed her fears of the expected war. She said "Some of these plans (for the war) will bring devastating problems to all the people of the Middle East".
Recent anti-war demonstrations around the world have given a taste of the growing resistance to war which the media has at last recognised. Helping to mobilise opinion against war in the Labour party Labour CND will have a formidable array of speakers at its 'No War on Iraq - Reclaim the Party for Peace' Conference on Saturday 1st February, in Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm They include Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Barry Camfield, TGWU, Sabah Jawad (Iraqi Democrats against War and Sanctions) Ann Black, Mark Seddon, and Betty Hunter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Further infoirmation available from Carol (LCND) 29 Stodmarsh House, Cowley Road, London SW9 6HH.

For the attention of Richard Bagley, Features Editor, Morning Star.
Jim Addington ms1938