On the other hand, there is a huge democratic movement in Iraq, led by Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, based in London. He promises a secular Iraq, with equal representation between all the religious factions, recognition for the Kurds, fair and free elections. He would be the champion of the left, if the left wasn't opposed to war. But because they are, he is left with little support, although I believe the Pentagon now supports him, but when you read the newspapers, it's a case of they support him on Monday, then on Tuesday something is done to undermine him, so it's hard to see what's going on.
The point is - the Iraqi people need outside intervention or Saddam will just go on and on, and when he dies, it'll be one of the sons, who are even worse than Saddam. The Iraqi people need to be liberated. I don't know about George Bush's motives. I would think that Tony Blair's motives are honourable (and I don't mean to insult Bush here; I'm just saying I don't know). Tony Blair IS an honourable man, and not a warmonger by any stretch of the imagination. For him, this is a moral crusade. But regardless of motives, this war could achieve so much good and the way they are planning to fight it, it could happen with very little loss of life.
I think the war is going to happen now no matter what anyone says or does. In fact, it has started. US and UK aircraft have been heavily bombing anti-aircraft equipment in Iraq for days now. They have dropped millions of leaflets all over southern Iraq, asking people not to fight, and giving them instructions about how to tune their radios so they can hear the Americans speaking directly to them. The leaflets also tell Iraqi that the argets will be military installations, so they should stay away from these as far as possible.
I wish the peace movement would turn its attention to something the public really COULD have an effect on - to ensuring that Bush and Blair support the democratic movement in post-war Iraq.
Just imagine - a democratic Iraq supporting a democratically elected Palestinian leader, who Israel agrees to deal with, the two sides making concessions, reaching an agreement. Is this naive? Yes, but it is possibly within reach for the first time in the history of the Middle East. A war to liberate the Iraqi people is the first necessary step, but the second necessary step is to install a democratic regime.
I would say we need to take seriously two things that Tony Blair said yesterday. He first said, of the peace marchers in London, if there are one million of them there, that is still fewer than the number of people who have died in wars started by Saddam Hussein. And secondly, he said that, if we don't go to war, there will be victims, and thousands of them - that just because we won't see them, because they won't appear on our television screens, does not mean that the no-war option would be bloodless.
Sarah
At 1:47 PM +0000 02/16/2003, colin wrote:
I HATE the idea of this war. I HATE war.I HATE suffering. I HATE to see others suffering while the rest of us do nothing.
This is a sad time and frought with danger. And I think we are going to have to do what needs to be done.
