The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, February 19th, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request.
****************************** Editorial - Howard's arrogance knows no limit "I will not be moved" declared John Howard and Alexander Downer in response to the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world over the weekend. "My charge as Prime Minister is to make whatever decisions are in the interest of this country", he said. At the same time he rails about Saddam Hussein being a dictator! Howard's arrogance knows no limit. He will not be moved by the reports of the weapons inspectors, who, after three months in Iraq have found not a skerrick of evidence that Iraq possesses any weapons of mass destruction. Hans Blix stated last week, in connection with the search for biological and chemical weapons, "The results to date have been consistent with Iraq's declaration". Howard will not be moved by the opposition to war coming from the governments representing the majority of the people of the world. He will not be moved by the fact that the world's people simply do not believe the succession of lies coming from Tony Blair, Colin Powell, George Bush and himself in an attempt to whip up support for war. Howard and his warmongering mates are lying. It is as simple as that. And more and more people see through their lies. Their war plans have nothing to do with Saddam Hussein's record (Is he the only one with a dirty record?). It has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. It has nothing to do with the allegation that Iraq could provide terrorist groups with weapons of mass destruction. Blair has now attempted to push the moral button, alluding to the numbers killed in Iraqi wars. But, we are supposed to believe it is OK if the US, Britain and Australia kill an equal number to achieve their ends. These arguments are merely diversions to cover up the truth. The warmongers never have and never will tell the truth. The US war drive is motivated by the dire need of the US corporations to control the oil resources of the whole of the Middle East and, thereby, control the economic and political life of all other countries. It is about US world hegemony and Howard is totally in support of that. He hopes that Australian corporations will reap some of the benefits from the re-imposition of colonial regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere. There is another unspoken compelling reason. It is that the steady strengthening of the euro is now challenging the domination of the US dollar in world trade, particularly oil. Not only have the main powers of Europe, with the exception of Britain, adopted the euro but more and more countries are converting dollars into euro. One analyst wrote recently that, "Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late 2000 (and later converted his US $10 billion reserve fund at the UN to euros) - at that point, another manufactured Gulf War became inevitable under Bush II." (Rechnagel, Charles, "Iraq: Baghdad Moves to Euro" November 1, 2000. http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp) Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and other countries are also buying up euros. This helps to explain the line-up that is taking place in the United Nations Security Council. It also helps to explain the single-minded and bloody-minded determination of the US and its very few allies to launch a war against Iraq. The fact that some of the biggest demonstrations over the weekend took place in those countries (Spain, Italy, the US, Britain and Australia) whose governments support the war option, is very significant and heartening. But the determination of Bush, Howard, Blair and a few other governments to go ahead with war raises the necessity to go further now. The demonstrations against the war are extremely significant but it is going to be necessary to rapidly remove those governments or the leaders of those governments that support this diabolical US war before it is too late. As one placard read: "If Johnny comes marching home, he will come with blood on his hands". Yes, the blood of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children and perhaps the blood of Australian servicemen. Throw him out! **************************************************************************** -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
