The first thing we should all remember is that this war was never inevitable, that this is a manufactured crisis, started by a small self proclaimed elite for reasons far different from those we’re told this war is fought for.
This really is the key to understanding the mess we’re in. The people responsible for this know full well that Iraq was not a threat to the US, that there is no link between Saddam and Al Quada, that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction were largely non-existent by now.
The people responsible for this war certainly don’t care for the Great Liberal Dream of Liberating Iraq. Read your history. Every involvement of the US and the UK with Iraq has been to the detriment of the people of Iraq. There’s no democracy in Iraq because every time it looked like breaking out, either the UK or the US made sure to put it down. The UK did so by starting the tradition of gassing the Iraqi people in the early 1920tiers, while in 1963 the US thought it was really neat to help an obscure political party into power, a small obscure party called Ba’ath. To make sure it stayed in power, the CIA helpfully supplied the names of thousands of communists, socialists and supporters of the previous president Kassem –actually the only Iraqi leader to have come into power without outside help. Incidently, this coup also started Saddam Hussein on his road to power. Way to go.
But if its our mess, shouldn’t we clean it up now, by overthrowing Saddam and making Iraq a democracy? Shouldn’t we support Bush and co in their efforts now to do so, even if this war started under false pretences?
If you believe this, answer me this: why should we trust them to do this? What makes you think Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and even Blair care about the Iraqi people? These are the same people who had no problem supporting Saddam when it was convenient, who had no problem letting their armies kill thousands of Iraqi civilians during the first Gulf War, no problem with installing murderous sanctions against them, letting them continue long past the point where it was clear they were only hurting the Iraqi population, not Saddam, who had no problem with Saddam “gassing his own people”, or even with selling him the same weapons of mass destruction they’re now agonising about.
There’s a lack of historical perspective, a boundless naivity in believing anything good can come from this war I’ve seen in far too many people, both those in favour and those opposed to this war, to which this post is a response. Because of the history the UK and the US have with Iraq, because of the personal history of the principals involved, nothing good will come of this. That’s why even now, especially now you should protest against this war, demand an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of the troops from Iraq. That way we can still limit the damage that’s being done, the loss of lives.
Don’t let anybody tell you that protests are now useless, because the war has started and we failed to prevent it. That’s as silly as saying that because we failed to prevent the passage of the USA PATRIOT laws, we should now stop protesting it. Of course we don’t.
We need to stay visible, to let the government[s] know this war is still opposed, that we reject what they’re doing, to show others that they’re not alone, there is in fact a large number of people who did not get swept up in the war fever.
We need to make it as difficult, as costly as possible for Bush and Blair to continue this war, we need to fight them every step of the way, or we will be waging war against Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, China and France next.