Against Iraq War
The Voice
Two weeks ago, over 120 Labour MPs voted against Tony Blair and war with Iraq. It was the biggest parliamentary rebellion for over 100 years. I was proud to be one of the rebels. I am against the war with Iraq because I think it would be: wrong; illegal; damaging to the world’s economy; result in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi men women and children and create instability throughout the Muslim world and the Middle East. This is a war that has been planned in Washington (to a timetable agreed in Washington months ago) to achieve the war aims of George W Bush and his advisors. George W Bush is not interested in human rights or helping the Iraqi people. On the contrary, he is interested in oil, supporting the state of Israel and enriching American business interests. He has already made it clear that the billion pound contracts for rebuilding Iraq, after the Americans have bombed it flat, will go to American firms only.
The vice president, Dick Cheney is just one of the Bush supporters who are connected to these same firms. The pre-text for bombing Iraq is that Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who is in breach of UN resolutions and who has weapons of mass destruction. It is certainly true that Saddam is cruel and brutal. But the US has had plenty of cruel and brutal allies in the past and it never used to bother them. And Saddam himself was a key ally of the Americans well into the 1980’s. The Americans even supported him in his war against Iran. And after Saddam had gassed his own Kurdish people Donald Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad to sell him arms related technology. Furthermore Saddam Hussein is not the only Middle Eastern leader in breach of UN resolutions. Israel is in breach of dozens of UN resolutions. Nobody suggests bombing them. And despite everything that has been said about Saddam and weapons of mass destruction, up until now the UN inspectors have not found any nuclear weapons and have found only traces of biological and chemical weapons. The US is guilty of gross double standards when it comes to Iraq. And it is wrong that ordinary American and British soldiers’ lives should be endangered and thousands of Iraqis killed to help American business interests. Tony Blair has been a remarkable leader of the Labour party with many achievements to his credit. But from the beginning he has insisted on giving unconditional support to George W Bush. This error of judgment may yet bring down his government. It cannot be right for Blair to send British troops to war when the British people and most of his party are opposed. This war is not in the interests of British people, black or white and I will continue to oppose it.
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