Dear Roger,
No one can disagree that torture is horribly wrong, but to focus on that in
Iraq right now is playing right into the pro-war groups hands - just
what they need: more ammunition to justify the “bombing to liberate campaign”.
Torture and human right’s abuses are rampant throughout the middle east
There are so many case of abuse against women and their families world wide.
For someone like who ever wrote that piece to focus on Iraq in that regard
- especially as Iraqi women were the most liberated in the Arab world before
the sanction, is not helpful to our cause, or the women, children and men
of Iraq who will be the victims of the up-coming massacre.
This person obviously has another agenda. And for your minister to help spread
it is playing into their hands.
I was in Iraq in Dec and I heard over and over, “We do not want this
war, we want to live and take care of our own affairs,” or “We do
not want another leader imposed upon us” (Meaning like S.H. was) Also,
we heard that they want the sanctions lifted, so they could get their lives
back in order. Then they would be able to take care of their own affairs and
not have to worry about not having enough to eat or if a child get sick and
not have any medicine.
Peace,
Linda
__________________________
Hi all, Hi Roger,
Those people that have that "yes, but" attitude often have rather
weak, disingenuous arguments. Since these arguments are being used a lot more
these days, I thought I'd use this occasion to organize my response. Below
is a first draft.
We have an immense debt to the Iraqis: for years our governments supported
their dictator, and we said nothing. If we do manage to stop this war - and
I still think we can, the debt will not yet have been paid in full.
Working with Iraqi-Canadians since 1999, I have been able to make a few direct
observations about their culture and politics. Iraqis are some of the most
hospitable people I know. Their politics are complicated by religious and
ethnic fractures, and many fear to speak out because of possible repercussions,
especially for their families.
From personal conversations, my sense is that most Iraqis hate and distrust
both Saddam Hussein and the United States, and that their priority is to get
rid of the sanctions.
As Canadians, there are three things we should do if we manage to stop the
war:
-call for regional disarmament
-help settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
-keep the pressure up to stop the sanctions, which have killed more than all
WMDs in history
The first point might seem odd, but UNSC 687 (the resolution that calls for
the destructions of Iraq’s WMDs as part of the ceasefire in 1991) referred
to “the threat that all weapons of mass destruction pose to peace and
security in the area and of the need to work towards the establishment in
the Middle East of a zone free of such weapons.” This, presumably because
disarming one country while further arming its neighbours can lead to instability.
But while the US and Canada have called on the Iraqi dictator to disarm, they
have simultaneously increased sales of weapons to the middle-east.
The whole region is unstable. Stopping the regional conventional arms race alone will not suffice: we must deal with Israel, and the fact that it also has WMDs - in this case, nuclear bombs. To ignore this, or the fact our governments have done little to achieve real peace, would be tragic. If we have the political power it takes to stop the war against Iraq, then we have power enough to help bring this situation closer to a peaceful resolution. A solution that is fair to both the Israeli and Palestinians would not only bring peace to the region, it would also reduce the risks of terrorism.
Last but not least, sanctions. They have had an enormous, negative impact on all aspects of life in Iraq. Besides killing over a million, they have resulted in a crippled economy with 70% unemployment. Parents are so preoccupied with keeping their children alive that they have little time to organize political resistance - a quarter of children are chronically malnourished.
To say that Iraqis can not achieve democracy by themselves, that they need to be bombed into it, reflects a widely held, racist assumption: that Arabs can’t understand or desire democracy enough to organize for it. Neo-colonial bull. By ignoring their long history, we can justify making political decisions for them, including decisions about their oil.
We must also remember that Iraqis are no political puppets - they have organized and rebelled before, though they have often been betrayed by the US (witness the Kurds, and those that tried to rebel after the first Gulf War).
Similar arguments were used to justify bombing Yugoslavia. This ignores both the fact that voters were in the process of booting out Milosevic, and that bombing slowed them down.
To help speed up the transition to democracy in Iraq, we must get rid of sanctions and allow people enough stability to organize - the opposite of what is achieved by bombing. When they have enough food and medicine, I’ll still be there to help them in any way I can, but I trust they will be able to fight for the democracy they deserve.
To dispel the notion that we activists are only against this war, I urge
you all to pay more attention to the issue of sanctions, and organize with
Iraqis.
peace- Daniel.