] The 'Silent Democracies' > >Published on Wednesday, August 2, 2000 in the Manchester Guardian (UK) >Time To See The Truth About Ourselves And Iraq >by Denis J Halliday > >Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible >for genocide in Iraq. Saddam Hussein certainly gave Bush and Thatcher a >gift when he invaded Kuwait in 1990. He facilitated the opening of the >much-needed respectability of a UN umbrella for a US-led alliance to >destroy Iraq. > >Why? Because despite the costly debacle of the war with Iran, Saddam >Hussein remained the only Arab head of state capable of providing Arab >leadership and resistance to neo-colonial US/UK and western domination >of the Middle East, and its oil. > >The war was always about controlling oil supplies, and never really >about Kuwait. But Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in breach of >international law, provided the opportunity for showing American >military muscle, damaged by the Vietnam defeat; for experimentation with >depleted uranium; and for the destruction of Iraq, combined with >impoverishment of the rich Arab world. > >All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible for >sustained genocide in Iraq. Today the prime minister, Tony Blair, is on >the defensive on a range of largely domestic issues. He does not appear >to be on the defensive over genocide. His unending endorsement of the >Clinton/Albright programme for killing the children of Iraq is seldom >mentioned. >Have decision-makers learned nothing from the Pinochet humiliation? Or >do they still feel immune under international law for crimes against >humanity? > >What does that say about us all? Does it say that, after 10 long >decimating years of the UN economic embargo on the people of Iraq, we >simply do not care? We do not care when Unicef reports that 5,000 >children under five years old die each month unnecessarily from >embargo-related deprivation. And Unicef does not count the teenagers, >the adults and the aged that die. > >Do we not care that the UN allies, in breach of Geneva conventions, >destroyed the lives of civilians through direct bombing and destruction >of electric power capabilities, clean water systems, sanitation and >health care? > >Do we not care that Iraqi society, culture and learning, rooted in the >cities of Mesopotamia, is dying alongside its people? Are we really that >racist? Are we really that anti-Islamic? Could Britain stand by and >watch the same holocaust within a white Christian state? > >What can be done? Why not set aside US propaganda and demonisation and >do a Nixon to China, or a Clinton-Putin outreach to Pyongyang - ie, >communicate. Begin to understand what is happening in Iraq, and begin >perhaps to influence change and better relations within the Middle East. > >Why not address the concerns of the Kuwaiti and Saudi leadership, who >fear a resurgence of Iraqi regional ambition, by encouraging their >political collaboration with Baghdad? At the same time ease fears >through control of purchasing by, and sales to, Iraq of offensive >weapons of mass or other forms of destruction. > >Demand the removal of weapons of mass destruction from the region, >including Israel, as in the US-drafted paragraph 14 of UN Resolution >687. > >Critically, end the economic embargo and allow the Iraqi economy to >resurface. End malnutrition and high child mortality rates. Get people >back to work. Re-establish the dinar and its purchasing power. Repair >the power, water and urban sewage systems. Rebuild agricultural >production, health care and education. > >End the killing now. Remove any excuse that Baghdad has today for the >ongoing catastrophe. End human rights abuses by the UN via the embargo. >Demand an end to civil and political rights abuses by Baghdad. > >Acknowledge we have reduced the Iraqis to refugees in their own country, >being fed inadequately despite use of their own oil revenues. > >Let us not be blinded by wasteful expenditures on palaces or luxury >cars. Should we expect a higher standard in Iraq when the UK spends >millions of pounds on a dome while British people are homeless and >hungry? > >Let us be honest. We do not care for democracy in the Middle East as >much too threatening to that oil cow Saudi Arabia and its offspring >Kuwait. Admit the US/UK governments want country stability so that they >can invest profitably and be sure of oil but regional instability so >that demand for arms manufacturing and sales is sustained. > >Let us invest in people and peaceful coexistence in the world, including >the Middle East. Let's rally around the world as the one small >threatened unit it is today, just as the Iraqis have rallied around >Saddam Hussein under western attack. > >Let us recognise the calamity of the US/UK- driven UN economic embargo >on Iraq. Calamitous not only for Iraq and its people, but for us all, >including the very survival of the UN itself as a credible instrument >for peace and security. > >Let us take some risks. Let us even remain ultimately self-serving and >yet visionary - by responding to such global crises as Africa, global >poverty, HIV-Aids, the environment, globalisation ills - the things that >really matter, while allowing the children of Iraq to live. > >Denis J Halliday, a visiting professor at Swarthmore college in >Pennsylvania, is a former UN assistant secretary general and UN >humanitarian coordinator in Iraq 1997-98 >� Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000 > > > > > > > > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------<e|- >Explore the popular High-End Room - >Go To Where The Smart People Shop-uBid.com >http://click.egroups.com/1/6141/9/_/101335/_/965244406/ >--------------------------------------------------------------------|e>- ------------------------------------------------------------ ((((( Nettaxi.com in the News ))))) http://www.nettaxi.com/company/press/latest.html �j�e��kz�.�Ǭ��i�� nȭzX�z�ޝ���(�� m� N�!jx ʋ���b�{(��칻 �&ނ�h��i��b��0��+!r���������+-�w���ڲb�
