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CounterPunch
December
31, 2002
Collective
Punishment of Iraq & Palestine
Bush's War is Obscene and Unjustifiable
by DENIS J. HALLIDAY
(This is the text of Halliday's remarks
at the Cairo Conference Against US Aggression against Iraq on
December 19.)
This is a most knowledgeable assembly on matters
relating to Iraq and Palestine. I am following a number of excellent
speakers. And the content of my usual talk on the ongoing crisis
in Iraq, and the threat of a greater war than the one ongoing,
is now somewhat redundant. My views have been expressed more
articulately than I normally express them myself! So I plan
to raise three questions about the United Nations Charter, democratic
responsibilities and the nuclear deterrent related to the crisis
we all facing in the Arab world as we meet here in Cairo.
But first a word about what is happening
around us today:
We have a UN Security Council out of
control. A Council corrupted by the USA, the sole hyper-power
and undermined by the veto power of the five permanent members.
We have twelve years of genocidal sanctions sustained on the
people of Iraq by the same Council. The ambassadors around that
table and their heads of state should all be indicted for crimes
against humanity.
We have ongoing collective punishment
of the Iraqi people, similar to the collective punishment of
the Palestinians in the occupied territories. These two situations
are in blatant breach of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols
written to protect civilians in time of warfare. What is happening
in Palestine and in Iraq under sanctions is warfare. Sanctions
are intended to target civilians the innocent so that the people
will somehow revolt and overthrow a regime, the decision makers
that the UN wants to punish. In the case of Iraq, as we all
know, the sanctions of twelve years are built on US war crimes
leading to extensive civilian infrastructure damage committed
during the Gulf War when the UN provided cover for the American
military.
We have illegal bombing of most of Iraq
by the US and Britain. There is no UN Resolution to support
this aggression undertaken in blatant neglect of Iraqi sovereignty.
And we have UN Resolution 1441 about Weapons of Mass Destruction
- no it's really about oil, and US control thereof. It is a
game, a charade, a form of theatre. It's about war on Iraq,
about oil and about providing UN respectability for Bush to
have his unilateral war. Weapons of mass destruction? There
is no threat to the neighbours of Iraq, nor to the US. That
is Washington fiction, propaganda designed to frighten the American
people into supporting the ambitions of Bush for control of
oil, and empire. Incredibly in the 21st Century we have a neo-colonial
regime arising in the West. We see a colonial regime that wants
to dominate and control the Arab world, Iraqi oil and to enhance
the size and power of Israel. the mislocated American aircraft
carrier in a sea of Arab peoples.
Colin Powell the Secretary of State has
produced unrivaled arrogance and audacity in proposing to invest
$29 million to convince the Arab people that the USA is not
dangerous. But he has refused to address the two issues that
really count most to the people of the region Israeli state
terrorism on the people of Palestine and the threat of US war
on Iraq. How naive and cheap when the Pentagon has $400 billion
plus to demonstrate just how dangerous the US can be!
All this is backed up by a US media that
often is obscene in its almost nightly TV dialogue on how Iraq
will be hit, bombed by high flying American "heroes",
invaded by US troops and then occupied all to ensure a friendly
American-model democracy ludicrous although that is to protect
US interests in cheap oil freely available as per the dependency
requirements of the US economy.
Meantime in Britain, we see Blair considering
acceptance of one of the legs of the "Star Wars" project
in the UK, as pushed by Bush. Is this an advance in "poodle-isation"?
Acceptance would be consistent with the gutless leadership
we have in the rest of Europe including my own country of Ireland.
Knowing that Bush is a dangerous born again messianic, they
nevertheless lack the courage to oppose his ambitions for war
and empire in the Middle-East.
They are unwilling to stop polices that
call for an end to sovereignty, the destruction of cultures,
the rejection of values and disrespect for the religious beliefs
of others. These are violent polices that create the kind of
desperation that leads to terror and more violence. When we
should all Arab governments included be investing in people,
not weapons. We should be tackling poverty, debt-relief, health
care needs, education and modern technology and investing in
the future of our children.
Mr. Chairman my first question to this
assembly:
The UN Charter binds all member states
to implement resolutions taken under Chapter VII, Articles 41
(sanctions) and 42 (war). I want to share the view that this
is not so when the impact of any such Resolutions are themselves
incompatible with the content of Articles 1. (Purposes) and
2. (Principles). Article <1.talks> inter alia of the
purposes of the UN to maintain international peace and security
and to bring that about by peaceful means and in conformity
with the principles of justice and international law. Whereas
Article 2. indicates that the Organisation is based on the principle
of the sovereign equality of all its members; that all members
shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means
in such a manner that international peace and security, and
justice, are not endangered; and that all members shall refrain
in their international relations from the threat or use of force
against the territorial integrity or political independence
of any state ....inconsistent with the Purposes of the United
Nations.
May I enquire is there any doubt that
the twelve years of UN deadly sanctions on the people of Iraq
are incompatible with these Charter provisions? I do not think
so and therefore, why should member states be bound and become
party to genocide?
Mr. Chairman question number two concerns
the responsibilities of citizens of democracies, particularly
with respect to the consequences of a foreign policy of the
government they have elected and entrusted with power.
The USA and UK currently collectively
punish no, they kill the children and adults of Iraq because
(they tell us) of the bad decisions made by Baghdad about a
decade ago Kuwait, weapons of mass destruction; or is it just
fear of Iraqi's potential regional leadership? Whatever! these
children and adults are effectively being held responsible,
being punished and murdered for decisions made by their government
in Baghdad. How is it that we who enjoy democracy, and accept
its obligations, in Europe, North America or elsewhere and are
represented on the Security Council, or allow our country to
be bound by resolutions relating to Iraq, are not equally punished
for the genocidal impact of those same resolutions on the innocent
civilians of Iraq? Are we not responsible for the impact of
foreign policy decisions made by the men and women we elected?
I believe we are.
Mr. Chairman question three relates to
the concept of nuclear deterrent - the same deterrent many of
us did not accept, or were opposed to in the days of the USSR/USA
cold war. Today in a world of one hyper-power, the deterrent
concept seems to be in play and protection appears to be provided
to countries such as North Korea, Pakistan, Israel and others
with, or with near potential to have, nuclear weapons.
Let us ask ourselves, if Iraq was genuinely
in possession of nuclear weapons capacity would there be a murderous
embargo in place? Would there be US bombing of two fictitious
no-fly zones? Would we have Bush threatening, in fact preparing
for war on Iraq, including the use of tactical nuclear strikes?
Makes for uncomfortable thoughts, but
I leave the answer to you assembled here for this Cairo conference.
Mr. Chairman, as Ramsey Clarke said "Bush
is obsessed with war". In the UK, the majority are opposed
to war. And this is true of most if not all of Europe, but European
leaders and other allies of the USA have no courage. The Arab
leaders are no better and instead of following the thinking
of their own people, they are collaborating with the US against
their Arab neighbours in Iraq. That active collaboration must
end. And even in my own small country of Ireland, the government
has allowed Bush to use Irish air space and Shannon airport,
whereas the majority of Irish people are opposed to war. That
is also collaboration. And many millions around the world are
opposed to war war that is unilateral, or under UN auspices
is seen to unjustified, incompatible with international law
and thus hugely unacceptable.
Sadly, we have to live with the failure
of democracy, the racism, the prejudice and demonization of
foreign leadership. We are learning to live with a failed UN
that tolerates corruption of the Security Council, genocide
and war crimes in its own name. We know about double standards
and vested self-interest of permanent and other member states
on the Council. We watch the rejection of the rule of international
law. We are learning to fear the consequences of the "pre-emptive
strike" and even more recently a CIA licensed to kill...although
it would seem, in light of modern history, this was always so!
We have the state terrorism of Israel
in the illegally occupied territories of Palestine. The people
of Iraq feel the terror tactics of the USA everyday via sanctions
and bombing. The war threatened by the Bush regime is obscene,
unjustified, and those responsible will be indictable.
People like us here in Cairo and throughout
the Region, civil society primarily, and those in Europe, in
the USA and around the world must stand shoulder to shoulder
to channel our anger, our outrage at Bush and his Washington
regime into a means to stop war on Iraq, further catastrophe
for the Region and further killing of the innocent.
Denis J. Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN
Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq 1997-98.
Yesterday's
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Vijay Prashad
The Jihad International, Kashmir
and Secularization
Salim Rashid
Pat Robertson's
Evangelical Propaganda
Kurt Nimmo
The FBI Monekywrench Alert
Anthony Gancarski
Clinton
Boisvert: Sorry with a Capital S
Tom Stephens
A Meditation on the Nature of Evil
Mitchel Cohen
What We
Say Goes: How Bush Sold the Bombing of Iraq
Leah Harris
It's the Occupation, Stupid!
Annie C. Higgins
Occupying
Time: Israeli Soldiers and Palestinian Youths
Abu Spinoza
War Crimes: Us and Them
Linda Belanger
Words Hurt, But Tanks Kill
Adam Engel
Call Me Johnson
Richard Procter
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