Opposition to Bush and Blair’s warmongering plans for Iraq is mounting. In Blair’s own Sedgefield constituency 64 per cent of people are against military action to bring about a “regime change”.
In every opinion poll carried out so far, a majority are opposed to war against Iraq. Former army chiefs, union leaders, Labour Party MPs and Church representatives have all spoken out against war.
Even in the US, 57 per cent say they would not support a war against Iraq if it involved ground troops. The former national security adviser to Bush Senior has cooled for George W Bush to halt his plans and warned of an “Armageddon in the Middle East”.
General Sir Michael Rose, commander of UN troops in Bosnia, has said the war in Iraq could be another Vietnam – where tens of thousands of Vietnamese civilians and US soldiers were killed.
Even now, 200 Iraqi children are dying every day because of sanctions imposed by the Western imperialist countries. A full-scale war would mean thousands more innocent civilian casualties.
Saddam Hussein is a vicious dictator who was brutally repressed the Iraqi people. But it’s clear that this has nothing to do with why Bush is preparing to wage war. US imperialism backed Saddam, even when he was using chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds, because he was seen to be defending Imperialism’s interests in the Middle East.
Now that he is no longer “onside” they would quite happily replace him with another dictator – so long as it is “their” dictator, prepared to do their bidding and posing no threat to US economic and strategic interests in the region.
It’s the task of the working-class and poor in Iraq to organise to overthrow Saddam, with support from workers internationally, as part of a united struggle against the capitalist profit system which is the root cause of war, poverty and environmental destruction.
On 28 September a national anti-war demonstration is being held at London. This will be an opportunity to bring together, in a show of strength, the hundreds of thousands of people who are against Bush’s war plans. And on the eve of Labour Party conference, it will send a message to Tony Blair that the anti-war movement is growing and will keep up the pressure to stop the war.
The Socialist Party’s helping to organise for the demonstration and party branches will be going to the workplaces, schools, colleges and onto the streets to build for a massive turnout. At the same time, we will be arguing that socialism offers the only real alternative to capitalism and war.
For more information about transport to the demonstration and other activities, contact Ken Smith, the Socialist Party’s delegates to the Stop the War Coalition. [email protected], or 020 8988 8778