22nd February 2002

Within the next few months a new war may be launched by America against Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein by military force and instal a puppet government taking orders from Washington to look after their interests and gain control of the oil

Our TV news bulletins will be full of pictures of US planes leaving the aircraft carriers and heading for Baghdad, foreign correspondents in flak jackets with video phones will be seen in front of burning buildings, the official spokesmen in the White House will be reporting of the humanitarian nature of the operation and intelligence briefings will be discreetly handed over to distinguished media commentators and broadcasters to "help them with their articles and programmes".

We may even be told that the International Community is supporting it when we all know that opposition worldwide is almost unanimous,

This is modern war as it is fought today by a superpower and
there are women now alive with their families in Baghdad who will be widows when the bombing starts, children who will be orphans and those casualties will be dismissed as collateral damage and their deaths will be ignored as have been the deaths of nearly half-a-million killed by the sanctions imposed by the West.

The strategy behind all this was set out very clearly by the US Department of Defence published on May 30th 2000 which explained what their policy is.

"Full Spectrum Dominance implies that US forces are able to conduct prompt, sustained and synchronized operations with combinations of forces tailored to specific situations and with access to and freedom to operate in all domains - space, sea, land, air and information.

"Additionally, given the global nature of our interests and obligations, the United States must maintain its overseas presence forces and the ability to rapidly project power world wide to achieve full spectrum dominance."

In short the USA has decided to tear up the UN Charter, scrap any international treaties it has signed, disregard the rule of law and set out to dominate the world, which is a threat to all of us and to peace itself.

What is being planned at this very moment in the White House is a war of aggression, and a threat to world peace, and we, in Britain, are expected to accept it and back the USA on the grounds that we have a 'special relationship' with America and that if the British government dared to criticize it publicly the prime minister would lose all his influence with the President.

In fact Mr Blair has virtually no influence in Washington and his real fear is that if he spoke out against the war President Bush could remove our nuclear weapons, discontinue the supply of warheads, cancel the technology links, switch off the global satellite system needed to target them, thus ending our pretence to be an independent nuclear power, which we are not.

Britain obviously does not have the power to stop the USA and neither does the European Union but we do have the power to demand that if the US behaves unilaterally they cannot rely on retaining their bases here or any political support from us.

For all these reasons the Peace Movement in this country must be ready for our biggest campaign ever and it should have one specific objective: the withdrawal of all US bases from Britain and a flat rejection of any co-operation with the Star Wars project.

This is the message which, coming through telegrams from American ambassadors all over the world back to the State Department in Washington, just might make them stop and think because however strong you are, being hated across the globe, as they would be, would be an even bigger threat to their interests.

The Bush policy of revenge bombing has been tried by Sharon, has failed and a growing number of Israelis, including many ex-officers, are now demanding a real peace solution that recognises a Palestinian state and withdraws from the occupied territories, which offers the only real hope of a lasting peace.

We should however occasionally, remind ourselves of the other America and what it stood for, as set out in a historic statement recently republished.

"The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts.... all humanity shares a common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.... no nation's security can be lastingly achieved in isolation, but only in effective cooperation with fellow nations...any nation's attempt to dictate other nations their form of government is indefensible... a nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.... faithful to the spirit that inspired the United Nations... to control and to reduce armaments... to allow all nations to devote their energies to the tasks of healing the war's wounds, of clothing and feeding and housing the needy, of perfecting a just political life, of enjoying the fruits of their own free toil".

Those were not the words of some young left-wing idealist but of General Dwight D Eisenhower, a Republican President who was in the White House nearly fifty years ago, and who knew from experience what war meant.

The American Peace movement now wants to link up with others world wide and Eisenhower has given them a lead we can follow.

22/2/02