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Let There Be No Doubt |
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by Luciana Bohne (via Rev Dave)
Email: DarkMatter (nospam) Hypocrisy.org (verified) |
23 Mar 2003
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"Iraqi parents have no good news to tell their children. Their attitude is: if you don't talk about your fear, we won't talk about ours," said Norwegian psychologist Magne Raundalen, who has interviewed 91 12-year-old Iraqi children in schools in Baghdad, Kerbala, and Basra. |
March 19, 2003—A five-thousand-year old civilization, located in the valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, hallowed by the reverence of history, is about to be destroyed by a 200-year-old technologically superior and morally challenged tribe, high on steroidal missiles and bombs, coveting world domination and empire.
Civilian Iraq is defenseless, and this war will be murder.
Let there be no doubt: this is an act of unprovoked barbarism that will be recorded in blood and will be on this nation's hands. Instead of pledging allegiance to the flag, we should teach our children to pledge allegiance to justice, reason, and compassion. Americans wonder why our principles are no longer respected in the world. It's because we have allowed these principles to become empty of meaning and commitment, a piece of cloth, a fetish—a remnant of the whole. A citizenry observant of the nation's values will honor the flag with actions and not with hypocritical gestures of shallow and meaningless worship.
Let there be no doubt: this war will violate the sovereignty of a state and will reverse the progress of the modern age, poised for 300 years on the hope of preventing war. The treaty of Westphalia enshrined the concept of the inviolability of national boundaries in the modern political landscape. By violating the integrity of the Iraqi state, we take a step back into the logic of feudalism, where war, indeed, was the order of the day because the idea of international law was not entrenched.
Let there be no doubt: what is now called preemptive war is a swift attack, followed by invasion, carnage, and enforced submission. Regardless of the sanctimonious bleatings of the ridiculous camp follower, Tony Blair, the undignified tantrum fits of the unfit-to-rule George Bush, and the pitiful, ceremonial peace rites at the UN, an organization bending and turning like a tin weather vane in the US-fomented tempest winds of bribes, blackmail, lies, plagiarized and forged documents, and intelligence scandals, the war about to be waged will have no moral ground on which to stand and will be recorded as an act of aggression by the United States against a people starved by genocidal sanctions and a previous war; a United States whose bombardments in volume and frequency have no precedent in history.
Let there be no doubt: when the first bomb falls on Iraq, the world will shrink away from us, in shock but not in awe. United Nations inspectors have found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Colin Powell's irresponsible claim (among so many in his February reports to the UN) that Niger supplied nuclear equipment to Iraq was based on forged documents, now being investigated by the FBI. Bombing Iraq will make the United States a rogue state, the shredder of the UN Charter and the assassin of children who comprise 50 percent of the Iraqi population. Is this the American concept of bestowing democracy? Will we be surprised if the world retreats from us in horror as from a leper, whose infection is reviled.
Let there be no doubt: "There is no alliance of the willing, only ultimately an alliance of countries which want to be on the winning side of the war." So spoke Hans von Sponeck, former UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq, who resigned in order not to participate in the genocide of Iraq, caused by the sanctions. Sanctions are a measure intended to avoid war, but the US imposed sanctions, then war, and now another war. Let us remember that the Geneva Conventions prohibit withdrawing from a population the means that guarantee their survival.
Oil means food in Iraq, and medicines and replacement parts for vital infrastructure. Now, under the oil-for-food program, 50 percent of the oil money goes to pay reparations to Kuwait and provide the salaries of UN officials, inspectors, and the rest of the humanitarian force. Let us also remember that the Geneva Conventions prohibit collective punishment. Even if we believe that Saddam Hussein is a monster, how do we justify punishing his people for the crimes of one man, their victimizer? No wonder no one is with us!
Let there be no doubt: this is a war callous in the extreme. It will enrich the US energy and weapons industries. Exxon has the sole concession for fueling the US army; Halliburton will fix the oil infrastructure; Kellogg, Brown and Root (owned by Halliburton) will build American bases. The contracts are in their pockets. What does this have to do with the avowed reasons for which our soldiers are going to war, misled by the greed of corporate old men?
Let there be no doubt: the responsibility of citizens of the United States is inscribed in the record of the Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal. This responsibility is clear: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience . . . Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring" (1950).
Luciana Bohne teaches film and literature at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at lbohne (at) edinboro.edu. |
See also:
http://www.saintstupid.com
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