Jim Harding11 maart 2008 – 14:57

It is 5 years since the U.S. and U.K. governments manipulated public opinion in the aftermath of 9/11 to cloak their invasion and occupation of oil-rich Iraq. This remains an assault on emerging international law, the potential of the U.N., existing and emerging democracies and the global movement to end war of aggression.

That the mainstream media failed to expose the truths about this war and the "war on terror" showed the vulnerability of democratic institutions and the threat of "geo-fascism" in the face of renewed imperial power. That opposition to this war and propaganda continued to build is testimony to the power of the popular movements in renewing and deepening democracy.

The war has not gone well for the invaders. It has compounded death, suffering and patriarchal violence for millions of Iraqis already in shock from the previous war and inhuman UN sanctions. "Humanitarianism" and pronouncements about exporting democracy have been exposed as self-justifying delusion.

In greater crisis since this war, the imperial homeland still seems more interested in salvaging the American Dream than in confronting the wounds its military-industrial imperial system has brought to the Middle East. While the U.S. obsesses with the intricaces and personalities of its Presidential primaries, vicious counter-insurgency practices continue to be waged on the Iraqi people. Yet the revulsion against this war may yet shape the next White House.

Caught in its complicity in imperial politics and engaged in joint U.S. military action in Afghanistan, my country, Canada, is becoming the U.S.'s newest major source of oil and uranium for fuelling its military-industrial system. We must resist our branch-plant status.

Yet few really believe in the imperial lies. The power of the Bush and Blair governments has been exposed and their allies continue to fall at the polls. The popular movements that kept some countries, including Turkey and my own, from joining the invasion can also help bring fundamental political change to prevent future wars.

It is vital that we don't forget the serious crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated. Or that this illegal war breached the UN Charter and has destabilized a whole region. Or that this U.S.-led aggression has triggered a new arms race.

Without global opposition things could have gotten worse. The general outrage at the invasion and propaganda helped stop the imperial forces from waging general war on Iran. The vital work of the WTI gave voice to global opposition to the war. Perhaps it has helped seed a new ethical, intellectual, political and legal basis for a post-imperial world.

Let us acknowledge and celebrate the value of deepening democracy, intellectual honesty and resistance to aggression; and continue on with this historic work.

Jim Harding
Ph.D. - retired Professor of Human Justice (Regina, Canada), and author of After Iraq: War, Imperialism and Democracy (2004) and Canada's Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System (2007)

Bericht aan de Bevolking is een initiatief van Het beschrijf, in samenwerking met het B/Russell/s Tribunal. Een aantal auteurs van deze teksten treedt ook aan op de Literaire Wake n.a.v. 5 jaar oorlog in Irak, op woensdag 19 maart van 20 u. tot 24 u. in Literatuurhuis Passa Porta, A. Dansaertstraat 46, 1000 Brussel. Zie www.passaporta.be

Link naar het overzicht