The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Alan Bates states “In certain circumstances, it is inevitable that
people will suffer in order for a necessary end to be pursued. If
you don't believe that then you would have to condemn the allies in World
War II, when many German and Japanese civilians lost their lives because
there was no other way to halt Hitler's fascist army.”
How can Mr Bates pretend to be part of the movement against sanctions
when he trots out the same totally false arguments which the US and UK
governments use to justify their actions against Iraq? The “allies” deserve
to be condemned for their decision to slam the door in the face of Europe’s
Jews, for their carpet-bombing of working-class neighbourhoods of German
cities, for the fire-bombing of Tokyo and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
All of this had nothing whatsoever to do with “stopping fascism” (if that
was their concern, why did they connive at fascism’s victory in the Spanish
civil war?) and everything to do with Britain’s aim of securing its empire
and America’s aim of securing its century.
Mr Bates’ comment is actually full of irony: the civilian bombing of
German cities (which prolonged the war but prevented revolution) was carried
out by Bomber Harris working directly under Churchill’s War Cabinet. If
Goering first practised blitzkrieg against the Basque people during the
Spanish civil war (immortalised in Picasso’s Guernica), then Harris first
devised his civilian bombing strategy in the 1920s in Iraqi Kurdistan,
when he was also working directly under Winston Churchill (then Minister
of State for the Crown and Colonies). Unfortunately, there was no famous
painter around to depict the screams of mutilated and poison-gassed children.
There is a straight line connecting the 1920-22 bombing of Iraqi Kurds;
the massacre of women, children and old people in German cities (the men
were at the front) during WW2; and the systematic destruction of Iraq’s
civilian infrastructure during the 1991 slaughter. [I have surveyed and
mapped this straight line in an article I wrote after the 1991 war, which
I will send to anyone at their request].
Finally, please let me state my opposition to “direct action”/ individual
acts of heroism and sacrifice, a la Andrea Needham’s paint job in Whitehall.
My opposition is purely tactical. There are no short cuts. Such actions
lead the most self-sacrificing and militant defenders of the Iraqi people
away from the course of mobilising masses of people in peaceful and
disciplined protest. They are dangerous to our campaign: giving the state
a pretext to attack us, to criminalise us, to immunise the undecided against
us.
I hope that all participants in CASI’s wonderfully impressive discussion
forum will work for and be at the April 17 National Demonstration (“Stop
Bombing Iraq!” “Lift the Sanctions!”). Sheffield Campaign Against War in
the Gulf was one of the organisations which met a few weeks ago in Birmingham
and issued the call for this demonstration. We also decided at that meeting
that in order to protect the security and peaceful character of the protest
there would be no place on this march for any unlawful or “direct” actions.
Greetings to all CASI members and supporters from Sheffield!