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Dear Colin and list, it isn't Iraq who started this fire, so they have every right to defend themselves. US and UK are already talking about the "post-war" period, while the brave Iraqi people are defending their country. And you are thinking in the same logic. Now is the time to support the Iraqi people in their resistance. The only way to create solid peace is to acknowledge the right of self-determination for Iraq. Dear Colin, did you read the news today? "WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US army said it gave the main Iraqi oilwell firefighting contract to a unit of Halliburton Co., a firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, without any bidding." This is just an example of the kind of news we read lately. That is the kind of Iraq we are going to face if we don't resist the imperial and colonial plans of Bush & Blair. Now is the time for the peace-movement to increase its efforts to try and stop this unilateral madness of Bush and Blair. Foreign troops out of Iraq!! Here's the statement of the Belgian Workers Party Belgium. Yours in struggle for peace. Dirk Adriaensens. www.irak.be Statement of the WPB: Resistance, alongside the Iraqi people! Nadine Rosa-Rosso, Secretary-General of the Workers' Party of Belgium 18-03-2003 Resistance, alongside the Iraqi People ! At 2 a.m. on Tuesday 18 March 2003, Bush declared war. Exile or war? So it is to be war. The only bit of new news is that any Iraqi obeying instructions to resist will be treated as a war criminal. From that minute on, we have all become resistants. The American administration has cold-bloodedly called the operation "Shock and Awe". A deluge of bombs is on its way to Baghdad. While 130 countries are meeting to consider how we are at last going to supply drinking water to 1.4 billion inhabitants of this earth, the American administration and its two European puppets have decided to spend 24 billion dollars a month for the total destruction of an entire country, an entire people. The UN has predicted that this war will result in five hundred thousand civilian victims, two million homeless, ten million people suffering from malnutrition and eighteen deprived of drinking water. A Declaration of War to the Entire Planet This war declared on the Iraqi people is a declaration of war on all peoples and all nations who dare speak out to demand a world order based on social justice, basic needs of the people, mutual respect and peace. The war declared on the Iraqi people, on the Iraqi nation, is a war declared on the entire planet. This is the New World Order in action. A whole nation is forced day after day to destroy its meager supply of modern weapons. And when it no longer possesses any for its defence, the greatest military arsenal in history, with an unprecedented fire-power and technology, rains down on it for a war of total destruction. An opportunity to experiment American technology's latest feat, the MOAB bomb, a conventional bomb which has the same blast effect as a small nuclear bomb. The only possible assessment of the past months is that the United States is not waging war to disarm Iraq, it has disarmed Iraq in order to begin its war. If only for that, it has already gone much further than Hitler. Never lacking in cynicism, the Terminators of the XXIst century are already falling over themselves to get hold of the lucrative markets to be created by Iraq's reconstruction. The American Vice-President Dick Cheney has already snatched up contracts worth 900 million dollars for the rebuilding of hospitals and schools in favour of his own firm Halliburton. They thus openly admit they are also targetting civilian installations! This is the New World Order in whose name the Socialist system in Europe had to be done away with if we were to live in peace, prosperity and respect for human rights. The sorcerer's apprentices called Bush, Blair and Co. have once and for all tipped the scales of history into the Age of the Third World War. They remind us with no possible doubt that imperialism is war, the denial of democracy, reaction all along the line. The Age of Resistance to World War III Spurned, the opposition of nations, large and small, in the UN and its Security Council. Spurned, the majority in the Security Council. Spurned, all the principles of democratic running of this international institution. Spurned, all the efforts of the Iraqi government and people to conform to UN resolutions. Spurned, the voices of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators throughout the world against the war against Iraq. The message to all peoples, to all nations in the world is clear: either you agree to live under the thumb of a pro-American regime, or you will live under the heel of the GIs. We never stop hearing that Saddam Hussein is prepared to sacrifice the lives of 200.000 Iraqis to save his regime. We can look at it in a different way however. The Iraqi people know the price of a war made in USA through intimate experience, in their flesh and blood. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein (with American support) would cost many fewer lives than facing up to Operation «Shock and Awe». So why don't they do it? No doubt because the Iraqi people also wants to send its message to the world: stand up, people, and let us all enter the Age of Resistance to World War III together. Many people are asking what can be done. The reply is in the reply of the Iraqi people: resist, organise, face up bravely to the monsters who govern our planet and from whom no people, none whatever can expect safety. Far from bringing "peace and security" to the peoples of the world, the war against Iraq is shattering any kind of world-scale stability from top to bottom. American strategists do not hide their intention of going on from there to lay into Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, then North Korea and finally China. During the preparations for the war against Iraq, it became obvious that the world was not unipolar and smooth, but was full of contradictions, each more explosive than the next one. The Preparation for War has also strengthened Anti-American Forces The preparations for war have divided the European Union into supporters of a strong Europe under Franco-German leadership on the one hand and a European Union under American protection on the other. The same divisions appeared in NATO. The preparations for war have strengthened anti-American forces in Russia and increased tension in the ex-Socialist Bloc countries between pro-European and pro-American forces. They have also increased tension between American hegemonism and socialist Cuba and China. They have discredited all the pro-American governments of the Third World and Europe in the eyes of their own populations. In this topsy-turvy world, only those who resist are guarantors for the future of mankind. That is why we are in the first instance with the Iraqi people and with our Party comrade, Colette Moulaert, currently in Baghdad with her fellow doctor from STOP USA, Geert Van Moorter. Expel American soldiers from the country As for us, we are begiining a long-term campaign against American imperialism. First of all by committing ourselves with all our might to supporting Iraqi resistance in the months and years to come. Secondly by demanding here that our government and the European Union break off all relations with the United States. Belgium must set the example by leaving NATO and expelling all American soldiers from its territory. The UN must restore its role of protector of aggressed nations and immediately ensure the defence of aggressed Iraq. It is the responsibility of the communists in our party and our youth organisation to take the lead firmly in the movement of resistance and share their conviction and their experience with all those wishing to enter this long-term struggle. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Colin Rowat" <c.rowat@espero.org.uk> To: <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 4:27 PM Subject: [casi] Peace making > Dear list members, > > It is my sense that two things are true about the present situation in Iraq: > > 1. Iraq is at war, and Iraqis are being killed in much larger numbers than > they have been for some time. > > 2. there will be a new government of Iraq after this period. > > As a consequence of both of these, my sense is that there will be great > tensions in post-war Iraq. The ability of a new Iraq to be a hopeful rather > than a fearful and violent country for Iraqis will depend to a large extent > on the ability of Iraqis to address these tensions peacefully. > > The future of Iraq is, in my view, ultimately a matter for Iraqis to dream > for, struggle for, and build. I hope, though, that I have earned a right to > make a plea from the sidelines: please see your interactions on this list, > and in other fora, as part of building Iraq's future, as influencing the > odds that a hopeful Iraq will emerge from this violent time. If differences > can be reduced here, there is more hope in Iraq; if not, I fear that there > may be less hope. > > In friendship, hope and fear, > > Colin Rowat > > work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham | > Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | (+44/0) 121 414 3754 | > (+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk > > personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) | > (707) 221 3672 (US fax) | c.rowat@espero.org.uk > > http://dearraed.blogspot.com/10479113100.jpg > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk