A-Infos (en) Workers Solidarity #78 - Debate on Iraq war

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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In Workers Solidarity, No 76 August 2003, we published an article
under the title "Iraq war aftermath: slaughtering democracy" by Chekov Feeney.
We received a reply to this from R. Knife, an (Iraqi) Kurd living in Ireland.
Unfortunately it is to long too print in full in the printed version of the
paper but you can read the full text below. We also print a response from Chekov
The full letter from R. Knife -
Dear Workers Solidarity
In the last issue of Worker Solidarity, No 76 August 2003, there was
an article under the title "Iraq war aftermath slaughtering democracy",
http://struggle.ws/wsm/ws/2003/ws76/iraqafter.html
by Chekov Feeney. One of the main points Feeney tries to make in the
article is that what is going on now in Iraq is a resistance to the
United States. He mentions, 'frequent demonstrations, escalating
campaign of assassinations and ambushes'.

Although it is true that the people of Iraq are not happy that their
country is being occupied, those who are fighting now are not their
representatives - they are people who belong to the former regime.
They are doing everything they can to stop or delay an improvement in
the life for the ordinary Iraqi. They are rapist and professionals in the
art of tortures during the former regime's existence. Please don't tell
me it is resistance to attack a water pipe or an electricity pole.

Maybe Mr Feeney doesn't know or maybe his ideology won't allow him
to see the truth. But I just tell him one thing about what ordinary
people went through at the hands of the Saddam's regime. Extra
judicial executions were developed into a fine art. The method used
included the use of chemical weapons against civilians - Kurds and
Shi'ea. There were mass executions by firing squad; burying people
alive as in the Anfal campaign where around 200 000 Kurds died; or
tying heavy weights to their feet and pushing them into the rivers
while alive. Poisoning them through the use of thallium (a substance
use in rat poisoning); bleeding prisoners and detainees to death.
Assassination by shooting - so called 'accidental death'. All of this
has been document by Amnesty International.

Mr Feeney states that Iraq was no threat to the UK or the US. That
point was repeated in many of the anti-war slogans. But it is a
Western-centric point of view. Saddam threatened 22 million Iraqi
people. Are they not a valid reason? The countries that created and
supported Saddam were France, German, former Soviet Union, not the
US actually. There were 105 German chemical weapon companies in
Iraq; the former East Germany also contributing to Saddam's regime
by training Ba'thes in how to torture. France sent specialists to treat
Udae (Saddam's son) for his injury, and always have been a main
arms supplier. In 1989 a Kurdish family that survived the gas attacks
made their way to France. The French government kept them away
from the public and, later on, deported them to Iran. What German and
France did during and before the war were a sign that these countries
were concerned about Saddam personally and his regime, not about
ordinary people.

Trying to present the situation in a way that fits one's ideology is a
betrayal to truth. This is what Mr Feeney does. Removing Saddam
was the same act as fighting Nazism. That does not necessarily mean
that what the US is up to now and in future is justified. I can draw
many parallels between Arab nationalism and Nazism: their dealing
with minorities and their totalitarianism policy. One of the other points
I'd like to comment on it is about Turkey. Turkey is not democratic and
the Turkish decision during the war was not a democratic decision.
Turkey is a country run by generals. What Turkey demanded from the
US was control of the Kurdish part of Iraq (to do what they did in
Cyprus) and big amounts of money. Turkey believed that the US
couldn't go to the war without them. Therefore they delayed the
decision (to allow the US use their territory) to set up a scenario in
their so-called parliament to demand more and more. Turkey is a
country where 20 million Kurds have no right to exist as Kurd. (Surely
Irish people can relate to this from their own history?) They can't use
their own language etc.

Denial of what people in Iraq went through at the hands of Saddam
and his regime by ignoring or cover it up with others issues (or choose
of being silent about it) is not human and as I said before betrayal to
truth.

R. Knife

Chekov replies

     * This response completely misses the point of the article, which
was specifically about the US regime's use of the term democracy to
justify their war and what this democracy meant in practice, not about
Saddam's dictatorship or anything else.
     * I fully agree with the correspondent's view of the Iraqi and Turkish
regimes, and nothing that I wrote contradicted that.
     * The assertion about the nature of the people involved in armed
actions against the occupation is an example of seeing the world
through ideological blinkers, which the respondent accuses me of.
There is simply no evidence to back this up. The assertion that the US
did not support Saddam's regime runs against all the evidence.
     * Most importantly, if we are to say that an act of war is justified on
the grounds of a brutal regime, we have to be certain that the war will
make things better for the victims of the regime. The history of US
invasions does not give one any confidence on this point and this is
borne out by the current situation in Iraq.

Dec 6th Anti-war blockade of Shannon airport

The 'Irish Anti-War Movement' (IAWM) is planning a mass blockade
aimed at disrupting normal business at Shannon airport. http://struggle.ws/wsm/shannon.html
Demonstrators will gather at 2pm in the town centre before marching
to the airport terminal to participate in the blockade.

According to IAWM spokesperson Dr Fintan Lane: "This will be
about people power. It will be about ordinary people taking action for
themselves and refusing to accept the integration of an Irish civilian
airport into the U.S. war machine."

For more details contact Fintan Lane at 087 1258325

See also Anarchism and the fight against Imperialism
     http://struggle.ws/wsm/imperialism.html
     Stop refuelling at Shannon warport
     http://struggle.ws/wsm/shannon.html
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