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Recent
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April
23, 2003
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April 25,
2003
A Letter to the People of Iraq
Why We Fought
Against This War
by ZEYNEP TOUFE
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I'm sorry.
I'm going to try to explain why I was
a part of a movement that opposed the war that freed you of this
tyrant. Many of you may be wondering why many decent people around
the world marched against this war.
Throughout the whole ordeal, I knew that
this war would be better for you than a continuation of the sanctions
plus Saddam Hussein's tyranny. I knew that we misspoke when we
called the recent invasion of your county "the war"
as if what had been happening for the past 13 years was not worse
than war. Yes, the choices were horrible: sanctions plus Saddam
versus cluster bombs and a government selected under occupation.
I'm sorry we did not manage to alter
those choices. That's our biggest failing.
As the fog of Saddam's disinformation
gradually lifts from Iraq, you will learn that much of what Saddam
Hussein said was lies, but you already knew that. What may be
surprising is that some of what he claimed about the sanctions
was correct. It was indeed the United States and United Kingdom,
the self-described coalition, that unilaterally blocked many
life-sustaining supplies from entering your country. Over the
past decade, many good people have fought against -- and documented
-- the cynical, calculating, cruel means by which our governments
restricted your ability to live a decent life. Read Tom Nagy:
He
unearthed that U.S. bombed your infrastructure in the first Gulf
War fully aware of its disastrous consequences for civilians
. Or Joy Gordon: She showed how the U.S. vetoed the means of
fixing your
ruined infrastructure And say hello to Bert Sacks when you
see him again: He got fined $10,000 by the U.S. government after
admitting to carrying much needed medicine into your
country, for your children.
It is a sordid story, indeed.
Saddam Hussein did not care about the
people of Iraq and knew the sanctions helped keep him in power.
Madeleine Albright, while ambassador to the United Nations, chimed
in and declared that half a million of your children dead due
to the sanctions was "worth it."
I knew that past and present anti-war
movements had forced enough civilization on the war-makers that
the number of civilians killed would not be as bad as the numbers
killed by the continuation of the status quo. Yes, as a society,
we are guilty of caring more about people who die due to our
projectiles -- that is, unless they are soldiers many of whom
are guilty only of being forcibly conscripted -- than those who
die due to our policies. Unfortunately, you make our lists of
the dead if you die by tomahawks, cluster bombs and bullets instead
of easily preventable diseases, starvation or lack of simple
medicines.
In other words, I knew that if one counted
correctly, the war wasn't worse for you than the existing "containment"
strategy. After all, UNICEF calculated that about 5,000 children
a month died from the sanctions; adding the dead, the disappeared
and the maimed by your government, the balance was clear.
So, you may ask, why did I abandon you?
Why did I oppose this war which would get rid of Saddam Hussein's
regime that held you hostage?
Let me first say that it wasn't the idea
that sovereignty allows governments to commit crimes against
humanity. If there were a way to intervene without engendering
far worse consequences, I would not hesitate.
Unfortunately, the removal of this brutal
regime is done by the hand that perpetuates a world order that
is brutal and cruel.
In a nutshell, the problem is this: the
power that occupies you right now sits on top of a world order
in which the rich and the powerful are robbing world's children
of a meaningful future.
The methods are many.
Sometimes, it is called "debt repayment,"
where money squandered by dictators supported by the rich countries
is paid back into the coffers of the already obscenely rich by
charging curious children for going to school and thirsty babies
for clean water.
Sometimes they call it "structural
adjustment programs" and use the country's economy and the
national budget to siphon off resources to foreign banks and
domestic elites.
Sometimes it's carried out under "intellectual
property rights regimes" in which giant pharmaceutical companies
are bequeathed monopoly licenses to essential drugs and then
it's declared illegal to provide those drugs to people too poor
to pay for them at anything less than the decreed price.
Sometimes this world order works by crushing
people fighting for better working conditions and better pay
by branding them anti-business and anti-trade. Sometimes it just
goes in and robs them directly; this is called "privatization."
Other times it forces countries to stop
providing affordable food; the powers-that-be call these "subsidies"
and allow them only in rich countries.
In this world, governments that dare
to be more responsive to their citizens are called undemocratic
and controversial. Bloody "regime change" operations
await them -- ask the people in Chavez's Venezuela, in Allende's
Chile, in the Sandinistas' Nicaragua.
It's a world where all restrictions against
pillage and plunder are called "restrictions to capital
movements" or "restrictions on trade" and forbidden.
Meanwhile, restrictions on human movements are called measures
against "illegal immigration" and constantly reinforced.
Under the rules of this world order,
attempts to demonstrate against secretive, top-down, undemocratic
entities are called riots or disturbances of the peace and declared
illegal, impolite and uncivilized. However, walled-off meetings
by the superrich held in inaccessible islands and mountaintops
in Doha, Davos, and the Azores are called "summits",
"negotiations" and "forums."
"What does that have to do with
me," you ask. I'm ashamed to bother you with all of this
while I watch pictures of you digging the harsh ground with your
hands, hoping against hope that your child who was disappeared
years ago is still alive in the tyrant's dungeon.
I'm sorry. All I can say is that I know
you will understand when I say there are other, millions and
millions of sons and daughters out there who are in danger, right
now. I know that in many instances people who have lost so much
can be infinitely nobler than people who have only privilege,
complicity and comfort to lose.
I am in no position to ask you this by
right, I do so only by faith that your humanity will triumph
over our failures.
As you know, the same ground that swallowed
too many of your children is also cursed with the resource which
is crucial to the running of this truly odious machine. If the
powers-that-be, the ones that control the world's biggest military
and economic institutions, can control this resource and use
it as a weapon against the rest of the world it will be much
easier for them to perpetuate the evils of this system. If they
can have bases in your county, stocked with the mightiest killing
machines; if they can install a government whose loyalty is to
them and not to you; if they can use their presence and their
control over your country to beat back any plausible opposition
to their dominance -- then many will die and many will starve
and almost all will be unfree.
Yes, I hear you: How can we in the rich
countries, blessed with freedoms and rights that you can only
dream of, expect you to be more mindful of the suffering of the
world than we seem to be? If what I say is true, why don't those
of us with privilege elect better leaders and reform our system?
Yes, we are yet failing miserably. We
are against formidable foes but yes, you are right, they are
not unbeatable. I wish we could claim more success. No excuses
can hide such a shameful failure, and I won't bother listing
them.
Nonetheless, the danger that the world
faces is real and urgent, which is why I must ask for your help.
I am asking you to overlook our failures and listen to what we
do know about the world order. And don't just listen to us in
rich countries; people in Nigeria, Chiapas, and East Timor can
tell you the whole story. Ask people in Bolivia who continue
to fight against Bechtel's attempts to steal their water in order
to sell it back at extravagant prices. That's the same Bechtel
that's just been assigned a major contract to build many things
in your country, including "rehabilitating the water systems".
[http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=5728]
I am asking you not to let your oil become
a sword that will be used to cut down other sprouting life. I
am asking you to dignify your grief for your lost children with
caring for the ones that are trying to hang on to life in slums
in Caracas, refugee camps in Angola, brothels in Thailand, sweatshops
in Indonesia.
I must also confess, I'm secretly hoping
your refusal to accept your designated role will show us here
that it is possible to refuse to be blinded by propaganda, bribed
by a share of the spoils, or intimidated by might.
Truly sincerely,
Zeynep Toufe
Zeynep Toufe
is a doctoral student in Austin, TX; she can be reached at zeynep@tao.ca
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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