Devon Dick
INCUMBENT PRESIDENT of the United States, George Bush, has made the war in Iraq his centerpiece campaign issue. His challenger, U.S. Senator John Kerry, is trying to show that if he was commander-in-chief he would have executed the war in Iraq much better. Who will be the better war hero for the next four years?
George Bush has been decisive in leading a coalition of the willing against Iraq. He wants to be seen as the war president and ultimately a war hero. While John Kerry, a war hero of the ill-fated Vietnam war, wants the world to share the burden of the war in Iraq.
A couple days ago, the respected American university, Johns Hopkins, estimated that American forces have killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians. So frightening it is that British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw has promised to look into those allegations. When does the occupation become a travesty of justice, even for those who supported the war? When will the U.N. say enough is enough? It seems that everything goes in the name of democracy. And that democracy means being able to vote periodically for the candidate that is backed by the powerful and the monied class.
If democracy meant a government that listens to its people then Britain would not have entered the war. The justification for war was that Iraq was in breach of resolution 1441. However, that resolution did not authorize the use of force. The diplomatic language used was not 'whatever means necessary'. As has been discovered by the U.S. Iraq Survey Group, Iraq was not in breach of resolution 1441 because there were no stockpiles; there were no programmes; there were no biological agents; there were no plants to make them and there was no equipment to fire them. Only a speculation by the survey group that Saddam had the intention to attack Iran.
IN BREACH OF UN RESOLUTION
A country has been invaded and much of its infrastructure destroyed and the lives of women, children and men snuffed out on the basis that the country posed imminent danger. While Israel, that is in breach of a UN resolution for illegally occupying Palestinian territory, is not invaded. Furthermore, the U.S. cannot claim self-defence in invading and occupying Iraq because there is no link between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks on America. In fact, Osama bin Laden, who, in a broadcast aired on Friday, publicly admitted to masterminding the attacks, was not a friend of Saddam.
The Bush administration is guilty of an unprovoked war in breach of international law. Only the U.N. Security Council can give the green light to invade another country. The Bush administration sought that permission and did not get it. So the head of the U.N., Secretary General Kofi Annan, was right in claiming that the war was illegal. Unfor-tunately, this man, who has put his job on the line, has not got the support of the Jamaican Govern-ment in joining him and calling the war illegal. Instead, Jamaica and CARICOM continue to use diplomatic language in condemning this illegal war.
This region has experienced illegal and immoral slavery and persons and governments had to speak up for us. South Africa experienced apartheid and Jamaica condemned that system and it is high time that Jamaica be counted as one against the war on Iraq in some strong terms even if it is unsophisticated.
The truth is, Bush's rush to war could have been avoided. Hans Blix, head of the weapons inspection team, could have been given more time and they would have confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
AGAINST ABORTION
Tens of thousands have needlessly died. Interestingly, so many Christians support Bush because he is against abortion, which they call murder. They are against taking the unborn life, but when that baby is delivered into the world, tens of thousands can be justifiably killed in the name of war.
The voters will have to decide whether the war was justified. The Americans now have the awesome responsibility of deciphering whether the war in Iraq was the 'wrong war'. According to the polls, 54 per cent of Americans feel that the war was unjustified. What verdict will the Americans give at the ballot box? I believe that the real war hero will win and the illegal war in Iraq will continue to be prosecuted!
The Rev Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in nation-building'.
