NO TO NEO-COLONIALIST AGGRESSION
Who is a threat to security and peace?
The war waged by the Bush administration against the
population of Iraq is clearly illegal.
Its pretext of wanting to establish democratic rule
by outside interference while supposedly targeting no longer existent weapons
of mass-destruction, claimed to be in the possession of the Iraqi army,
is ridiculous. And this especially in view of the many dictatorships supported
in the past and at present by the United States, including Pakistan's military
regime which has just been granted relief of sanctions.
The US claims made very recently against Iraq and
accompanied by shady and forged 'proofs,' are only the more ridiculous
in view of the extensive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction owned by
the United States, even more so if we remember that the U.S. government
is furthering the development of ever more deadly new varieties of such
weapons, including weapons destined for internationally outlawed biological
warfare.
It is the United States government which we must ask
to sign a protocol together with other countries that will quickly lead
to effective abolition of such weapons: to reasonable disarmament.
An illegal war, waged in contravention of the UN, an
attack on a small country by the biggest of today's world powers, for dubious
reasons, with deadly consequences for the civilian population but also
for the young men that overwhelmingly make up the armies of both countries,
constitutes a war crime. Each raid that now results in civilian casualties,
as in Baghdad, Basra, Tilkrit, and other locations, constitutes a war crime.
Bush, Blair, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfovitz, White as well as the
commanding generals of the US are guilty of war crimes. Send them to today's
"Nuremberg." Send them to The Hague!
In opposition to the US neocolonist plans for the Middle
East that aim at full-fledged Western control of Arab (plus, we suspect,
Iranian and Central Asian) oil and, more especially, at the elimination
of regional powers which show an inkling of independence, we propose discussion
of a solution that would entail the creation of a peaceful and cooperative
federation of independent states in West Asia, with full guarantees of
civil rights, creative interchange, open borders, free communication of
citizens, the right for everyone to settle down where (s)he pleases.
This could well include the Islamic Republic of Iran,
the former central Asian 'Soviet republics,' Turkey, Iraq, Azerbeidzhan,
Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, as well as (perhaps)
neighboring Egypt.
We suggest that by way of plebiscite the populations
of these countries seek to achieve a friendly solution entailing the formation
of an independent Kurdish political entity, as a member of the envisioned
union or confederation.
Each member state of this union might well stick to
a constitution formulated in accordance with the will of the majority of
the population, whether "Islamic and Republican," in Iran or "secular,"
in the Kurdish unit and elsewhere.
It is the "grass roots" movements which should determine
whether a neoliberal union is sought, similar to the prototype of the present
European Union, or a new solution is aimed at that would disempower big
business and challenge 'consumerist' ideologies.
Today such a project may seem totally unrealistic to
many politicians and even normal citizens in the area. But in 1945, friendship
and union between the former adversaries, France and Germany, seemed also
out of the question in Western Europe. Here, in a significant part of Europe,
it was not only big business which worked for a customs union; the population
of many countries had a deep desire for peace and greatly enhanced mutual
understanding.
In West Asia, today, as in the rest of the so-called
Third World, small and mid-sized states have no chance to withstand the
military, diplomatic and commercial pressures of the US or the EU. They
need to join hands. They have to form political unions that will make the
risks of attack unforeseeable for any aggressor. They have to attempt to
reap the mutual benefit of enhanced cooperation - cooperation on an equal
footing. Down with the so-called 'elites' that sell the interests
of native populations to the highest bidder, to bribing and arm-twisting
hegemonial forces! Let us seek creative solutions, in the interest of the
populace of all our countries. Let us stem, once and for all, the renewed
neo-colonialist tide of US-led 'globalization,' of domination in the interest
of Haliburton, Exxon, Shell, Total, Fina, of Boeing and Airbus and Northrop,
of Mc Donnell Douglas and McDonald, of Pfizer and Nestle, Bayer and Coca
Cola, International Harvester and Aldi or Walmart.
This is not a plea for a world of hostile blocs in
the 21st century.
Many ordinary folks, many religious, secular, humanistic,
and progressive groups in the West, as well as those in the Third World
who are increasingly sceptical of US and West European corporate dominance
today, hope in fact for intercontinental rank-and-file cooperation, for
a NEW globalization no longer under the control of the arrogant and the
powerful.
Links
Urban
Democracy
Social
Alert
World
Social Forum
Forum
Social Mundial
Mutual
Aid
The
Co-Intelligence Institute
www.democracyinnovations.org
Portland
Labor for Peace and Justice
Guild
Law Center for Economic and Social Justice
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