U.S. anti-war leader declares in London:
'Bring the troops home!'
Following are excerpts from remarks given by Deirdre
Sinnott, co-director of the International Action Center, which
is an ANSWER steering committee member, at a Stop the War
Coalition meeting in London on Nov. 18, two days before the
massive anti-Bush, anti-Blair protest took place:
We in the U.S. have plenty of experience
demonstrating against Bush. I remember going to jail in 1999 to
try to stop the execution of Shaka Sankofa, an innocent
African-American man who was a minor when he went to death row
in Texas. As governor, George Bush signed more execution orders
than any other governor. I've been involved in many, many
demonstrations against Bush since then.
Last month in Washington, D.C., 100,000 people came out to
say, "End the occupation of Iraq" and "Bring the troops home
now." There was a coalition for the demonstration of the two
largest anti-war organizations in the U.S., the Interna tional
ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice. One of the
major contingents for the demonstration was the Military
Families Speak Out and there were feeder marches by Black
Voices for Peace and the Muslim American Society. It was a
great demonstration and it show ed that rather than fading into
the past, the anti-war movement is alive and well.
All over the country activists are setting up "Bring the
Troops Home Now" committees and laying the groundwork for very
significant demonstrations on March 20 around the United
States. We will be organizing demonstrations at the same time
people around the world will be doing just the same thing.
There are those who call for the U.S. military to be
replaced by the United Nations in Iraq. I just want to review
what the UN, particularly the Security Council, is responsible
for carrying out in Iraq.
While it's true that there are many UN agencies that have a
clear humanitarian mission, the UN Security Council imposed the
deadly sanctions against Iraq and repeatedly reaffirmed them
again and again over a 12-and-a-half-year period.
The UN's own agencies reported that the sanctions directly
killed over 500,000 children and more than 1 million people in
Iraq. The UN inspections regimes, particularly UNSCOM, were
used by the U.S. and Britain to prolong the sanctions as a way
to overthrow the Iraqi government, not to find weapons of mass
destruction.
The UN allowed the U.S. and Britain to partition Iraq with
"No Fly Zones" and after 1998 carry out almost daily bombings
of different Iraqi facilities, including civilian
facilities.
The UN Security Council is, to a large extent, controlled by
the U.S. Last winter's vote, where France and Russia, under
great pressure from the world anti-war movement and with
lucrative oil contracts with the Iraqi government at stake,
threatened to veto the U.S.'s cover plan for war, was a
deviation from the role that the Security Council played all
along and still plays. Replacing one imperialist with another
is not the answer.
We stand in solidarity with the people who are resisting the
colonization of their country and their economy. The Iraqi
Ruling Council on orders from Paul Bremer, the Pentagon's man
in Iraq, kicked open the door to foreign capital. Businesses
can now be owned 100 percent from outside, the Iraqi banking
system is ready to be sold to the highest bidder, and there is
no requirement for the money earned from the businesses in Iraq
to be held in Iraq for any length of time. Everything is being
privatized. The gold rush in Iraq shows that the Iraqi Ruling
Council doesn't represent the Iraqi people, not even the Iraqi
ruling class. The Iraqi Ruling Council represents the U.S. and
British ruling class.
The oil industry is going to be the next thing on the
auction block. Controlling the oil is the long-term objective
of U.S. imperialism. Oil is both an economic and a strategic
resource. That oil belongs to the Iraqi people not to Exxon,
Texaco or British Petroleum.
The CIA just described the resistance in Iraq as having
widespread support and much success in winning over the people
there. There are between 30 and 40 attacks on occupying troops
per day. The CIA is in a split with the Pentagon over the
direction the occupation should take. The CIA suggests a "rapid
change of course" if the U.S. intends to hold onto the
situation at all. I know the CIA is not for ending the
occupation, just changing the form of the occupation to a
puppet regime.
The Pentagon's answer is "Operation Iron Hammer." Sounds
fascistic, doesn't it? Right now in Iraq there are buildings in
towns all over being destroyed by the U.S., 500-pound bombs are
dropping on Iraqi cities, they are bringing in the "Black hawk"
and " attack helicopters des cribed as "killing machines" to
shoot groups of people, and they are rounding up thousands in
mass arrests, up to 5,000 people in one last week. There have
been attacks and firefights in north and south Iraq, including
a battle with the Kurdistan Workers Party. What was already a
brutal occupation just got more brutal.
The resistance is fighting to get back control of their
country. They are picking targets that will destabilize the
occupiers and anyone who assists them or who is even seen as
assisting the occupation. They are trying to make Iraq
ungovernable. I know that people are very worried and very
sincerely so about what will happen if the troops were pulled
out but for me, I'm not going to presume to tell the Iraqis
what to do with their own country. I'm for Iraqi
self-determination.
And as for the troops who are fighting and dying in Iraq,
they know they've been manipulated. They know they are putting
their lives on the lines for a bunch of lies. Soldiers on leave
are calling GI Rights hotlines and the number-one question is:
What happens if I just don't go back into combat?
Did you know that in the U.S. the press is not allowed to
show the coffins returning from Iraq? The press is barely
allowed into the overflowing military hospitals to interview
injured soldiers. Bush knows that if the U.S. public knew how
the rank-and-file soldiers felt, how deeply betrayed they feel,
how many have been injured in mind and body, the opposition to
the war and occupation would surge out of control. We want that
deep opposition to come out into the streets like people will
be doing here on Thursday.
We want to support the soldiers and say bring the troops
home now, alive--not in body bags. Self-determination for the
Iraqi people! No more blood for oil!
Reprinted from the Dec. 4, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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