The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear Mr Soley As one of your constituents, I'm very concerned at the consensus among aid agencies in predicting a huge catastrophe in Iraq if there is an attack. Most notable is the UN document, "Integrated Humanitarian Contingency Plan for Iraq and Neighbouring Countries", produced on 7 January this year. It predicts that, in the event of a war, 30 percent of children under 5 in Iraq, or 1.26 million, "would be at risk of death from malnutrition". That I should actually have to ask my MP not to kill people, not to target the infrastructure of Iraq, yet again, if there is a war, is a sad indictment of our barren policies. I am appalled at our treatment of the Iraqi people. I have watched Mr Blair during his many attempts to mislead the public. Most notable was his insistence that the inspectors were expelled by Iraq. I have watched the debacle of what is now known as the "dodgy dossier" (cobbled together to mislead us into condoning the murder of Iraqis) and have noted how Amnesty International have recently poured scorn on our foreign policy with the withering words: "Selective and opportunistic attention to human rights serves only to undermine international human rights standards". Mr Blair's contempt for International law and the UN, as evidenced by his insistence that we are going to war even if he doesn't get his Resolution, is matched only by his contempt for democracy. We have the largest march in British history, we have astonishing consistency among the opinion polls that indicate a majority of the country is against this war and yet he doesn't even allow a vote on the issue in Parliament. And this is the man we are told will restrain the US President. Mr Blair's willingness to go to war with or without a UN resolution would appear to indicate that he can't even restrain himself. His collusion with Mr Bush in attempting to bribe or blackmail the other members of the UN has effectively rendered the second Resolution not worth the paper it is written on. I am reminded of what was done to Yemen after 1991. I have watched with amazement our silence while the Israelis conduct ongoing ethnic cleansing. In fact, when I heard - was it Mr Blair or Mr Prescott - repeat Edmund Burke's assertion that "Evil happens when good men do nothing", for one unguarded moment I believed he was talking about our government's policy towards Israel. And, of course, there's the slight matter of Israel being in breech of vastly more Resolutions than Iraq. To say nothing of their weapons of mass destruction. Or indeed our own, which Geoff Hoon seems ever so keen to use. We have presided over the deaths of roughly a million Iraqis with our immoral and, as Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator to Iraq, claims, genocidal sanctions. I am reminded of how Madeleine Albright when asked, regarding the acceptability of the deaths of half a million children from the sanctions, replied, "we think the price is worth it". The evidence would appear to indicate that the majority of the British Labour Government also believes that the price is worth it. And Blair describes his approach as moral. About as moral as our so called "ethical foreign policy" when we were selling Hawk aircraft to Indonesia. Incidentally, the one thing of merit that Mr Blair has achieved is that he has politicised radically a vast sector of the populace. And I doubt if they'll be long deluded by party politics where the government in power is more concerned with the support of its own party "faithful" than with the wishes of the electorate. On a personal note, I heard from some people in Amnesty International that you used to be a staunch supporter of human rights. How, in the light of that, can you support what has been done to Iraq as well as this current talk of war? If we choose to attack Iraq I would appreciate it if you would notify the local Labour Party office not to bother sending me their usual circulars come election time. This applies to all elections. I will be joining the rapidly increasing ranks of the disillusioned who feel our politicians are unaccountable and consequently regard voting in elections as a waste of time to say nothing of being downright immoral. I will not be responsible in my own small way for contributing to the murder of innocents. I look forward to your response. Sincerely Dermot Moynihan _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk