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[casi] E-mail to Clive Soley MP



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





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