The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
>ur just cause. Genuine friends of the Iraqi people should >be congratulating them on the downfall of their >tormentor, regardless of who and how it was achieved. >Liberated Iraqis consider the end justified the means. >They expect and deserve all the help they can get from >others. Ironically, that help has recently come from "Imperialist powers to be" rather than the self >proclaimed "Anti Imperialists" of the 21st century. The ?latter should adopt some other cause and refrain from >speaking in the name of the Iraqis. >Otherwise, the Iraqis polite message to them is: NOT IN >OUR NAME. As with all such situations, this has complexities. We need to remember that the imperialists gave much support to Saddam. Of course it's great he is gone, but he should not have been in power to begin with, and it's possible he would not have been without US support. Also, the sanctions strengthened Saddam while weakening the people who might otherwise have deposed him. The enemy of one's enemy need not be a friend at all, but yet another enemy. That the US/UK governments are friends to the Iraqi people is quite doubtful in light of recent and current events -- there are even grave doubts that the US government is a friend of the American people. In the US now social programs, and the states themselves are in terrible economic troubles, civil rights are being violated, the environment is being raped, and the poor get more poor while the rich get richer. This flows from greed, lust for power, secrecy, and the extreme ideological views of the administration -- the very same administration who now controls the fate of Iraq, which has less resource to resist than do the American people. It is important to understand the powers and motivations. Several months ago the PBS TV show, NOW, with Bill Moyers discussed the growing privatization of water, in the US and abroad. It described how water was being transfered from public utility control to private corporations, and how water was being siphoned off to other areas for profit, how water was sold at prices which the poor in some nations could not afford, and often delivered unrealiably and contaminated. Now there is a crisis of water in Iraq, and there are also neihgboring regions who want water, and will pay well for it. I am not making a prediction, but following the patterns I would not be surprised if the water crisis was allowed to occur so that people would become desparate enough, and excuses could be made, for privatizing the water in Iraq, and also piping it to other areas (even as far as Israel, perhaps). It is an established tactic by big corporations and imperialists to seize control of a resource or area by first manipulating a situation into crisis proportions. "Destablization" it's often called. It's not so different from the old protection racket, where a gang vandalizes and terrorizes a neighborhood and then sells "protection", but in this case it's the "official bandits", AKA the government which does it. If the imperialists want control of a nation, all they have to do is destabilize, and install their puppet dictator when the people clamor for order. When the tyrant turns on the empire they have an excuse to go to war. This was done in Iran, Iraq, is in progress in Saudi Arabia, and many other places. The Iraqis need to get their act together now and mount a unified effort to form a government of their own to address the various crises such as water, power, education, health, food, finance and security. Any lapse will provide that much more excuse for the US/UK to assume control as they wish. Naturally they will need help, and must demand it from the UN, the occupying countries, and get help from any other nations they can bargain or ally with. Otherwise it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ 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