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.
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The devastation of Iraq through sanctions and wars has happened despite the efforts of campaigners. It is worth studying how two democracies (the US & UK) got away with this. 1) media bias: eg 'war on Saddam' 2) access to information: eg how many Iraqis are dying every month since Iraq was conquered? 3) lies & misinformation: eg the incubator story, anti-SH propaganda In this last area, campaigners have been weakest and yet in the end these are used to justify the death and destruction. eg in the vote for the war on Iraq in the UK parliament, some MP's were moved by Ann Clwyd's speech including the plastic shredder story eg in last week's Question Time (a BBC TV programme), a Government Minister stated that SH diverted all (sic) the money to build palaces and buy weapons. Tony Blair in his time in power has been directly and indirectly responsible for killing more Iraqis than SH. I emailed indict last December but got no reply at all: ***** copy of my email to indict I came across your web site today. I am worried that this organisation is simply part of the US/UK campaign against Iraq - often used to prevent a peaceful settlement in Iraq and to help justify the terrible sanctions and war. Some concerns: 1) You do not call for an international court of justice (the US does not want one - for obvious reasons) 2) You call instead for a 'special' tribunal which will only investigate crimes committed by selected people against the people of Iraq (the worst criminals- the US/UK - will get away scot free) 3) US/UK war and sanctions have killed far more Iraqi civilians (especially children) than SH and his regime 4) US/UK politicians and officials (eg 661 committee) ought to be liable to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity 5) The US/UK have contaminated Iraq with depleted uranium AND prevented investigation and support for Iraq 6) Water supplies were deliberately targetted by the US/UK in the Gulf War 7) The US/UK have deliberately killed & harmed Iraqi civilians by preventing the Iraqi government repairing its water treatment and power facilities 8) Indict has accepted money from the US/UK Governments. This is 'dirty' money from governments which have knowingly killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis 9) Indict makes no mention on its web site of the genocidal sanctions (Denis Halliday resigned from the UN in protest at these genocidal sanctions) 10) Do you not agree that it would be wrong if the US/UK could get away with this? That they should at least stand trial? **** end of email > The point is not to claim the Saddam Hussein was some kind of angel > (no one wants to turn back the clock), but rather to be aware of how > news organisations and supposedly independent Human Rights groups are > used to manipulate public opinion and to try and stop that process. > Otherwise Western countries are just going to "liberate" regime after > regime that "are worse than Hitler". > > Finally, while I am always suspicious of people who claim to be in > Iraq but whose originating IP address of their email is England. I > would point out in regard to that AP photo that the caption has been > mislabelled because Ann Clwyd never went to al-Mahawil but only close > by at Hilla - so we can assume the photo has been taken at Hilla. > Therefore if anyone had travelled from Baghdad to al-Mahawil looking > for a deceased relative than they had gone to a different site from > that shown in the photo. > > But doubtless such a person would realise that from looking at the > photo and immediately recognise that it was not al-Mahawil. Not all > manipulation of public opinion is confined to the news media. Mark Parkinson Bodmin Cornwall _______________________________________________ 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