ANTI-WAR PROTEST

  Convert Streams Into Mighty Torrent

  Harkishan Singh Surjeet

SINCE we dealt, in these columns last week, with the implications of the US’s unilateral war against Iraq, the world has been witness to a couple of significant developments. Firstly, the pressure of anti-war demonstrations and other protest actions has mounted in all parts of the globe, even in US cities, and there are signs that these actions are likely to get further intensified in the days to come. Secondly, the media hype that accompanied the US aerial bombardments on Iraqi targets has been exposed for what it is. So much so that claims about the precision targeting capacity of US missiles have become a matter of ridicule, more so after a US missile fell down a British plane.

AMERICANS’ MORALE GOING DOWN

HOWEVER, most importantly, giving a lie to all US claims that it would in no time force a regime change in Iraq, the Iraqis have considerably slowed down the US advance. What to talk of capturing Al Naasiriya, Basra and finally Baghdad, the Americans are facing a lot of trouble even in subduing the small port town of Umm Qasr near the Iraq-Kuwait border.  

In the meantime, as is usual in a desert area, summer sandstorms have begun to rise in the Iraqi desert and it would not be easy for Americans to bear their effects. If anything, these sandstorms may take a heavy toll of American lives in the months to come, particularly after the US forces feel compelled to start a ground war. That they would be compelled to start a ground war sooner or later is self-evident, because mere aerial bombardments can never win them a war. But it is also equally evident that the more the Americans penetrate into the interior areas of Iraq, the stiffer the resistance they would have to face and the bigger would be the casualty figure for them.

A number of newspaper reports have also pointed out that the US strategists had not taken into account the acute water shortage which their forces will have to face during their advance through the desert, towards Baghdad.

Then one must also add to it the fact that so far the Americans have not been able to open a second front against Iraq from the northwestern side. The pressure of anti-war mass opinion in Turkey is so great at the moment that this country has not had the courage to allow the Americans the use of its air space for a war against Iraq. True, Turkey has amassed a big force on its border with Iraq and even penetrated into the Iraqi territory, but that has been for a totally different reason; it has little to do with the US war against Iraq.

Not surprisingly, the war has already begun to take its toll in terms of the morale of US forces. Oblivious of their own high hopes expressed and bombastic claims made in the beginning, Bush and Blair have both conceded, in separate statements, that the war may drag for some more time. These statements also imply the fact that, contrary to what Bush and Blair had expected, there has so far been no uprising of the Iraqi people against the Saddam regime and no large-scale surrender by Iraqi forces. 

The desperation on part of George Bush is also evident from the fact that recently it suddenly came to his mind that there is something called Geneva convention about the treatment of prisoners of war. Bush came to have this piece of enlightenment after the TV channel Al Jazeera telecast the images of some American prisoners of war that were captured by the Iraqis. To him, the said Geneva convention did not have any existence when the Americans were subjecting the Afghan war prisoners to all sort of cruelties in their Guantenamo base off Cuba. 

This is what made the Hindustan Times cartoonist to quip that the Americans have launched their war against Iraq under the White House convention!

PATENTLY ILLEGAL  & ILLEGITIMATE

MEANWHILE, as said, anti-war protest around the world is getting increasingly vociferous in its condemnation of the Bush-Blair satanism. And this is not accidental; rather there are serious reasons for it. Firstly, in 1991, the US-led alliance was able to convince (or mislead!) many that what it intended was to punish Iraq that had captured Kuwait. This time, the US has no such excuse to proffer to the world. The fact of the fact is that now the whole world is realising, without a shred of doubt, that what the Americans want is to capture the valuable oil resources of Iraq that has the second biggest reserve in the world. Moreover, it is also clear to the world peoples that the US views these oil reserves as an essential ingredient of its drive for global hegemony. Hence, the growing opposition to the US war on Iraq is, at a deeper level of meaning, an opposition to the US’s hegemonistic designs.    

Significantly, all the Bush-Blair hype about the “clash of civilisations,” about the so-called “axis of evil” and about a much-tomtomed “global war against terrorism” has miserably failed to mislead the world public opinion.

Secondly, if the US and UK were able to hijack the UN system 12 years ago, the whole world has now been witness to the spectacle of how they have shamelessly bypassed the UN system this time. The fact is that the US did its best to misuse the UN system for its nefarious end, and it was at the US behest that weapons inspectors were sent to Iraq after a gap of four years. Yet, even though the inspections failed to produce any evidence about Iraq having amassed the weapons of mass destruction, the US announced that, weapons or no weapons, it would go ahead with its plan to wage a war to dislodge Saddam Hussein from power. As we know, the US failed to push through its resolution in the UN Security Council on March 19 and had to withdraw it in the end. Thus the US war against Iraq lacks any UN sanction whatsoever. In fact, this US war against Iraq is patently illegal and illegitimate on any criterion of international law or of civilised way of living.

Yet, it is not simply a question of one country waging a war against another. What is at stake is the very authority of the United Nations Organisation that was created in 1945, after the second world war, with the express aim of saving the world from the holocaust of a third world war. Nay, judging by the fate the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered in August 1945, the world was also anxious that if ever a third world war breaks out, it would destroy the whole planet and there would be no victor in that war. This is why the UN system was supposed to play a seminal role in preventing any fresh outbreak.

However, it is this very UN system that has of late suffered a grievous setback. It would be wrong to say that it has lost its utility and effectiveness altogether, but the fact remains that it temporarily stands paralysed. Since the US started its war against Iraq, the UN secretary general has not been able to do anything to mobilise the UN member states against the war.

This naturally has given rise to a lot of anxiety for the world community. The peoples of the world well know how the failure of the League of Nations in the late 1930s was a contributory factor to the outbreak of the second world war. Will the UNO suffer the same fate because of the intransigence of a superpower, and with the same ominous possibility or even worse? This is the question currently haunting the international community beyond measure.

Needless to say, if the authority and sanctity of the UN system suffers any erosion, the US and its allies will be blamed for it and all its consequences.             

Thus, at a still deeper level of meaning, the growing mass opinion against the US war is a reflection of the people’s anxiety about how to save the world from a holocaust.

THE REAL AIM BEHIND THE WAR

IN the meantime, the real aim of the US-UK imperialists is gradually getting exposed. Even before they began their war against Iraq, they had prepared a blueprint for the so-called “reconstruction” of Iraq after President Saddam Hussein is deposed. Yet this magnanimity of Iraq’s reconstruction has been exposed to be nothing more than giving a chance to American companies to reap super profits. As journalist Justin Webb reports from Washington, “The Bush administration has now relented on the issue of reconstruction work. The first round of contracts, worth seven hundred and fifty million pounds, was offered only to American companies, but after talks between American and British officials, the US government now says future contracts will be shared with Britain and possibly other nations.”

It is thus clear that the real US-UK aim behind the war is not to help the Iraqi people supposedly suffering under the Saddam regime or to better their lives after the Saddam regime is toppled. The war is not for democracy either, as is being propagated, but for naked US domination. The hidden (and in reality, not so hidden) agenda of these powers is to mercilessly exploit the Iraqi resources for the benefit of their own multinational sharks. 

There are two imponderables involved here. First, supposing that the US-UK succeed in toppling Saddam Hussein, whether they would really start any worthwhile reconstruction work for the benefit of the Iraqi people and not of their own moneybags? They still have to tell the world how much they have done for the reconstruction of the war-torn Afghanistan. Secondly, if at all they start some such work, will the American and British companies corner all its benefits for themselves or will they share the cream with the companies from other countries?

Ridiculously, even the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has gleefully expressed hope that Indian industrialists would much benefit from the reconstruction work which the US will start in Iraq after the war is over. Then, even the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) shared this hope, though not in such a blatant language. The question is: since when imperialist powers have become so generous as to share their spoils with others? At the most, one may say that they would throw a few crumbs to others in order to keep them by their side.

MASSES HAVE TO ACT FOR THEIR OWN SAKE

THIS real aim of the US-UK imperialist war against Iraq and the threat it poses to the very future of mankind is as clear to the world peoples as daylight. Hence the intensity of their protest actions against this war.

Here remains one more fact to be taken into account. Today we are living in a unipolar world that is full of trials and tribulations for the world peoples. Even though the non-aligned movement (NAM) has not lost its relevance, it stands almost paralysed. At the same time, there is no countervailing force to the US designs, like the one there was earlier in the form of Soviet Union. And now that the US-UK imperialists have bypassed the United Nations, this threatens to make this world body as irrelevant as the League of Nations had once become. In such a situation, for the sake of peace, prosperity and development, the people of the world have no option but to act and foil the imperialist designs of world hegemony.

It is here that the despicable role of the government of India comes into sharp relief. Even though India is a major force in the NAM and international affairs, the BJP-led government has refused to even pinpoint the blame for the war and to make efforts, at the diplomatic level, to mobilise other nations against the war. The plea the government of India took in the all-party meeting on March 22 was that the opposition’s language could not be the language of the government.

But the people of this great country have also to make clear that the language of the government could not be their own language. It is a welcome fact that our people have condemned the US aggression in no uncertain terms. Yet, it is evident that this cannot be enough. Mighty protest actions are what the time calls for.

At the call of several political parties and personalities, a big protest action is going to take place on March 31. States like West Bengal have planned their own protest fortnights or weeks while big actions are in offing in Kerala and other states. All these protest actions, and the Indian people’s powerful anti-war sentiments which these actions reflect, have to be channelised in order to convert the various streams of protest into a mighty torrent. This is the only way the people of our country can play their due role in the excruciating situation of today and force the government of the day to come to its senses.