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The Extinction Level Event
by Mark Reed
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Now before anyone gets the wrong idea I'm not a dove. I'm not an appeaser
or
a compromiser. In certain circumstances war is absolutely, completely
justifiable. Just not these circumstances. What the vast majority of the
public regard as acceptable grounds for instigating a war are far, far
stricter than our leaders.
A war is something which cannot and should not be entered into lightly. The
party that instigates the war must find themselves in an absolutely
intolerable position where there is absolutely no other option available
whatsoever and must be able to morally and credibily defend, without a shard
of doubt, a military action.
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Our Government cannot do this. The Government cannot defend its actions in a
manner that convinces the majority of the population. The war it is
preparing to wage is immoral, illegal, and undemocratic.
The war is immoral. Yes, Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator. He should not
be ruling Iraq. But a war instigated by the US on the pretext of
self-defence against a country that the US military declares will be easily
beaten and is not a significant threat is blatant hypocrisy. This war is
built on a mountain of lies and half-truths.
Why is it that now, and only now, that Britain and the United States feel in
such danger that the only course of action they have is a pre-emptive strike
against a small dictatorship? Do the weapons we sold them have a use-by date
of March 31 2003?
Why do the aggressor states declare that the country that is a mortal threat
will be defeated in
days? Surely such a nation is not so dangerous if it only takes a matter of
days to defeat? Even a mild brush with cancer can take years.
Why do they feel the need to target this one country?
Why seek a second UN resolution, then declare it unimportant if they cannot
gain one?
Why state that countries that do not seek war are guilty of
appeasement? Why lay the blame for war at their feet when they are plainly
seeking alternatives?
Why ignore mass protests and demonstrations of the scale which have been
unprecedented in the entire of human history?
Why not, instead, target other countries that also breach UN resolutions?
Israel, for example, has breached UN resolutions for over 30 years. By the
same token, the US vs. Israel war is 18 years overdue.
Why not, instead, concentrate on finding and removing the terrorist threat
caused by Osama Bin Laden and his fundamentalist friends (if indeed they
are responsible for terrorist activity)?
Why not, instead, seek to understand why Muslim states may seek retribution
against the US?
Why not seek to reverse decades of economic inequality that have caused this
state of war?
Why not, instead, seek to use the enormous resources engineered for the war
towards rectifying the huge economic and environmental issues that the
African continent faces?
This war is illegal. It is not supported by international law. It is not
supported by the United Nations. The vast majority of civilised countries
find this war abhorrent and unjustifiable.
This war is America's last stab at creating an empire. The dinosaur that is
the
US can see its economic and cultural dominance of the world fading. It seeks
to restate it's status as Bully Of The World so that it can control the
markets, control the oil, and control its interests in selfishly exploiting
the
earths resources - land, oil and labour - without question. This war is US
colonialism. Just as the first Americans conquered the Indians, they now
find a whole country isn't enough. Now the US wants to control the world.
Dissenting voices are guilty of sedition and silenced. Welcome to the new
dictatorship.
If anyone is an appeaser then it is Tony Blair. He does not question the
Accidental President and instead, in fear, falls in line with the wishes of
the US for fear of isolation. But the isolation Blair will feel in his own
country will dwarf him. The Labour Party is crumbling before his eyes. He
has lost the election before he's even started. Anyone who ignores the
wishes of the vast majority of millions of people in the country is a
dictator. This war is undemocratic. It makes a mockery of every ideal that
democracy stands for.
It is the brave who resist. There are other alternatives to war. And to all
of us who will not go quietly and follow our leaders, but instead demand the
representation that democracy owes us, I salute you.
History will judge us. If there is such a thing as history in the future.
There may not be a written history. Our history may only consist of
steel fragments in geological sediment. In millions of years the descendants
of the insects may
examine the wreckage of American Tanks and try to ascertain quite why the
Human Species chose to destroy itself. There may not be any answers. They
reach the conclusion that two countries were fighting over fossil fuels,
lock their antenna and state that not even humans could be that stupid on a
mass scale.
Let us not forget that in this, the nuclear age, a pre-emptive strike could
effectively be the deathknell of all mankind. All it takes is one power-mad,
unelected leader to wage war and other countries will defend themselves to
the death. The death not just of themselves, but potentially of every human
being on the planet.
This war is an extinction level event. The only people who are guilty of
instigating the war are
those leaders on both sides of the conflict who, through a demented
combination of ego, greed, and
religion will not see beyond their own pride. The war we should be fighting
is against them.
- – Mark Reed
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