I've been posting to this blog for a while now (if a little intermittently) and so far have pretty much avoided the issue of our struggle for democracy in the Middle East and Iraq in particular. There has just been so much written and spoken on the subject that I wanted to leave it until I had fully gathered my thoughts and could deliver a true reflection of my opinion.
When Tony Blair assured the British people in 2002-03 that Saddam Hussein was in control of an arsenal of Weap..., those thingies of mass whatsit, I was extremely dubious. No surprise, as the UN inspector Hans Blix had, despite being ejected from the weapons sites, deduced that Iraq carried no such power. Indeed, Blix inaugurated the now oft-repeated clamour to inspect the real source of danger on the world stage - North Korea (if one were to be unkind at this point, one could draw the assumption that the USA would not want to get into a conflict with a small nation that has already 'kicked their ass' on the world stage and would rather go after someone they have recently beaten).
My suspicions were already aroused on hearing the propaganda that Osama Bin Laden was conveniently hiding in various places around the globe that were of particular importance to the oil industry; Afghanistan with it's strategically important pipelines (and a nice sideline in heroin, which I believe is now up and running to full capacity again); Pakistan, who underwrite many of the Middle-Eastern oil ventures and had just attained nuclear-capability (a definite no-no for an Islamic state. Why can't you be more like India?); Iran, who had lost the Western investors hundreds of billions of dollars of investments when the Shah (who had been a good little sandboy and sold the oil nice and cheap) was overthrown by the Ayatollah in the recent past; and Iraq.
In hindsight, our combined World Force For Peace (or whatever it's called) would have been better invading the White House if they wanted to find Bin Laden, or WMD's for that matter.
Despite all this, I was in an awkward position as far as the potential threat Iraq posed was concerned. I did not want to believe that our Prime Minister would lie to us on such a grand scale and in such a manner that would lead to the loss of so many lives. I tacitly gave my support to an initial invasion to determine the actual capability of Hussein and to nullify it where possible. And by 'support' I mean that I kept quiet like a good citizen and didn't join the Hyde Park march even though I was in London on the day, decisions which can never be reversed and which I deeply regret now, of course.
Now, five years on, what have we achieved? Conservative estimates suggest that the death-toll has exceeded one million dead (the majority by far Iraqi). We have installed a puppet government that regularly passes edicts that contravene even the most basic of human rights. Terrorist activity has been aroused not only in that area, but globally and the funding for terrorist networks has been assured for decades to come. Our forces patrol the streets like the invading tyrants they are, committing the sorts of atrocities that characterise such a Nazi-like enterprise. The telling figures from the conflict are that about one -and-a-half-thousand contractors have been killed in Iraq since 2003, with a further 12,000 injured. Just how many contractors do you need to give the Iraqis freedom? How many contractors, for example were taken to the Falklands in 1981?
We all now know that this false war is a sham. I suggest that we stop calling it 'The Gulf War' or 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' and start calling it what it is: an invasion. An occupying force.
Who's next? Well, no surprises there: it's Iran. Don't forget that the Iranians callously captured a boatload of our troops in 2006 (troops that were illegally encroaching on Iranian waters in what can only be described as a provocative and foolish manner), treated them well and sent them home. But never mind that, there is now definite proof that Iran is funding Al-Quaeda and supplying terrorist with weapons. No, really, DEFINITE, this time, honestly.
The West is gradually creating a quasi-empire in the Middle-East and the reason, as always is power. Oil is only money and money is fairly meaningless to the kinds of people that can carry out such atrocities on such a scale. The irony is that I don't believe for a minute that Tony Blair is one of those people. To anyone that watched as he aged rapidly during the last few years of his Premiership it was obvious that this man will find it difficult to wash the blood from his conscience in his last years.
But the really disgusting part of all this is our role; we who could have made at least a political and social point when the elections came around. We didn't, and because of this we are all responsible for this mass-slaughter.
