To highlight the continuation of the Iraqi civil war and associated genocide I would like to draw attention to this Guardian article detailing attempts to quantify the number of innocents killed.
One small point of contention with the article, however: Jonathan Steele and Suzanne Goldenberg state that the Iraqi genocide is "the worst humanitarian catastrophe in today's world". I disagree. The ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 5.4 million people, mostly through starvation and disease. Johann has been there and returned to tell the tale.
We- the British public- are, however, a little less complicit in the Congolese genocide than we are in the Iraqi one. And therefore I would like to call upon anyone reading this to reject another term in power for the Labour government or any return to power for the Conservatives- both of whom supported the initiation of a war of aggression in direct contravention of Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The leadership of these two parties at the time should be indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, along with George Bush, Dick Cheney and José María Aznar. All UK forces should withdraw from Iraq immediately and any peacekeeping duties that are essential to the preservation of law and order int hat nation should be handed over to a combined UN force whose operation is wholly financed by the UK, the US and Spain.
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Bush is as blind to reality as ever.
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This Guardian article illustrates the human suffering caused by our government's actions. Imagine if this was taking place on the streets of Milton Keynes or Worcester or Aberdeen.
I really struggle to understand why people keep voting Labour despite the fact they know they were lied to.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make Labour voters complicit? That's a disturbing thought.
Complicit or stupid, I'm not sure which is worse. You know, democracy is founded on the principle of informed decision making. What happens when that process is informed by the lies and machinations of the tabloid media and government spin? You and I- we're lucky. We both have an appreciation of the gritty nature of C21st realpolitik. We're not blindly attached to one or another political doctrine. We actually READ manifestos! There are so many people out there of the "I've voted Labour all my life" persuasion who are incapable of engaging in any criticism of self and looking beyond their simple ideology because they cannot understand what they have to gain. Worse still, there are even more people out there who proudly sniff "I've never voted, I don't see the point" followed by some glib disparity such as 'they're all the same' or 'my vote won't change anything' or 'the other lot always get in anyway', etc. etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteMy point is, and its one that has been made elsewhere by greater minds, is that our civilisation is inherently introverted and will not percieve itself to be threatened by the approaching storm until the first trees start falling on people's houses. After another year of constant rises in oil prices and a another few bombs exploding in our cities and a few more tales emerge of Western attrocities in Iraq you will see the machine start to work in dissociating itself from the prospect of repeating that mistake for another generation or so. Every new generation seems incapable of learning from the last and makes the same mistakes.