Don't Bomb Iraq

[Guest guest]

Hi all

 

For anyone who is interested, below is the speech made by John Pilger at the

demonstration, as found on http://www.uk.indymedia.org

 

Jo

 

I was just asked by somebody from the BBC 'Didn't I think that the people of

this country were really suffering from compassion fatigue?' and I said

'this is your answer; 350,000 to 400,000 people suffering from compassion

fatigue like hell'. It's a great privilege to be here. I think that today

may well be the beginning of true democracy in this new century. Democracy

is not a game played in an institution that rubber stamps a government.

Democracy is not one obsessed man using the power of kings to attack another

country in our name. Democracy is not siding with Ariel Sharon - a war

criminal - in order to crush the Palestinians. Democracy is this great event

today representing the majority of the people of Great Britain. Now I've

been to Iraq and I've been recently to Palestine and I've seen the suffering

in those countries - children dying in cancer wards in southern Iraq, dying

because their country is denied the equipment to fight their cancer and to

clean up battlefields contaminated by depleted uranium - a weapon of mass

destruction used by the United States and Britain 12 years ago. Let me quote

2 American scholars John and Carl Mueller who have examined objectively all

the statistics of suffering in Iraq since the embargo was imposed 12 years

ago. They conclude, and I quote 'economic sanctions have probably taken the

lives of more people in Iraq than have been killed by all weapons of mass

destruction in history'. That research appeared not in a campaign pamphlet

but in the American establishment journal Foreign Affairs. It's a truth that

many of my fellow journalists and broadcasters ignore or whisper because

they know what it means. It means that a great crime against Iraq has

already been committed in our name. And if they are honest with themselves

they will know that the flattery of these imperial politicians has to stop

and the truth has to be told. Half the population of Iraq are children.

Consider what will happen to them when the cluster bombs fall and the

depleted uranium is used, as it will be. You know, we speak only of murder

when some tragic and hideous event happens in familiar circumstances. But

there is no difference, let me assure you between murder committed here and

murder committed by our government and its Allies in Iraq and in Palestine.

This is not rhetoric and its time our public language was freed of its

double standards. If they attack Iraq, Bush and Blair will be international

criminals. They must be stopped because other countries will be next; Iran,

North Korea, perhaps even eventually China. What is so exciting about today

and all the other demonstrations and meetings that are happening all over

Britain is that they represent the true moral mainstream of political life

in this country. Today a taboo has been broken - we are the moderates . Bush

and Blair are the extremists. The danger for all of us lies not in Baghdad

but in Washington. Only one country has used a nuclear weapon against

civilians, only one country has threatened to use nuclear weapons in South

East Asia and the Middle East, only one country has torn up all the treaties

that were forged over years to prevent this happening, only one country is

developing nuclear weapons for pre-emptive use and that country is the

United States. Tony Blair belongs to George W. Bush and not to us. If he

joins the attack on Iraq he will kill untold numbers of innocent people and

he will promote the kind of terrorism that endangers the lives of all of us.

Is that we they call patriotism?

Blair and Bush are the true enemy within. I believe we have no choice now:

our resistance to their murderous plans must be unrelenting.

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Why Jo, however could this be true? After all, it wasn't included in

Bush's speech and therefore must be a lie created " them " ! I mean, we

all know that the government would never steer us wrong.

 

<sigh>

 

nikki

 

, " Heartwork " <Heartwork@b...> wrote:

> Hi all

>

> For anyone who is interested, below is the speech made by John

Pilger at the

> demonstration, as found on http://www.uk.indymedia.org

>

> Jo

>

> I was just asked by somebody from the BBC 'Didn't I think that the

people of

> this country were really suffering from compassion fatigue?' and I

said

> 'this is your answer; 350,000 to 400,000 people suffering from

compassion

> fatigue like hell'. It's a great privilege to be here. I think that

today

> may well be the beginning of true democracy in this new century.