From: "Heather" <Heather-AT-teknopunx.co.uk> Subject: Fw: Fwd:Mark's latest NS article Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 20:55:24 -0000 Below is Mark Thomas' latest article from New Statesman - to be published on Thursday. <-AT->< ------------- With about 40 per cent of the UK opposed to any war on Iraq and about 80 per cent opposed to a war without a second resolution from the UN I feel a little uneasy with the anti war movement. Not for any basic political reason, I am merely unused to being on the side with this much public support which leaves me a little uncomfortable. In fact I might join the pro war pack for a while just to feel isolated, miserable and disregarded again, to acclimatize myself. Between 1-1 1/2 million people took to the streets of London to protest the war, in the largest ever demonstration in Britain. No wonder that in Glasgow on the day of the march Blair had the haunted look of a man about to start on Prozac, down grade, move to Dorset and start teaching Pilates. The week of the demonstration was a bad time for the pro war pack. Colin Powell was not only denied a green light from Hans Blix; he was actually slapped down globally on live TV. After 17 years of performing I can spot a good heckle when I see one. When Blix said that Colin Powell's grainy photos proved nothing, take it form me that was the UN equivalent of "fuck off you're not funny!" France waded in with the diplomatic version of "Taxi for Powell!" and the applause for the weapons inspectors to be given more time was nothing less than a slow handclap. It may well transpire that these events have merely been uncomfortable moments on the road to war. However, the Prime Minister is politically damaged, you know he's hurt when he has to get John Prescott out to convince people he is sincere. Blair's current PR is " you might not like what I am doing but at least I am acting out of moral conviction." In his attempts to create the impression he does have convictions and morals Blair has accused the demonstrators of having blood on their hands. This has less to do with logic and more to do with play ground taunts. If things get really bad for Blair we can expect to hear him preach from the dispatch box that " It takes one to know one and he who smelt it dealt it." After all it is not the demonstrators who are ordering or executing the current bombing raids on Iraq (over one a week since September 11th 2001). UNICEF estimate that 500,000 Iraqi under 5's have died as a result of the sanctions. Blair finally admitted that sanctions cost lives (a u turn from 2 years ago when they were working) condemning demonstrators for allowing sanctions to continue if war is averted. It seems that the blood is on everyone's hands but his own.* The very act of forming an alliance to invade Iraq has murderous consequences. Turkey is essential to the invasion so it is convenient for the morally committed Mr Blair to forget that Turkey's human rights record easily compares to Iraq's. The war in the Kurdish region cost approximately 30,000 lives , 3000-3,500 Kurdish villages and towns have been destroyed and millions of Kurds have been displaced. The UN Special Rapporteur for Torture currently states that torture is "systemic in Turkey." Kurdish lawyer Eren Krishko represents over a hundred Kurdish women taking Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights over rape and sexual assault at the hands of the Turkish state. She asks a simple question: if this many are prepared to come forward after having been denied justice in domestic courts , how many women has this actually happened to? The answer is thousands. Kurdish students are in jail for the crime of signing a petition asking to be taught in Kurdish. Yet Turkey is not condemned . America has just granted Turkey $324 million in loan guarantees to purchase military helicopter, in a growing package that is likely to involve $200 billion worth of aid and loans. So the very race America is supposed to be liberating will be oppressed and murdered by arms from America, by one of America's key friends. Blair meanwhile prepares to underwrite BP pipelines in the Kurdish region while claiming this has nothing to do with oil. He wants Turkey to have missiles from NATO in case Turkey is attacked by Iraq, conveniently forgetting that it has been Turkey that has continually entered Iraq butchering and bombing the citizens he is now so morally committed to. In Blair logic the blood will be on the Turkish Kurds hands for not supporting the war. * The "peace ribbons" scheme is currently raising money to initiate legal work against Blair should war start and should war crimes occur. The aim is to get him investigated as a war criminal at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Lets see who has the blood on who's hands. www.whiteribbons.org.
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