Parts of the antiwar movement are basing their
opposition on the fact that there is not yet any UN backing for action
against Iraq. Fred Weston looks at who is on the UN Security
Council and how the USA can bribe and bully most of them into
supporting their war effort. And concludes that we must oppose the war,
with or without UN support.
The long awaited Blix report to the UN has solved nothing. It is worded
in such a way that anyone can use it to argue for immediate attack on
Iraq or… for more inspections! Thus the United Nations is demonstrating
once again that it can solve nothing. The real decisions will be taken
by the major powers, in this case the United States, the only real
superpower on the planet.
On March 5, in the USA and Canada a student strike against the war has
been called by several left wing and progressive organisations. The In Defence of Marxism
web site totally supports this mobilisation and calls on students
around the world to organise strikes, rallies, assemblies for that day
and link up with the American students who are taking such a brave
stance. There are going to be student strikes in many countries. The
Spanish School Students' Union (Sindicato de Estudiantes)
is mobilising to turn this into an international day of action and we
are publishing their latest statement in support of the March 5 action.
The preparations for the invasion of Iraq by the United States have
provoked a major international crisis. Over the coming months, this
crisis - which is yet in its early stages - will have further
repercussions throughout the entire world.
In every war in history, God is always on our side. That is what
Tony Blair and George W. Bush fervently believe. And as the armies of
the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain mass in the
Gulf, preparing the serious business of mass slaughter in Iraq, the
Almighty is being mobilized for war service, along with everyone else
in sight and out of it.
Just as we predicted, Hans Blix has stabbed the Iraqis in the back. As
the UN Security Council met in a private session to discuss the
Anglo-American draft resolution that would pave the way for military
action, a copy of the latest report by the chief weapons inspector was
published by the BBC. In it, Hans Blix said it was "hard to understand"
why measures now being taken by Iraq "could not have been initiated
sooner", and that repeated demands for Iraq to disarm had shown only
"very limited" results. The latest double talk in the deadly game of
diplomacy means only one thing - war.