War In Iraq

I know my 20th century history pretty well, and base my opinions on what history has taught us. I supported the war in Iraq, and continue to do so. I accept that the intelligence on WMDs was flawed - I'll even concede that it may have been misused by our governments (who had to sell the war to a cynical public), but I still believe that it was the right course of action.

Saddam Hussein should have been deposed after the first Gulf War, and if it had been down to the US or UK to decide, he would have been. Unfortunately, such action was not under the UN's mandate (so let's remember who's really responsible for the mess we're in). As a result, we had years of farce, as Saddam abused his people and built more pretty palaces for himself under the guise of the Oil For Food programme.

France, Russia and China opposed war with Iraq for less than noble reasons. Before you jump on the 'we armed Iraq' bandwagon, like most of the general public does, check your facts (from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - about as independent as you'll get). The main opposition to war in Iraq in the UN Security Council came from (surprise, surprise) those countries who had supplied the most arms to Iraq (a combined total of over 80% versus a total of under 0.5% from the USA and UK), and, oh, yes, who had billions of dollars invested in oil and business programs. So let's get this straight once and for all...

THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN DID NOT ARM IRAQ -
THE MAIN OPPONENTS OF THE WAR DID.

The United States probably has the best record for treatment of defeated enemies in modern history. Germany and Japan are model and peace-loving democracies now, thanks largely to the USA's nation-building activities, Marshall Plan assistance, and military defence post WW2. The opponents of the war in Iraq miss this point completely. It is in the US's (and the world's) best interest to establish self-sustainable democracies with whom they can trade - not to run them as colonies. The US has never gone in for empire building, unlike many countries in Europe, including, of course, Great Britain.

I hear the opponents of war tell us that Iraq was not a threat to us. Nobody suggested that they had ICBMs in the first place (even if the public and media read that into the intelligence, and the government did nothing to disuade them from believing this to be the case), but if I had been Saddam, I would have delighted in any chance to have a pop at the US or the UK, and if some extremist group was willing to do that on my behalf, without me being implicated, well just hand me my cheque book.

If Iraq was not a threat, then on that basis, Hitler was not a threat to us in Great Britain. He admired the British Empire and had no wish to fight us. According to eye witnesses, when we declared war in September 1939, he turned white, was visibly shaken and had to sit down. Where would noble, but misguided pacifism (to which ten million British voters subscribed in a 'peace ballot' prior to the outbreak of hostilities) have got us then?

The League Of Nations failed, because it wouldn't enforce its policies, with force when necessary. As Bush said, the UN must back up its resolutions, or become irrelevant. Blair feels the same way. As a social democrat, Blair is big enough to see the big picture and work with Bush - it's certainly not a vote-winner for Blair, but he's bigger than that.

War is messy and nobody likes it, but the consequences of not coming down hard on rogue nations are far worse.

One final point. There seems a widely-held belief that poverty causes terrorism, and I wouldn't dispute that poverty can be a major contributing factor, but the men who flew planes into the World Trade Center on the 11th of September 2001 were not poor - they did that terrible act in the belief that they would be escorted to heaven by virgins. You see, they don't care about innocents dying, because they follow the 'let God sort them out' approach. Make no mistake - if they could kill millions of us, they would. How are you going to fight that? Invite them in for a nice cup of tea?

14th November, 2004

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