COMMENTARIES AND BACKGROUND ARTICLES

CHOMSKY ON THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=2962
The (peace) demonstrations were another indication of a quite remarkable phenomenon. There is around the world and in the United States opposition to the coming war that is at a level that is completely unprecedented in US or European history both in scope and the parts of the population it draws on.

FISK: POWELL'S PRESENTATION: IT WAS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF BECKETT
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=2977
Sources, foreign intelligence sources, "our sources," defectors, sources, sources, sources. Colin Powell's terror talk to the United Nations Security Council sounded like one of those government-inspired reports on the front page of The New York Times - where it will most certainly be treated with due reverence in this morning's edition. It was a bit like heating up old soup. Haven't we heard most of this stuff before? Should one trust the man? General Powell, I mean, not Saddam.

MONBIOT: ACT NOW AGAINST WAR
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,869832,00.html
The rest of Europe must be wondering whether Britain has gone into hibernation. At the end of this month our prime minister is likely to announce the decision he made months ago, that Britain will follow the US into Iraq. If so, then two or three weeks later, the war will begin. Unless the UN inspectors find something before January 27, this will be a war without even the flimsiest of pretexts: an unprovoked attack whose purpose is to enhance the wealth and power of an American kleptocracy.

LEARNING TO CHEAT LIKE SADDAM
http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=2/10/2003&id=0210031643500
If I were Saddam Hussein's education minister, my response to the evidence set forth by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations last week might have been as follows: "Your premise is irrelevant. You're attacking us because we've been cheating. But so what? You're merely accusing us of something you in the West do, and even teach your kids to do, which is to cheat."

A FAILURE OF SKEPTICISM IN POWELL CONVERAGE
http://www.fair.org
In reporting on Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5 presentation to the United Nations Security Council, many journalists treated allegations made by Powell as though they were facts. Reporters at several major outlets neglected to observe the journalistic rule of prefacing unverified assertions with words like "claimed" or "alleged." This is of particular concern given that over the last several months, many Bush administration claims about alleged Iraqi weapons facilities have failed to hold up to inspection.

SOUTH AFRICA: ANTI-WAR MARCHES TO TAKE PLACE ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA ON 15TH FEBRUARY
http://southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/3012.php
The member organisations of the Social Movements Indaba from across the country, call on South Africans to raise their voices against the impending war on Iraq, by joining anti-war marches and other actions taking place in various cities on 15th February, under the banner of the Anti-War Coalition.

TEN-MILLION JOIN WORLDWIDE PROTEST RALLIES
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=13&o=15800
Up to 10-million people on five continents are expected to demonstrate against the probable war in Iraq on Saturday, in some of the largest peace marches ever known. Up to 400 cities in 60 countries, from Antarctica to Pacific islands, confirmed that peace rallies, vigils and marches would take place.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,12809,893937,00.html
Saturday's anti-war demonstration is vital because it could change the whole course of politics.

SECURITY COUNCIL SCARED TO FACE UP TO HUMAN COST OF IRAQ WAR
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE140172003?Open
Is the Security Council scared to face up to the human toll of conflict in Iraq? Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, has asked. "The humanitarian and human rights consequences of war must be given high priority by the Security Council. When war is contemplated against a country whose people have been suffering from severe violations by their government and more than a decade of sanctions, the need for such an assessment is even more important," said Ms Khan.

THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: A GUIDE TO WEB SITES
http://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/subsection/0,12809,884056,00.html

ANTIWAR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=41&ItemID=3032

TO SAY NO: A POEM BY EDUARDO GALEANO

The 3rd World Social Forum agreed that on February 15th all the social movements should organize themselves to be part of a great global demonstration against the War. A text by Eduardo Galeano, written especially for the International Network of Social Movements, follows.

TO SAY NO
by Eduardo Galeano (a Uruguayan writer)

The president of the planet has announced his next crime in the name of God and democracy. This is how he slanders God. He also slanders democracy, which has managed to survive in the world despite the dictatorships that the United States have been sowing everywhere for over a century.

Bush's government, that more than a government seems a pipeline, needs to seize the second world reserve of oil, that lies under the soil of Iraq. Also, it needs to justify the enormous amount of money of its military expenses and needs to parade in the battlefield the state of the art models of his arms industry.

This is it. The rest is only excuses. And the excuses for the coming carnage offend the intelligence. The only country that has used nuclear arms against a civilian population, the country that burst the atomic bombs that annihilated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, intends to convince us that Iraq is a danger for humanity. If president Bush loves humankind so much, and if he really wants to avert the most serious threat that humankind is facing, why doesn’t he bomb himself, instead of planning a new extermination of innocent people?

Huge demonstrations will take to the streets of the world this coming February 15th. Humankind is sick and tired of being used as an alibi by its murderers. It is also sick and tired of crying for its dead at the end of each war: this time it wants to stop the war that is going to kill them.

IRAQ: FIRST-HAND EVIDENCE FROM CIVILIANS
Charlie Clements
I am a public health physician and a human rights advocate. I have just returned from a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population to another war. I'm also a distinguished graduate of the USAF Academy and a Vietnam veteran, so I have some sense of the potential consequences of the air war we are about to unleash on Iraq as a prelude to the introduction of American troops.

The population of Iraq has been reduced to the status of refugees. 60% of them or almost 14 million Iraqis depend entirely on a government provided food ration that by international standards is the minimal for human sustenance. Unemployment is greater than 50% and the majority of those who are employed make between $4-$8 a month. (The latter figure the salary of a physician that works in a primary health center.) Most families are without economic resources as they have sold off their possessions over the last decade to get by. Hospital wards are filled with severely malnourished children and much of the population has a marginal nutritional status.

The food distribution program funded by the U.N. Oil-for-Food sales supervised is the world's largest and is heavily dependent upon transportation that will be one of the first targets of the war. The U.S. will severe transport routes to prevent Iraqi armed forces from movement or re-supply. The feeding program will be its first victim.

Even before the transportation system is hit , U.S. aircraft will spread millions of graphite filaments in wind dispersed munitions that will cause a complete paralysis of the nation's electrical grids. Already literally held together with bailing wire, because they have been unable to obtain spare parts due to sanctions, the poorly functioning electrical system is essential to the public health infrastructure.

The water treatment system, too, has been a victim of sanctions. Unable to import chlorine and aluminum sulfate (alum) to purify water, there are already 1000% increases in the incidence of some waterborne diseases (typhoid cases have increased from 2200 in 1990 to more than 27,000 in 1999). People will not have potable water in their homes and they will not have water to flush their toilets.

The sanitation system, which frequently backs-up sewage ankle deep in Baghdad neighborhoods when the ailing pumps fail, will now have no pumps at all.
There will be epidemics as water treatment and water pumping will come to a halt. Pregnant women, malnourished children, and the elderly will be the first to succumb. UNICEF estimates the excess child mortality in the last ten years has been more than 500,000 and that figure will climb steeply in the aftermath of another war. They are part of the "collateral damage" from the last war.

The health care system of Iraq cannot handle an emergency of this nature even if there were not thousands of victims of "collateral damage" as we have promised a cruise missile every five minutes for the first 48 hours seeking out military, intelligence, and security forces around Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, Iraq's largest cities.

Even though it is against the Geneva Conventions to target infrastructure that primarily serves civilians, it did not give us pause in the Gulf War and will not this time. If the U.S. pursues this war without the backing of the U.N. Security Council, it will undermine a half century of efforts by the world community to establish a foundation of humanitarian and human rights law that guide international behavior. Such an act would also violate the U.N. Charter and make a mockery of the very institution we have helped to fashion in the hopes it would help prevent crimes against humanity. Many might define the consequences of such an attack on the population of Iraq as just that.

There was a lot that made me angry on that trip. I have worked in war zones before and I have been with civilians as they were bombed by U.S. supplied aircraft, but I don't think I've experienced anything on the magnitude of the catastrophe that awaits our attack in Iraq.

I have just described the basics without any of the horror scenarios such as the unleashing of weapons of mass destruction, civil war or retribution by mobs vying for power or revenge, or house to house fighting as Baghdad becomes another Mogidishu or Jenin.

Saddam is a monster, there is no doubt about that. He needs to be contained and many former U.N. weapons inspectors feel he has been 'defanged.' His neighbors do not fear him any longer. There are many Iraqis who want him removed but not by a U.S. war. We may be unleashing forces of hatred and resentment that will haunt us for decades in every corner of the world. I can just hear Osama Bin Laden now, "Please President Bush, attack Iraq. There's nothing better you could do to help the cause of Al Qaida!"

PETITIONS

TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/iraq/tenthings.html
Discover all the methods available for you to make your voice heard against the war on Iraq by visiting the web link provided. Use fax, email phone and snail mail to join the campaign against the war.

JOIN THE ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM
http://www.internationalanswer.org/
Vote No to War! Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have marched to protest against a planned US-led war on Iraq. Make your voice heard by signing up against war.

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ
http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php? id=12341
United for Peace is a new national campaign that brings together a broad range of organisations throughout the United States to help coordinate work against a U.S. war on Iraq. At an initial meeting in Washington, DC on October 25, more than 70 peace and justice organizations agreed to form United for Peace. United for Peace invites you to join and become part of this new effort.

HELP STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ: EMAIL TONY BLAIR
www.oxfam.org.uk/iraqaction
War in Iraq is getting closer every day - your voice is needed before it becomes a disaster for Iraq's people.

STOP THE WAR!

We, the undersigned, oppose the attack on Iraq. We
call on the US government and its allies to act
together with other countries for the settlement of
international disputes by negotiation - not war

Name Address ORGANISATION Signature
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PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM TO:
Solly Mapaila - SACP
PHONE NUMBER:
011 339 3621, 082 886 3526

Cairo Declaration: Against U.S. Hegemony and War on
Iraq and In Solidarity with Palestine

The internationalmeeting organised by the Egyptian
Popular Campaign to Confront U.S. Aggression was
convened in Cairo on December 18 and 19 to launch the
International Campaign.

We, the participants reaffirm our resolve to stand in
solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine,
recognising that war and aggression against them is
but part of a U.S. project of global domination and
subjugation. Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine is
integral to the internationalist struggle against
neo-liberal globalisation. The Cairo meeting is not
an isolated event, but an extension of a protracted
international struggle against imperialism, from
Seattle and Genoa to Lisbon and Florence, to Cordoba
and Cairo.

The U.S. provides unlimited support, and even
justification, to the Zionist perpetrators of
genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people. The
suffering of the Iraqi people under a regime of
genocidal sanctions lasting over a decade, and the
aggressive militarism which they face today is but a
logical outcome of the structures of power asymmetry
of the existing world order:

The U.S. monopolises political, economic and military
power within the framework of capitalist
globalisation, to the detriment of the lives of the
majority of the world's people
The U.S. imposes control through naked aggression and
militarised globalisation in pursuit of its rulers'
interests, all while reinstating the characteristic
direct occupation of classical colonialism
The U.S. global strategy, which was formulated prior
to September 11 2001, aims to maintain the existing
uni-polar world order, and to prevent the emergence
of forces that would shift the balance of power
towards multi-polarity. The U.S. administration has
exploited the tragic events of September 11, under
the pretext of fighting terrorism, to implement the
pre-existing strategy.

Attention to this global context helps explain
current world developments:

First: Capitalist Globalisation and U.S. Hegemony

prioritise the interest of monopolistic capitalist
circles above those of the people, including
Europeans and U.S. citizens.
integrate the economies of different countries into a
single global capitalist economic system under
conditions which undermine social development and
adversely affect the situation of women, child
health, education, and social services for the
elderly. In addition, unemployment and poverty
increase.
generalise the culture of consumerism and
individualism, to the detriment of a sense of
collective responsibility, whether towards the
thousands of infant and child deaths in Iraq
resulting from polluted water, malnutrition and
deficiencies in medical supplies, or towards the
victims of AIDS, malnutrition and famines around the
world. Among millions of people standards of living
have deteriorated while unemployment and poverty
have become widespread. Globalisation has resulted
in the marginalisation of entire peoples who could
no longer acquire the basic necessities to sustain
life.

Second: In the absence of democracy, and with
widespread corruption and oppression constituting
significant obstacles along the path of the Arab
peoples' movement towards economic, social, and
intellectual progress, adverse consequences are
further aggravated within the framework of the
existing world order of neo-liberal globalisation.

Admission to restrictions on democratic development
in Iraq in no way constitutes acceptance of U.S.
justifications for continuation of sanctions, and
now preparations for war. Without disregarding
long-standing restrictions on democratic development
in Iraqi society - as is the case in all Arab
societies - it is evident that the U.S.-imposed
sanctions have had a devastating effect on Iraq's
development. Whereas Iraq had once enjoyed a
relatively positive profile according to certain
human development indicators, its people now suffer
severely as a result of the sanctions regime. Iraq
has witnessed a significant rise in child mortality
rates, the spread of several diseases, reduction of
opportunities in education, and a marked
deterioration of the standard of living. As human
suffering increases it generates a sense of
defeatism.
The Palestinian people are suffering as a result of
the loss of their land and continued Zionist
aggression, which the U.S. supports militarily,
economically, and politically, making its
administration a de facto accomplice in the crimes
committed against the Palestinian people. The U.S.
protects Israel from condemnation in international
forums under the pretext of combating terrorism, and
it asserts additional false claims, such as when it
equates the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian
people to resist occupation, liberate their land,
and return to their homes, on the one hand, with
terrorism that we all abhor, on the other.
The policies of Structural Adjustment associated with
neo-liberal globalisation have precipitated global
crises manifest in a widening wealth gap, increase
in poverty and unemployment, and general
deterioration of standards of living.
U.S. military presence in the Arab region, and its
dictates to governments of sovereign nations of the
region has compounded the suffering of the Arab
people. Interference in the internal affairs of
these nations now extends to demands of educational
reform, and insistence on "democratisation".
Ironically this is occurring at a time when civil
liberties in the U.S. are clearly under siege,
especially with regard to Arab and Muslim Americans,
along with other minorities. The U.S. administration
also violates international law by its inhumane
treatment of the POWs in Guantanamo. Also evident is
the wealth gap in the U.S., which is the widest among
the industrial nations of the world.
Far from secretly, the US intends to partition Arab
countries into smaller entities on ethnic or
religious basis. This would enable Israel to become
the dominant regional power within the framework of
the Middle East Project, to the peril of an Arab
project of equitable development and regional unity.

The suffering of the Arab people and U.S. unwavering
support of the system of apartheid imposed on the
Palestinian people, will undoubtedly fuel conflict and
lead to the escalation of violence in one of the most
sensitive areas of the world. Such danger can easily
extend to neighboring Europe, Asia and Africa.
Continued preparation for war on Iraq in spite of its
acceptance of a UN resolution of aggressive
inspection of its armament, as well as civilian
industries, signals a predetermined intent to control
the Arab region, its oil and indeed the entire world
supply of oil.

Third: For all these reasons we declare our total
opposition to war on Iraq and our resolve to continue
the struggle against U.S. policies of global
domination. We strongly believe in the urgency of
mobilising against these policies. All democratic
forces in the world that are for genuine Peace and
Justice must join together within the framework of an
international campaign against neo-liberal,
US-centric globalisation and promote an alternate
globalism based on Equity and Justice. This would
mean better utilisation of the world's resources and
protection of the environment. Together the people of
the world are quite able to combat aggression and all
forms of injustice, prejudice and racism, and make a
better world possible.

The Cairo conference against war on Iraq and in
solidarity with Palestine represents the launching of
an international popular movement that creates
effective mechanisms for confronting policies of
aggression. The participation of international
activists who are prominent for their struggles for
Human Dignity, Rights and Justice, as well as
intellectuals, authors, unionists, human rights
workers, journalists and artists- from Egypt and the
rest of the Arab World, Africa, Asia, Latin America,
Europe, and the United States- will no doubt
accelerate this noble endeavour in spite of the
numerous obstacles that we have to confront.

Fourth: It is important that this international
popular initiative of solidarity with Iraq and
Palestine proceed according to an Action Plan which
includes clearly defined priorities:

Condemnation of U.S. military presence on Arab land
along with pressuring the Arab governments that allow
U.S. military bases on their territory to close them
down, and not to provide air, naval, or land
facilities
Develop cooperation among popular organisations of
the South to reinforce solidarity in confronting the
policies and practices of neo-liberal globalisation
and U.S. hegemony
Work towards cooperation with the international
anti-globalisation movement of the North and South,
and participation in activities and meetings
organised by this movement
Promote the unity of democratic forces and popular
organisations in different parts of the world, and
form solidarity committees which oppose war on Iraq,
and the genocidal crimes faced by Palestinians,
supporting their right to resistance and struggle for
liberation
Under the banner Together against globalisation and
U.S. Hegemony add Iraq and Palestine to the agendas
of international progressive meetings, particularly
the next Social Forum at Porte Allegre
Invite Arab and international human rights
organisations to evaluate humanitarian conditions in
Iraq and disseminate their findings worldwide
Prepare to send human shields to Iraq
Introduce the boycott of U.S. and Israeli commodities
in solidarity campaigns in support of Iraq and
Palestine, with emphasis on the right of return for
Palestinians
Elect a Steering Committee to follow up on the
implementation of the Cairo Declaration, and
coordination among organisations which commit to its
principles, and enhance awareness through
appropriate actions ranging from the preparation of
posters to organising marches and demonstrations in
solidarity with Iraq and Palestine

Source: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/Resources/cairo