NassirUDeen writes "Twelve years of sanctions have left Iraq a devastated country. Over a million people have died and millions more suffer from lack of medicines, foods and basic necessities. This act of war and terror has been conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. But crushing Iraq in this way is not enough to satisfy the Bush clique in Washington; they want an all-out war.

The Spark 23 September 2002
Daphna Whitmore, general secretary, WPNZ

Where does the New Zealand government stand? Outwardly it appears, unlike Blair and Howard, not to line up so resolutely behind Bush. Prime Minister Helen Clark says instead that the Government’s position on Iraq is that any military action against Saddam Hussein should be under a United Nations mandate. That means that if Bush can coerce and cajole enough of the other imperialist powers and puppet leaders in the UN to join the war then it’s okay by the New Zealand Government.

Whether a new war on Iraq was run by the US or the UN it’s character would be just the same: it would be a war of imperialist powers against a third world country. It would be an unjust war to further consolidate the grip of the big foreign corporations over the resources of the Middle East.

But the US corporations already have most of the Middle East in their hands. At the same time there is rivalry between the imperialist powers over Iraq. In particular France and Russia have their own interests in the region that would not be served by backing a US war. Even within the Bush administration there is opposition to a new war, with the most astute recognising it would inflame rebellion among the Arab masses.

Bush has been trying to make a case for war with claims that Iraq is building a huge arsenal of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. All the hype is just a smokescreen. For a start, why should such weapons be the preserve of the big powers and their partners? As everybody knows there is no power that can match the United States when it comes to quantities of weapons of horror. Of course, as any sober person can see Iraq is unlikely to have much in the way of weapons and this is recognised by former weapons inspector Steve Ritter. He is in a position to know after spending years in Iraq looking for chemical and nuclear weapons and witnessing first hand the devastation caused by the sanctions.

He has stated plainly that the Bush administration has not produced hard facts ‘that substantiate any allegations that Iraq is today in possession of weapons of mass destruction or has links to terror groups responsible for September 11 attacks on the United States’ (New Zealand Herald 9 September 2002).

It is not Iraq that poses the threat to the world—it is the United States. It already has a stranglehold over Iraq and that domination has been enforced over the past decade with not only the sanctions but also frequent bombing raids carried out by US and British planes in areas declared ‘no-fly’ zones. Countless civilians have been killed in these raids.

A new war will bring even more suffering to the Iraqi people. Confidential leaked reports say that such a war would start with B-2 stealth bombers raining 1000kg bombs followed by an invasion of tens of thousands of US Marines. (That these reports keep being leaked shows there is opposition within the establishment).

While such a war would be profitable to the arms industry it will not save the US from its present economic problems. Lawrence Lindsey, the head of the National Economic Council estimated the cost of invading Iraq would be $200 billion. He rejected the notion that the war would stimulate the economy pointing out that ‘Government spending tends not to be that stimulative .... that building weapons and expending them isn’t the basis of sustained economic growth’. (Guardian 16 September 2002).

To return to the question of the New Zealand Government, it is fairly evident that besides a few squeaks from Clark about not rushing to support a US-led war there have been no words of condemnation of Bush’s war drive. All the government ministers want is the stamp of authority to be issued by the United Nations.

While they line up to support a new slaughter they can talk all sorts of nonsense about fighting terror. The reality is, however, there is no terror to match the scale and ferocity of the US imperialist bloc, of which New Zealand is a junior partner.

The task of building an anti-war movement lies with the ordinary people of New Zealand who have no interest in a war with Iraq. We need to oppose the ongoing war and the plans for another all-out war. That means opposing all the sponsors of terror against Iraq – the US and its allies, the United Nations and the New Zealand government.

THE SPARK "