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My MP is going to be really fed up with me soon - at the request of Oxfam I have emailed him as well as Tony Blair to let them know my position on Iraq - not that they care, but that's not stopped me up til now.
I am deeply concerned that the human suffering caused by a war against Iraq will be horrific. There are enormous risks to Iraqi civilians' food supply, clean water, and safe sanitation, as well as the danger of many civilian casualties. No-one has shown an imminent threat to outweigh these risks.
While Saddam Hussein has done many appalling things as leader of Iraq, the rules of dealings between nations states mean that we cannot and should not impose a solution of our choosing on Iraq or it's people. We do not have the right to take that decision out of their hands, and we certainly should not be penalising them in the way that any war will for not taking that decision.
Although I have voted for Labour in the past, I regret to say that I cannot support a party or a government prepared to take international law into their own hands.
To Tony: I appeal to you NOT to start this war.
To Andrew Smith: I have also sent a copy of this letter to the Prime Minister.
To my shame, the last bit (having voted Labour in the past) is actually true. Way back in 1997 I was just young enough to vote, desperate to get the Tories out and living in a rural Norfolk constituency where the Labour guy was the only other one with any chance (and he didn't make it in the end). I remember how excited I was, both casting my vote and then the morning after. It was all going to be different.
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Re: hmmmm...
Date: January 30th, 2003 09:43 am (UTC)From:While the past decade+ of sanctions has failed to disarm Saddam, it has certainly contained him, has released a buyer's-market control of Iraqi oil, and has kept Saddam's more exotic punishments against his own citizenry in check.
All in all, a successful campaign.
The West can afford to wait, Saddam is an old man, and he can't afford the slow mouldy deterioration Pinochet or Ne Win or Pol Pot could and did.