Malcolm Fraser on the Iraq War
A war that has run out of control
By Malcolm Fraser
October 17, 2006
The "coalition of the willing", America, Britain and Australia, went to war on the basis of what is now known to be a lie. As a consequence of that decision, we are plunged into a dangerous and escalating situation.
The new chief of the general staff in Britain, General Sir Richard Dannatt, made it plain that British forces should not be in Iraq, that they were unwelcome, that they were making the situation worse and that they were increasing Britain's security problems worldwide.
Across the Atlantic, former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton are chairing the Iraq Study Group, appointed by Congress some months ago. Its purpose is to examine options and alternatives to present Iraq policy. It is clear that very senior people in the United States believe the present course cannot be sustained.
United States Intelligence agencies, in saying that the war in Iraq has fed terrorism, are only confirming what many people have been saying for months, even for years.
Perhaps the greatest failure was the naive belief that a benign democracy would emerge from the ashes of American bombs. Why should it? The institutions did not exist, the country was not used to the practice of democracy. There were at least three strongly divided groups within Iraq, the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites. The likelihood of those three disparate groups co-operating to form a working democracy was always remote.
Terrible as Saddam Hussein was, the West did not have the capacity to replace him. It did have the capacity to cause chaos, the reality of civil war, increasing disaster and increasing hardship for most Iraqis. It is hard to get any one of the three of the leaders of the coalition of the willing to speak truthfully about the reality of Iraq. Prime Minister Tony Blair says that Britain is fighting for the survival of Britain's way of life. That is plainly untrue.
It is clear that the coalition does not know what to do now.
To read the full article, click on:
The Age
By Malcolm Fraser
October 17, 2006
The "coalition of the willing", America, Britain and Australia, went to war on the basis of what is now known to be a lie. As a consequence of that decision, we are plunged into a dangerous and escalating situation.
The new chief of the general staff in Britain, General Sir Richard Dannatt, made it plain that British forces should not be in Iraq, that they were unwelcome, that they were making the situation worse and that they were increasing Britain's security problems worldwide.
Across the Atlantic, former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton are chairing the Iraq Study Group, appointed by Congress some months ago. Its purpose is to examine options and alternatives to present Iraq policy. It is clear that very senior people in the United States believe the present course cannot be sustained.
United States Intelligence agencies, in saying that the war in Iraq has fed terrorism, are only confirming what many people have been saying for months, even for years.
Perhaps the greatest failure was the naive belief that a benign democracy would emerge from the ashes of American bombs. Why should it? The institutions did not exist, the country was not used to the practice of democracy. There were at least three strongly divided groups within Iraq, the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites. The likelihood of those three disparate groups co-operating to form a working democracy was always remote.
Terrible as Saddam Hussein was, the West did not have the capacity to replace him. It did have the capacity to cause chaos, the reality of civil war, increasing disaster and increasing hardship for most Iraqis. It is hard to get any one of the three of the leaders of the coalition of the willing to speak truthfully about the reality of Iraq. Prime Minister Tony Blair says that Britain is fighting for the survival of Britain's way of life. That is plainly untrue.
It is clear that the coalition does not know what to do now.
To read the full article, click on:
The Age
posted by Pax Christi @ Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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