Bring the troops home now!

BY
NICK EVERETT

As the war in Iraq passed its first fortnight, thousands of Iraqis
have been killed by US, Australian and British troops. Unlike many of the
US dead and injured, we will never know most of the Iraqis’ names, what
their lives were like or who they left behind.

All of these dead Iraqis are victims of an illegal and unjust war of
aggression launched against their country by the world's richest and most
powerful country. Many were civilians, others were teenage conscript soldiers,
fighting to defend their homeland from a foreign invasion. They had committed
no act of aggression against Australia, nor did they pose any imminent
threat to any Australians.

Nor were they “collateral damage” of a necessary war. For this war is
not necessary. The initial pretext for the war — that the Iraqi regime
had weapons of mass destruction — has almost completely disappeared from
the invading powers' war propaganda. And no-one believes that Iraqis will
be liberated by being carpet bombed by those who want to steal their oil.

The Australian government’s participation in this war, its use of taxpayer
money to kill, maim and to destroy families, should never be done in our
name. That is why more than million Australians have taken to the streets
to show that we are not part of the killing machine, that we stand with
the Iraqis, not with their invaders.

There are those who say we should not protest, because our first duty
is to “support the troops”. This is just an excuse to shut us up, to get
us off the streets. And it’s an insulting one.

Firstly, we did not send troops into danger. Those 2000, mostly young,
men and women in Iraq and the Persian Gulf are there because the Australian
government sent them. We want to bring them home to safety.

But more importantly, we do not support the job they have been sent
to do. We do not think that Australians should be killing Iraqis and occupying
their towns and villages.

We do support the Iraqi people. We support their right to defend themselves
against the invaders, including those wearing Australian military uniforms.
We stand in solidarity, not with the invading army, but with its victims.

The only way to deliver justice to all those in Iraq is to fight as
hard as we can to get Australian troops out of there. We can’t oppose this
war and not demand that the Australian war machine gets out of Iraq, immediately.

To not call for the withdrawal of the troops will let PM John Howard
off the hook. He can “deplore” this war all he likes, but unless he takes
action to stop it, the blood will continue to drip from his hands.

Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs to be saying that we
can stop the slaughter, that we do not just call for “peace”, but that
we have a plan to stop it — bring the troops home, immediately!

[Nick Everett is a member of the Socialist Alliance and the Sydney Walk
Against the War Coalition.]

From Green Left Weekly, April 9, 2003.

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From GLW issue 533