BY ALANA KERR
SYDNEY The US war on the people of Iraq has persisted since 1991, an October 9 public meeting in Bondi Junction, hosted by the Eastern Sydney branch of the Socialist Alliance, was told.
Layla Mohammad, from the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI), described how the Iraqi people have suffered a dramatic decline in living standards since the 1990-91 Gulf War because of UN sanctions.
More than 50% of children are unable to attend school, whereas before the Gulf War most children received a high level of education. Before war and sanctions, Iraq had a relatively well-developed economy; now it has been shattered and more than 60% of the adult population is unemployed. Children suffer terribly from a lack of basic medicines.
Mohammad argued that Washington's policy of war and sanctions against Iraq is not designed to assist human rights and democracy, but is a form of genocide. She stated that a regime imposed on Iraq by the US would serve Washington's economic and political interests, not those of the Iraqi people.
The WCPI is building the movement to oppose a US/UN war on Iraq, but also supports the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi people. Mohammad said this will require the development of a stronger opposition inside Iraq, but that can only happen if the sanctions are lifted.
Socialist Alliance speaker Melanie Sjoberg refuted some of the myths being peddled by US President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
"If the US was genuinely concerned about the development of nuclear weapons then surely it would endorse the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty? If the US is such a strong advocate of democracy and civil rights then why does it not agree to an International Criminal Court?", asked Sjoberg.
The real beneficiaries of the US war drive, noted Sjoberg, will be major military corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon.
From Green Left Weekly, October 16, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.