I come here to represent the Green Alliance [1], which is part of the global Green Movement for ecology, peace, social justice and grassroots democracy.
We oppose war in Iraq because it would be unjust, because it would be an act of aggression, because it would be socially and ecologically devastating, and above all because it is part of a larger, disastrous project of global domination. We oppose aggression in Iraq because we oppose the continuing war against humanity and the earth carried on by the United States government and its political and corporate allies.
We believe that war, conflict, and terrorism will not be ended by expansion of imperial power. And they will continue as long as there is continued global domination over the poor and powerless of the world. The many hundreds of millions of people in this world who suffer absolute poverty, malnutrition, and political oppression will not accept perpetual injustice and plunder of their resources in the name of the security of the very Empire that oppresses them.
The proposed aggression against Iraq is only the latest chapter in a tragic story of imperial domination that must not be forgotten. The last century is replete with literally dozens of examples of the US government’s aggression throughout Latin America — from the tip of South America to the borders of Texas. Sometimes this aggression overthrew dictatorships, other times it overthrew democracies. Such minor details were not important. Corporate interests and imperial state power dictated intervention anywhere at any time, and at any cost — to the victims. All justified in the name of the national interest.
Later in the century, we saw the US government inherit the mantle of French imperialism in southeast Asia, and sponsor a war that produced two million deaths, the destruction of local economies, carpet bombings, agent orange, vast ecological devastation, the assassination of leaders, murders, rapes, prisoners tossed out of helicopters, and support for a fascist military regime. All justified in the name of defending freedom.
As the Vietnam war was coming to an end, we then saw the US government back Pakistan in its genocidal, terroristic war against Bangladesh, where democractic elections were overturned, three million people were slaughtered, hundreds of thousands of women were raped, and a terrible famine was caused. All justified in the name of supporting our friends and allies.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, another US ally, the dictator Suharto, had come to power amidst a terroristic bloodbath with at least a half million victims. In 1975, with the blessing of President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger, Indonesia invaded East Timor. One third of the East Timorese were to be murdered and starved to death in a horrifying reign of terror, torture, rape, and mass destruction. From 1977-79 Jimmy Carter continued support for Indonesia’s terroristic genocide, helping to create a Habitat for Inhumanity. All justified in the name of defending the Free World.
Previously, this same close friend and murderous ally of the US had invaded West Papua, and began a three decade reign of terror that continues even today, with killing, torture and oppression for local people, and the theft of vast mineral wealth for the New Orleans based Freeport McMoRan corporation. (If you want to find the Axis of Evil, go to 1615 Poydras St.). Colonization, cultural genocide, and daily terror. All justified in the name of “Giving Something Back.” [2]
Mr. Bush speaks for an Evil Empire that has inflicted unimaginable terror on humanity and nature and continues to do it today. Yet he insanely rants that this Empire is itself a poor victim of possible aggression. This Empire that controls one-third of the land and two-thirds of the air space in Iraq, that bombs Iraq almost daily, that has hundreds of its agents prowling Iraq’s countryside. Present-day Iraq is unable to defend its own borders. Yet this, we are to believe, is the vast military power that threatens the world! This, we are told, is the reincarnation of Hitler’s Third Reich!
Mr. Bush has said that Iraq is guilty of terrorism and that those who support terrorism are themselves guilty of terrorism. Iraq is in fact a terroristic state. Indeed, as a fascist state it was at one time an ideal US ally. The worst acts of terror on the part of Iraq were the genocidal attacks on the Kurds in 1987 and 1988. A certain George H. W. Bush was President of the United States at that time and supported Iraq as an ally, while both a war of aggression against Iran and the genocide against the Kurds were going on. According to President Bush’s own depiction of Iraq, and according to his own view of terrorism, ex-President Bush is a terrorist. Now is the time to demand that ex-President Bush be put on trial as a terrorist, since we can now take advantage of the rigorous moral standards of his successor.
To paraphrase slightly one of the President’s great heroes: Mr. Bush, tear down your Daddy!
Better yet: Mr. Bush, tear down your whole Evil Empire! End the quest for domination – in Iraq, in Palestine, in Colombia, in West Papua, and everywhere across the planet. Tear down your Evil Empire, so we may finally have that future of freedom and justice for which humanity has struggled for millennia, so that we may finally have peace with our sisters and brothers everywhere, and with the earth that gave birth to us all.