Your rhetoric about the need to protect the world from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction is not plausible. Neither you nor the UN has proof of this. Indeed all the evidence points to the fact that the weapons inspectors in 1990’s have downgraded his military machine, and the present inspection has so far shown no hard core evidence such as to cause fear of attack, particularly against the US and Britain. It is more a fantasy or an excuse for the real reason, which is for the West to secure its uninterrupted supply of the life blood, oil.
A large majority of Britons and others in the world believe that a war with Iraq will not lessen the danger of terrorist attacks: rather it will accentuate potential suicide bombers, and fan the flames of Western hatred. Deep down I know that you also believe it will not bring peace to the Middle East, which is the centre of the world problem today, but produce a greater sense of injustice and violence.
You already know that Israel has violated far more UN resolutions for far longer than Iraq. The suffering of the Palestinians through the hands of Israel, the US proxy, aided by Britain is, and has been a daily news item conveniently ignored because of double standards and hypocrisy. However the people in Britain and the world at large cannot fail to notice it.
I respect and cherish the principles of democracy, but feel I see only the shadow of it. It is a democracy of convenience which you will find difficult to propagate next time you are on a world tour of diplomacy.
May I finally appeal to you that in taking the partnership stand with the US for war you are doing it in our name, and will send us the bill through Gordon Brown in our tax rises, despite the fact that we neither voted for Bush nor for war.
This comes at a time when around forty million people in Africa face the worst famine in living memory; some sixty million people are affected with HIV/AIDS for which there is no cure; two million people are dying from malaria every year; we see numerous world trouble spots for example The Democratic Republic of Congo, where two million five hundred thousand people died recently as a result of war fought over the country’s rich resources; There are looming environmental disasters; India and Pakistan are at each others’ throats with a nuclear holocaust in sight; North Korea, Israel, Russia, China and possibly others with large stockpiles of weapons in their armoury- the world is already shaking with fear. I believe that the likes of the US, Britain and Europe should be motivated to solving these threats rather than creating yet another avenue for instability, vengeance and hatred by attacking a nation that can barely afford to feed its own people.
Therefore I appeal to your true conscience and hope that good sense will prevail for the sake of mankind, global peace and security.
Yours faithfully,
S.K.