MAD DOGS OF WAR

The slaughter of the Muslims of Iraq has begun. The world’s only super-power, aided and abetted by the country from which it sprang and against which it became a rebellious son, leads the onslaught. Blair, the Prime Minister of Britain, like an old woman who has become dependant on an errant son, is content to be led in the hope of picking up some of the crumbs.

The very people of the United States of America and of Britain are vociferously opposed to this unjust and cruel war. So are the people of the rest of the world. In the United Nations itself there is no support for the war. In fact there is open rejection. So the USA and its side-kick Britain, have embarked on an illegal and immoral war of destruction and genocide. The USA did not dare pick on someone its own size when the Soviet Union shot down the American plane the 007 over Shakalin Island. How many Americans, including very important ones, died then? And the USA dared not do anything about it. What cowards they are.

Since a “Third World country’ Vietnam ran the forces of this super-power out of Vietnam, that has been rankling in their breast. They did not dare confront the Soviet Union, but they beat up little Grenada, refusing to allow British ships to enter while the unequal ‘war’ was going on. Britain had to tolerate the snub. They promised the small West Indian islands’ governments financial benefits in the form of Caribbean Basin Initiative. After they had used these governments to give a false garb of legality to their unlawful action, they laughed the claims of these governments to scorn, saying that they had misunderstood the CBI promise.

They helped the Afghans to get the Russians out so they could later move in themselves to gain possession of the oil rich resources of that country. They have tried repeatedly to assassinate Fidel Castro, they encouraged and then betrayed those Cubans who were foolish enough to lead an attack and be slaughtered in the Bay of Pigs. American air-cover never turned up as promised. They were sacrificed. The USA backed the removal of the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. They fathered the assassination of Allende in Chile and the imposition of Pinochet whom Thatcher later protected. They used and then betrayed Noreiga who languishes in jail in the USA. They snap their fingers and our Minister must go to Washington to ensure they have continuous flow of oil from us. We may be small, but we are an independent nation. We are not at their beck and call. We remember what they tried to do to the West Indies by trying to block the sale of our bananas to Europe under favourable conditions. They wanted to run us off the market so they could sell their own bananas grown by their multi-nationals with cheap Mexican labour! Thank God we found support in Europe. Because we West Indians and the government of Canada do not sell our manhood and support the wrong they are doing in Iraq, West Indians living in Canada are required to get a visa to enter into the USA. That is vindictive.

It is time we liberate Marli Street in Port-of-Spain and order the removal of the steel barriers. If the USA, in opposition to the wishes even of their own people, will wage unjust wars for greed and support regimes like that of Ariel Sharon who is wanted for war crimes by Belgium, they must put up with the consequences of their own action. They live in fear of attack all over the world because of their cruel and oppressive policy. Fundamentalists? That is fundamentalist Christianity. Christ weeps! That is the shortest sentence in the bible - “Christ weeps.” And Jehovah must once again, as said in the Old Testament, “Repent that he has made man.”. It is time to stop this cruel, illegal and unjust war in Iraq. I cannot sleep when I think of the terror to which the people there are subjected by this shameful abuse of power by Bush and Blair. Might has now become Right! May God help us. Imagine the arrogance! They want to dictate to Caricom that we must oppose or abstain from voting at the UN General Assembly when non-aligned States convene a Special Session at the UN to discuss the ‘war’. They call that Democarcy! What shameless bullies they are!