Letter to Blair on Position of U.K.
The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair
10, Downing St.
London
Saturday, March 8th, 2003
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
I am a British subject living in the United States, and I am writing to express my concern over the British government’s position towards Iraq.
The U.N. Security Council and the weapons inspectors in Iraq, with the support of people and governments all over the world, are fulfilling their responsibility to ensure the peaceful disarmament of Iraq, as detailed yesterday at the Security Council. However, the reaction of the U.S. and British governments to each positive development has been consistently negative, and your rhetoric now seems further divorced from the reality on the ground than ever. I would like to believe that we are witnessing an effective use of the “good cop/bad cop” technique, with U.S. and British pressure supporting U.N. disarmament efforts, but, like the rest of the world, I listen to your rhetoric and watch the preparations for war with deep concern.
According to the United Nations, the Gulf War killed at least 100,000 Iraqis, and a full-scale war of invasion would kill at least twice, or possibly several times, that number, in addition to thousands of British and American soldiers. The vast majority of people all over the world regard this as a totally unacceptable “solution” to this problem. The stated reasons for military action make so little sense that they have only served to fuel almost universal mistrust and speculation as to your and President Bush’s “real” motives. Most experts reject the idea that an invasion and military occupation of Iraq could possibly create a more stable environment in the Middle East or the world, and would view this as just a further escalation in the proliferation of weapons, violence and hatred.
Even worse, an invasion of Iraq without the sanction of the United Nations would violate the spirit and the letter of the U.N. Charter and there is no precedent in international law that could give legitimacy to such actions. It would be such a disruption of the existing international order that it is very hard to predict the degree of isolation in which Britain and the U.S. would find themselves, or what diplomatic and economic consequences might result. Nor have you or the media honestly addressed the actual reality of occupying a hostile country. We have been told to imagine our sons and daughters as liberators, when we would probably do better to study the Israeli experience in the West Bank.
The Bush administration is clearly receiving an abundance of very bad advice and misguided theories to guide its radical and unilateral foreign policy. I would urge you to speak up and offer them some common sense and the humanitarian view that is shared by people all over the world, that Iraq must be disarmed peacefully through a rigorous regime of U.N. inspections and demolition. The alternative should be unthinkable.
Yours sincerely
10, Downing St.
London
Saturday, March 8th, 2003
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
I am a British subject living in the United States, and I am writing to express my concern over the British government’s position towards Iraq.
The U.N. Security Council and the weapons inspectors in Iraq, with the support of people and governments all over the world, are fulfilling their responsibility to ensure the peaceful disarmament of Iraq, as detailed yesterday at the Security Council. However, the reaction of the U.S. and British governments to each positive development has been consistently negative, and your rhetoric now seems further divorced from the reality on the ground than ever. I would like to believe that we are witnessing an effective use of the “good cop/bad cop” technique, with U.S. and British pressure supporting U.N. disarmament efforts, but, like the rest of the world, I listen to your rhetoric and watch the preparations for war with deep concern.
According to the United Nations, the Gulf War killed at least 100,000 Iraqis, and a full-scale war of invasion would kill at least twice, or possibly several times, that number, in addition to thousands of British and American soldiers. The vast majority of people all over the world regard this as a totally unacceptable “solution” to this problem. The stated reasons for military action make so little sense that they have only served to fuel almost universal mistrust and speculation as to your and President Bush’s “real” motives. Most experts reject the idea that an invasion and military occupation of Iraq could possibly create a more stable environment in the Middle East or the world, and would view this as just a further escalation in the proliferation of weapons, violence and hatred.
Even worse, an invasion of Iraq without the sanction of the United Nations would violate the spirit and the letter of the U.N. Charter and there is no precedent in international law that could give legitimacy to such actions. It would be such a disruption of the existing international order that it is very hard to predict the degree of isolation in which Britain and the U.S. would find themselves, or what diplomatic and economic consequences might result. Nor have you or the media honestly addressed the actual reality of occupying a hostile country. We have been told to imagine our sons and daughters as liberators, when we would probably do better to study the Israeli experience in the West Bank.
The Bush administration is clearly receiving an abundance of very bad advice and misguided theories to guide its radical and unilateral foreign policy. I would urge you to speak up and offer them some common sense and the humanitarian view that is shared by people all over the world, that Iraq must be disarmed peacefully through a rigorous regime of U.N. inspections and demolition. The alternative should be unthinkable.
Yours sincerely
posted by Nicolas Davies | 10:19 AM
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