Not Backing Our Boys
Posted by Simon Stewart,Tuesday, March 25, 2003
I, like many, am totally outraged and angry about what is now being conducted in Iraq. I can't even begin to measure the contempt I feel for the government. We have been successively lied to with any contrivance being used to match their case for war; it has been a trip into an Orwellian world of falsification disguised as truth. The government has traduced international law, democratic and international institutions to align itself with a thoroughly cowboy US regime of doubtful democratic legitimacy. A Labour government has forfeited any right to be regarded with any trust, to be believed in anything it does or says.
There will be much bogus trumpeting that we must now 'support our boys'. I do not support our boys, they are not my boys: not that I wish them any harm. They will be used by the government and the gutter press as a means to enlarge support for the war, nobble dissent and avoid proper examination of what is happening in Iraq. And yes, there is a swinging behind 'our boys' in the public mood, which is reflected in the latest opinion polls. The reasons for this are multi-faceted and not necessarily intelligently reasoned being more the product of visceral sentiment and the perception that to do otherwise is somehow treacherous.
However, the support this extends to the government is flaky and there remains a crucial third of the country which still opposes the war and does not extend support. This third is very angry, and rightly feels betrayed. This third is still out demonstrating, writing letters and taking action; it is going to continue to do so. We must continue to do so, anything else is compliance. I, totally, fail to understand those and I've met a few in the last day or two who express the view that now war has started we have somehow failed or lost. We have not. We are at the beginning not the end. We go on. !La lucha continua! Have you not noticed the kids in the park, the cross community opposition in Bradford.
No, I do not support our boys.
Simon Stewart