The president of the United States of America, Mr. George W. Bush, and his “coalition of the willing” prime ministers Messrs Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, and John Howard of Australia are, in my opinion, grossly deceptive in having forged a military  strike, against the people of Iraq (al-Jum-hûrîah al-‘Irãqîyah), under the euphemism of “war against terrorism”, and presuppositions of the existence of ‘arsenals of weapons of mass destruction’.

The pre-strike propaganda of this war has been a Machiavellian mismanagement of facts and a tissue of gross deception at its worst. Mr. Bush’s dichotomic ‘with or against’ rhetoric, is a case in point, that suggests his attempts to stampede the uncommitted into his “coalition of the willing”. This exhibits Mr. Bush’s naïvety and unfamiliarity of international diplomacy; and foreign affairs. His attempts to stampede the uncommitted with veiled intimidation, and extremly polorized rhetoric is tactless and totalitarian.

Mr. Bush’s vigorous stance, for this war, and its implementation by his coalition, is out of character with the principles upon which his great Nation was founded. All in all, I believe, he is out of synch with the warm-heartedness and unbounded generosity of the collective American psyche; and decent peace-loving people everywhere.

The death-knell of Iraq’s despotic presidency under Mr. Saddam Hussein, his totalitarian government, and Baath Party was inevitable. Mr. Hussein was a patient, judicious, calculating president who appears to have perceived himself as a world-class ‘politico-culture figure’. He had an unconstrained lethal streak quite capable of covert terrorist activities. His despotic régime had to be replaced by an egalitarian and humane form of government for political, economic, stability, but the answers to the obvious questions as to whom and for whom is yet to become apparent.

The coalition’s invasion and military strike into poor residential neighborhoods in Baghdad (home to 4.5 million human beings) and in other areas of Iraq, notwithstanding the inexistent sanctions of the United Nations Security Council, and massive worldwide objections, demonstrates a blatant and contemptuous disregard to both the Council’s concern for international peace and security – as outlined in Chapter VII of its Charter – and the anti-war consensus of the global community.

The “liberation of the Iraqi people”, from the indubitable cruel repressive régime of Mr. Hussein, is not at all convincing when considering recent terrible atrocities, under other régimes, has been tolerated, by the present coalition; in favour of economic and political convenience. After Mr. Hussein’s totalitarian government has gone, the theatre closed, and the coalition forces returned home, will the people of Iraq celebrate a newly-emerged veritable independence, hopefully, free of foreign economic domination.

A quasi-independent administration would guarantee access and a proportionable large share of incessant supply of Iraq’s oil resources – at negotiated prices – to sustain the dolce vita for the privileged few, but extracting the economic value from Iraq’s human and oil resources, under this kind of administration, is anti-egalitarianism at its worst. The people of Iraq deserve an authentically elected government – an independent Peoples’ Republic of Iraq – by the people and for the people, free from hostilities and interference by foreign powers.

The coalition’s manoeuvres of indiscrete bombardment – with clustered explosive devices – of Iraq’s urban population was execrable and barbarous. Notwithstanding the ethico-legal obligations tosupposedly protect the lives of Iraq’s citizenry – particularly the most defenceless, the women, children and elderly – the coalition forces zealously, and relentlessly, unleashed these horrific weapons. The number of deaths, the emotionally and physically maimed, are yet to be realized. To have sacrificed even one single human life, whether Iraqi or coalition serviceman, or woman, on the realpolitik of profiteering, would have been too high a price. This un-provoked war was, quite clearly, an illegal imperialist war.

My heartfelt sympathies to the Iraqi and American families, of those who have been killed and wounded as a consequence of this terrible war. Messrs. Bush, Blair and Howard, put humanitarian considerations above profiteering. Give Iraq back to its people and swiftly, and safely return our men and women, of the coalition; to their families.

Father Maximiadis. 15 May, 2003.

~ Finis ~

“I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl; let him come out as I do, and bark.”

Boswell Life vol. 4, p. 161, n. 3 (10 October 1782 ) of Jeremiah Markland.εε