BY ALISON DELLIT
On November 13, the Socialist Alliance condemned the November 8 United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, arguing that it helped pave the way for war.
"Even with United Nations Security Council backing, a war on Iraq would be a crime against humanity", Socialist Alliance national co-convener Dick Nichols said. "The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq represents not the slightest threat to neighbouring countries, and even less to the United States and its allies."
Ian Rintoul, also an alliance national co-convenor, explained: "All objective studies show that, after 10 years of sanctions which have killed half a million of its children and reduced its infrastructure to ruins, Iraq is having difficulty surviving, let alone posing a military threat." He pointed out that reports showing this had been posted on the Socialist Alliance web site at <http://www.socialist-alliance.org>.
According to Nichols, the permanent members of the security council supported the resolution partly because they want their stake in Iraq's massive oil reserves respected after the war, while the smaller countriespowers had simply been bullied into it.
"The Socialist Alliance calls on the anti-war movement not to follow the path of Labor and the Democrats: oppose a unilateral war but then get trapped into supporting a UN-backed one", Rintoul said. Accordingly, members of the Socialist Alliance joined anti-war and anti-World Trade Organisation protests in Sydney on November 14-15.
From Green Left Weekly, November 20, 2002.
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