WAR PROPAGANDA FOR BEGINNERS

WAR PROPAGANDA FOR BEGINNERS

Alistair McConnachie writes: How often have we heard something along the lines of, "Saddam is an evil dictator who murders his own people and must be deposed. Unless we stop him, he will murder many more. And even if we kill many Iraqis now, it will be like nothing compared to the millions that Saddam may kill if he is left alive."

Journalists like Melanie Phillips of The Daily Mail constantly push this argument to make us think that we are involved in some grand crusade of "good versus evil". See for example her article, "This war IS about good versus evil", The Daily Mail, 24 March 2003, p. 14.

Of course, it is a basic element of war propaganda that the enemy must be branded as completely "evil".
In war, there can be no shades of grey.

But many of us can see clearly that the war on Iraq is not a moralistic crusade being waged because Saddam and his regime is "evil". In reality, Saddam and his regime may, or may not, be "evil" depending on your political viewpoint, or religion, or tribal prejudice, or moral mind-set. And Saddam himself is no more "evil" than many other tyrants and brutes in the world, all of whom our government is happy to tolerate and with whom it does business.

The idea that we are involved in a grand crusade of "good versus evil" is just the simplistic propaganda that the politicians and journalists put out for the consumption of the masses, for whose intelligence they have little regard. It is the excuse to disguise the exercise of raw power in pursuit of a political agenda.

Moreover, those who argue that we must depose Saddam for moralistic reasons do not acknowledge that if Saddam is deposed, and a new regime installed, then there will be civil war, killing, and retribution on a horrifying scale. Will such people be calling for the destruction of the new regime? Don't bet on it!

The following article by Dr Burhan M al-Chalabi illustrates the fear among Iraqis that there will be civil carnage after the present war.

YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN WE'D FIGHT
The invading forces will never win over Iraqi hearts and minds
Burhan al-Chalabi
The Guardian
Tuesday March 25, 2003
Original here

It is now five days since the British and US governments launched an unprecedented military invasion of my country of birth, its people, land, towns and cities. This attack was launched without UN authority, public support or the will of the international community. To win support for this unjust and illegal campaign, it has been claimed that this is not a colonial war of occupation but a war of liberation; a compassionate war. Britain and the US will save the Iraqis by bombing so they can thrive in a democratic Iraq and live at ease with their neighbours. Those who believed the hype expected the Iraqis to welcome the invading armies. After British troops were forced to retreat from Basra yesterday, a military spokesman said: "We were expecting a lot of hands up, but it hasn't quite worked out that way."

It is now clear to everyone that ordinary Iraqis are resisting this military aggression with their lives and souls. Commentators and politicians in Britain and America seem taken aback: how come the Iraqis are putting up such a fight? Why do they so passionately resist this attempt to liberate them from the brutal dictator, Saddam? But Iraqis aren't surprised at all.

When Iraq was first colonised by Britain in 1917, Iraqis were fed the same British propaganda about liberation through occupation. We fought the best part of last century to get rid of colonial Britain and, since then, have helped a great number of independence movements worldwide. Iraqis may wish for the current regime to change, but anyone who understands our culture will know that in this war Iraqis will fight and die, not to save President Saddam Hussein, but to protect their home, land, dignity and self-respect from a new world order alien to their way of life. We are an enormously proud people.

And so history repeats itself. Just as in the past century, the military superiority of the Anglo-American invaders may eventually overwhelm the Iraqi army, which is weak and ill-equipped because of sanctions, containment and isolation. But there is also no doubt that in the end this military crusade against Iraq will fail just like the previous British occupation of Iraq, led by General Maude, where the military odds were just as much in favour of the British army. Iraqis - in particular the Arab-Iraqi Shi'ites - fought bitter and hard and suffered thousands of casualties in order to liberate Iraq from the British occupation. They will do so again.

It is true that, this time, the British and US forces may assume control of sea, air and deserts of Iraq, but they will never win the war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Not only do the people of Iraq face devastation by the US and UK aggression on a scale not previously known to mankind, but they also face death and destruction by another war - the civil war that would inevitably follow. We know what this means, because we have been there before.

As a young lad in the town of Mosul I lived through the horror of the civil war in Iraq in 1959-60, when the communist and Kurdish coalition fought the nationalists for control of the country. With my brothers and parents, we used to hide huddled together, in a small concealed basement for days on end, absolutely terrified of being slaughtered because we were considered to be on the Nationalist side.

I saw Iraqis split in half, while alive, by two cars. Girls were hanged from telegraph posts, with fish hooks through their breasts. Men were hanged outside my school gates. We were forced to watch mass hangings in public squares. Dead bodies with their throats slit lay in the streets.

Forty years on, in the comfort and safety of London, those images remain vivid. A scar of fear for life, and one shared by a great many of my people.

This is the fate that awaits "liberated" Iraq. Only today, the Kurds - backed by the US - have even more violent scores to settle. There are many, many people in Iraq today who fear the sectarian violence that may result from the breakdown of the secular regime; and Iraqi history shows that they are right to fear it. I do not wish this future to await anybody in the world, friend or foe.

Neither the British nor the American forces will be able to react quickly enough in order to prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians in the ensuing civil war. In the aftermath there will not be an Iraq to re-build, but simply chaos.

So the message from Iraq is clear: go home and leave us alone. You will never be welcome in Iraq as colonisers. Stop destroying Iraq. Do not bury our nation. Stop the war and give peace and the UN inspectors a chance in the name of humanity.

Dr Burhan M al-Chalabi is chairman of the British Iraqi Foundation and a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs