Is crusade to "spread democracy" working? 2005-02-26

This retrospective justification for war on Iraq is closely connected with efforts to prepare world opinion for possible military action against Iran or Syria. Indeed, former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, says Bush has already signed off on a plan to attack Iran in June.

Just as with Iraq, we are told Syria and Iran are vicious dictatorships that sponsor terrorism and, in Iran's case, we face a regime that may soon have nuclear weapons of mass destruction. We are to believe the US wants to bring democracy and freedom to these countries because, they tell us, that is what they have done in Iraq.

Of course, Syria and Iran are repressive regimes and genuine movements for democracy in those countries should be supported. However Iran, at least, has elections in which men and women can vote and a parliament that has some power (albeit limited) to influence decisions on the running of the country.

Women are denied full equality and choice but have a high level of literacy and access to education, which they lacked under the brutal US-backed regime of the Shah overthrown in the 1979 revolution. In contrast, the US' closest Arab ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, is an absolute dictatorship where there are no democratic rights whatsoever for women, workers or ordinary citizens.

US claims to be spreading democracy also belie the reality of what is happening in Iraq. Despite media impressions to the contrary, violence in Iraq has not abated one iota since 30 January elections. Around one hundred people are dying every week in the conflict that rages across huge swathes of the country. Most civilian deaths, according to Iraq's Ministry for Health, result from the actions of the occupation forces not insurgents.

At the moment the US is engaged in a brutal assault on Ramadi very similar to the attack on Fallujah at the end of last year that claimed the lives of several thousand innocent Iraqi's. US bombing, missile attacks and bombardment of Iraqi towns and cities continues everyday. We hear about the attacks by Al Zaqarwi, because they support the lie that violence in Iraq comes primarily from bloody-minded extremists. In truth, the main source of continuing violence and the force responsible for the overwhelming majority of innocent deaths is the US.

If Bush believes in democracy, the US should now leave Iraq. Both the Sunni parties that boycotted the election and the Shia list that won it, campaigned on the basis the US should leave. All polls taken in Iraq over the last year show 70-80 percent of Iraqi's want US troops out. Yet the US refuse to give a timetable for withdrawal and are busy building 14 permanent military bases.

The terrible chaos and suffering continuing in Iraq may only be a prelude to much greater conflict and instability in the region if further US aggression is not checked.

On 4 to 6 March the Irish Anti-War Movement is hosting a major forum in Dublin to challenge US myths on Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, the "war on terror" and Islam.

The forum "Against War, Occupation & Empire" will open on Friday 4 March with a screening of the 'The Battle of Algiers' introduced by Ahmed Ben Bella in the Irish Film Institute.

Richard Boyd Barrett