In the last few months I have seen far more of Julian Assange (the WikiLeaks founder) than I would ever wish to. It seems that this man’s popularity is on the increase, and even those who don’t particularly like him applaud the work he is doing to undermine the coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although I would very much like to write the rest of this piece about the WikiLeaks founder, there is a much wider picture here, highlighted by this man’s growing support among ordinary, intelligent people. Their affinity with Assange is usually explained by the belief that the US, the UK and their Allies should never have deployed troops to Iraq or Afghanistan. This is one topic which society urgently needs to reconsider.
With the sheer amount of anti-war feeling among the media, opposition MPs, and even in everyday life, it is easy to find yourself among those criticising our country’s military intervention in these regions. In fact, one could even suggest that it was almost fashionable to be part of the anti-war contingent. Therefore, I put it to you, that for the very reason it appears the ‘trend’ to be anti-war, it is too easy to be anti-war. Of course, a true pacifist will never be convinced that military intervention is right but, I am afraid to say, an awful lot of the rest are guilty of incredible hypocrisy.
Would the same people in the current anti-war brigade retrospectively object to the NATO removal of Slobodan Milosevic and the intervention in the Balkan Conflict, thereby putting an end to the hideous war crimes and atrocities committed by Serbian Forces? Do we, by our commitment to the UN and to the Genocide Convention not have a responsibility to avoid standing idly by as heads of state commit atrocities? Make no mistake about it, Saddam Hussein was guilty of genocide, if you are unconvinced, just Google ‘Operation Anfal’. To give another example, many people will have seen the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, who was not frustrated by the rest of the world not intervening to halt the slaughter? Perhaps if a Hollywood blockbuster was made about the Kurdish genocides then the same feeling would be invoked.
Hussein and his psychotic family subjected the Iraqi people to bullying, intimidation, murder, and the ruin of the country’s economy. The same can be said of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The same people who stand up for freedom of speech, democracy, women and minority rights in the West, are often the same people who criticise intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. They do not consider the hideous oppression of men, women and minorities in these two nations by their governments. They do not consider that, since the intervention both countries have held unprecedented democratic elections! They do not consider that women were considered second class citizens under the Taliban. The Left especially does not want to hear about the increasing popularity of the secular Left movement in Iraq following the intervention. It is a scandal that the those on the political left, who should stand up for values such as democracy, free speech, minority rights and women’s rights among others are not sparing a moment’s thought for those citizens who were oppressed, bullied and intimidated in Iraq and Afghanistan. No, they are too busy damning Bush and Blair for daring to step in to allow Iraqi and Afghan people basic freedoms, and to prevent further genocide. Opposing the intervention is therefore supporting the dictatorial and oppressive Islamo-fascist regimes that existed prior to the conflicts.
The governments of the West have inherited a responsibility to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, largely down to historical involvement in the region, and that responsibility is not to stand by and watch as the ordinary people suffer at the hands of sadistic dictatorships. I return to the point, it is too easy to be anti-war; it is often all we hear. The other side of the argument is largely unheard, or not listened to at all.
Liam Duffy
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