WE MUST STEP UP BOMBING
[Mo Mowlam is a veteran lefty British politician. She has an op-ed article in Tuesday's Daily Mirror which expresses exactly how I feel about the war now.]
Apr 1 2003
By Mo Mowlam
WHERE do we go now? Over the weekend journalists, generals and academics all suggested the war will be much longer than originally anticipated.
All those politicians happy to use the crass expression “shock and awe” before war broke out, are now suggesting they knew all along the war could be long and drawn out.
I have always been opposed to this war. And much of my objection was tied to my fear that it would only exacerbate the anti-western feelings in the Muslim world.
My worst fears have been proved correct. Anti-American and British feeling is running very high, and we have even seen that most unlikely event occurring, al-Qaeda supporters turning up in Iraq to fight with their Arab Iraqi brothers.
This marriage, but a fantasy of the more pro-war hawks before the war, has become a reality.
So it is clear the hoped for winning of Iraqi hearts and minds is not going to work.
The surprising fact people whose country you are bombing do not come out on the streets in your support is beginning to be appreciated in Washington and Whitehall.
Many in the Arab world hated America and Britain before this war started. Now many more do.
We shall end the war being more hated than we were at the start. We will have increased the threat of terrorism around the world and made ourselves a greater target.
It is fair to say the Government’s policy in relation to terrorism and Iraq has been a failure.
But what do we do now? What is the best course of action for Britain and America to take?
To me there are three options.
We could withdraw now. Continue our present approach, of targeted bombing. Or thirdly we could increase the bombing of Basra and Baghdad, and invade those cities.
How should we choose between these options? Should we use short-term moral criteria, like counting up how many will die? Or should we look to the post war situation to calculate what can be rescued in terms of British and American interests after the war?
The first approach may well be favoured by many in the anti-war camp. Withdraw now, and recognise the war was a mistake. This is what many Iraqis fear we may do.
This of course is unrealistic. For Bush and Blair it would be political suicide, their humiliation almost absolute. It would also be a terrible national humiliation, far beyond our leaders, with all the implications for future foreign and trade relations around the world.
NO, the problem is that having started this war we must now finish it and win it. So is the present approach the best way to go?
To some this softly, softly, ‘we don’t want to be nasty to the Iraqi people just the regime’ approach, seems like a great compromise.
It minimises civilian, American and British deaths, and we try to convince ourselves it makes the Iraqi population like us more.
We are seeing now that it isn’t working. The Iraqis remain unconvinced, and the hatred of the coalition grows across the region.
All this approach does is make the war longer, maintaining hugely damaging propaganda pictures being beamed into Arab homes and hardening the hatred that exists.
It is an approach which is unfortunately a sop to our consciences, but is woolly thinking.
The Iraqis of course know this. They hate and despise us. They think we are weak and cowardly. That we started the war, but don’t have the stomach for the fight.
We are seen as scared of risking our soldiers’ lives, and our image of invincibility is daily diminished. Yes, we will most likely at the end of this win, but we will have lost any respect Arab opinion may have had for us. Remember we must do this, we cannot walk away from the Middle East, we need oil.
But we will also have to cope with more of their terrorists.
My awful conclusion is we must win this war quickly, and be seen to be brave, powerful and invincible.
We have no choice but to adopt the last option with more bombing and taking the war to the enemy, even if that means the dreadful level of casualties that will go with it. We will still be hated, but we will also be held in awe. That is now a consequence of any further action we take.
Fear and respect is not as good as friendship and understanding but it is better than being despised.
We should never have found ourselves in this position, but our leaders took us here.
They now need the courage to make the right, tough decisions, for there is no easy way out of this monumental mistake.
mirror.co.uk |
