Dombey points out that more than 50 countries would be able to build an
atom bomb given sufficient fissile material. All it would require would be
a research institution with a good physics department and an army familiar
with explosives. "Every major Arab country and every EU country,
except perhaps Luxembourg, can call on these assets." But how do you
deliver it? A gun-type bomb is too big to fit into a missile and a compact
bomb for a missile has to be tested to see if it will work. The Iraqis may
have been working on these problems for years but there is not the
slightest indication that they have solved them.
Meanwhile, the disinformation war and the dirty tricks campaigns to
convince us that we are about to be nuked by Saddam Hussein go on. It is
quite possible that the African uranium story was another CIA operation
along the lines of the capacitors "destined for Iraq" found at
Heathrow airport in 1990. It turned out these had been planted by the FBI.
Or take the case of the website called Asia
Times Online. Last November 14 Asia Times Online ran a
feature quoting, it claimed, from an interview on the Arab TV channel
al-Jazeera. In the interview, one Mohamed al-Asuquf, "third in
command of al-Qaeda", said there were terrorist plans for a nuclear
attack on the US.
Advertisement
But there was no such interview on al-Jazeera and the name Mohamed
al-Asuquf appears to have been made up. Yet the story not only appeared on
Asia Times Online but was also picked up and reproduced around the
world. Owning up to having been duped, Asia Times Online said the
story had come from "a usually reliable source" in Singapore but
did not reveal his or her identity. I suggest that source was almost
certainly a Western intelligence officer.
There are other compelling reasons not to allow ourselves to be
stampeded by disinformation into a war with Iraq, and many questions which
the Australian government cannot or does not want to answer. What, for
instance, are our war aims? Britain and the United States have announced
what they want to achieve. What is Australia after? All military manuals
emphasise that war aims must be achievable and should be related to the
degree of risk the aggressor is prepared to accept.
History suggests that the decisive aims Britain and America have set
out - the invasion of Iraq, the subjugation of its armed forces, and the
overthrow of its government - have often resulted in a strategy of
annihilation, heavy casualties and prolonged conflict. Annihilation is the
American way of war with which it has an historical - some say
psychological - affinity: Gettysburg, the Indian wars, the weight of
superior fire power in the two World Wars and Korea, the body counts in
Vietnam and the events in Somalia. (see The
American Way of War, by R. F. Weigley, Macmillan, New York, 1973.)
And once the Iraqi forces are destroyed, what then? Occupation forces
require one soldier or police officer for each 500 locals, plus one
supervisor for each ten policemen. To control the 23 million Iraqis, that
would mean a force of about 50,000. How many would Australia contribute?
How many years would they have to stay there? How long would the domestic
electorate tolerate a protracted occupation of another, far away country.
If our war aim is to ingratiate ourselves with Washington, then we
should be told and the risks spelt out. The main one is, of course, that
foreign policy imperatives of super powers change. If we hope that by
leaping to do America's bidding now, America will be there for us if, God
forbid, we ever need her, then we may end up being terribly disappointed -
betrayed and abandoned as Britain abandoned us when it suited her in 1942.
Then there's the moral issue. Tying Australia to America's war aims
without reservation could well tie us to a strategy of annihilation and
the merciless destruction of Iraq's armed forces, no doubt with weapons
that include depleted uranium that will poison the country and usher in
another round of 'Gulf War syndrome'.
Advertisement
And what about Iraq's civilians? Iraq is a nation of kids - nearly half
its population being children and teenagers. Is waging war on them when
they had no say in bringing Saddam Hussein to power, and no chance to get
rid of him, really the way for a great nation like Australia to behave?
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.