Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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An Weary Autumn Feeling in the Air September 2002 Its autumn, and there's a strange feeling in the air. People are desperately worried about the possibility of military action and confused by the awful complexity of the situation. A few people would not fight anyone, anywhere at any time. That is their privilege but is a position that is fairly hard to justify. Some, usually from the safety of the public bar, want troops to go in everywhere and seem to see life as a Rambo film. The vast majority accept that there are some desperately difficult decisions to take and that the world is an increasingly dangerous and interdependent place. So what about Iraq? By any definition Saddam Hussein is a truly evil dictator. Amnesty International estimate 100,000 dead among the Kurdish population as a result of his pogroms. In Halabja he gassed his own people. He has attacked Iran; invaded Kuwait failed to comply with 23 United Nations resolutions. Perhaps worst of all, he allows $2.5 billion allocated by the UN for humanitarian relief to stay unspent while his people die and he reaps the propaganda harvest. Yet, as all MPs are constantly reminded, other nations offend. Israel appears able to flout international law with impunity and no one is currently talking up an invasion of Zimbabwe. The great untold story of the past twelve months is the extent to which Colin Powell and Tony Blair have restrained, and acted as a moderating force, on the wilder excesses of George W.Bush. Despite this we do now seem to be moving towards another terrible conflict and we have the great luxury, in this country, of being able to weigh up the options before action. Unlike the middle-eastern nations we do not have a belligerent dictator armed to the teeth on our doorstep. We are not likely to be invaded by the Iraqi National Guard. Next week Parliament is recalled and we get to see the evidence. MPs will have to make their minds up on the basis of the facts available, their own assessment and the views of their constituents. I am horrified by the incoherence of President Bush but hope that I am mature enough to realise that this is not about America alone. Whatever happens it must be as a result of United Nations decisions and the logic of diplomacy is that there has to be, at some stage, a point at which there is a military sanction if all else fails. It is going to be a terribly hard decision. I spent a week last month on board the British warship HMS Grafton. The crew of young men and women, most in their late teens, would be in the front line if war came. Would their lives be under greater threat if the UN did nothing about Saddam Hussein, or would the death of even one of them be a price worth paying? I will be thinking of the crew of Grafton, and of my own teenagers, when it comes to a vote next week. It is not just the shades of autumn that make this a sad and melancholy time. |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
