As hundreds of
thousands of people across Canada marched against the Iraq War in 2003, Harper demanded war. The mass
movement stopped Canada from officially participating in the war, but Harper’s
support continued. After first copying the Australian Prime
Minister’s speech supporting the invasion, Harper wrote to The Wall Street Journal that Canada not joining the war was “a
serious mistake. For the first time in history, the Canadian government has not
stood beside its key British and American allies in their time of need.” Harper
vowed that “in our hearts and minds, we will be with our allies and friends,”
and has worked since then to support US war in Iraq—first indirectly and now
directly.
Iraq Slaughter + Intervention in Syria =
ISIS
In 2003 we were
told there was no option but war to stop Saddam Hussein and liberate Iraqis.
This ignored the role of the West in supporting the dictator, and the capacity
of Iraqis to fight for their own liberation. The only “weapons of mass
destruction” were those of the West—from sanctions that killed more than 1
million people before the invasion, to war that killed more than 1 million
people after the invasion. The US leveled Fallujah, tortured in Abu Ghraib, massacred in Baghdad, raped
and killed in Mahmoudiya, and armed sectarian
death squads as a strategy to divide and conquer—planting the seeds for
ISIS to grow.
The Arab Spring
showed that people in the region can fight for their own liberation, and their
greatest obstacle is Western military intervention. The West highjacked the
Libyan revolution, supported Israel and counter-revolution in Egypt, and armed
Saudi Arabia and other dictatorships. While the Saudi dictatorship beheaded
at least 8 people last month, it is immune from criticism because it does
the West’s dirty work—repressing resistance
in Bahrain and arming
extremist groups in Syria, which have now spread into Iraq as ISIS. Canada has
been part of this process: joining the bombing of Libya, supporting the new
Egyptian dictatorship, selling $10
billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia, and unconditionally supporting Israel.
“Canada
continues to condemn the repugnant killing of innocent civilians, including
women and children,” said Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, justifying the
latest bombing of Iraq. Where was that condemnation when the US was killing a
million Iraqis, or when Israel was killing thousands of Palestinians? Where’s
the condemnation of the West’s role, via Saudi Arabia, of creating ISIS, or the
condemnation of the impact of bombing? As Phillis
Bennis wrote, “the airstrikes defeat the
important goal of ending popular support for ISIS, and instead actually serve
to strengthen the extremist organization.”
War on soldiers, refugees and the
planet
While Harper was
forced to admit the 2003 Iraq War was “absolutely an error,” he
has refused to support the troops who came to the same conclusion. For ten
years Iraq War resisters have come to Canada instead of committing war crimes
in Iraq. For that they have the support of international law, a majority of
Canadians, two motions in Parliament, ten court decisions, and the legacy of
welcoming Vietnam War resisters (both volunteers and conscripts). But the
Harper government has ignored the courts, scapegoated
war resisters for a refugee backlog the government created, flagged
resisters as “criminally
inadmissible,” deported resisters to be jailed in the US, and re-written
Canadian history and a government website regarding Vietnam War resisters.
The attack on US
Iraq War resisters parallels the campaign against Canadian veterans, and
against refugees fleeing war zones. While Harper has wasted millions
celebrating the war of 1812 and pledged half
a trillion dollars to militarism, he has cut
veteran disability pensions in the midst of a surge
of suicides, restricted the arrival of Syrian
refugees and cut refugee health. As a recent Federal
Court ruled, “The 2012
modifications to the [Interim Federal Health Program] potentially jeopardize
the health, the safety and indeed the very lives, of these innocent and
vulnerable children in a manner that shocks the conscience and outrages
Canadian standards of decency...I have found as a fact that lives are being put
at risk.” If Iraqis fleeing ISIS try to make it to Canada, they will encounter
barriers accessing healthcare, barriers to citizenship for them and their
children, and unsafe working conditions—like the Iraqi
refugee who fell to his death six weeks ago from a scaffold in Toronto.
Iraq is still dealing with the depleted
uranium fired in civilian areas in 2003, which will contaminate the country
for generations, and another round of bombings will make things worse. The US
military is the largest consumer of oil in the world, and a new bombing
campaign will add to global carbon emissions and increase demand for Canada’s
tar sands—which are killing local indigenous communities.
Alternatives
Years of Harper’s
rule have dropped his popularity, making an uncertain military intervention
risky. Like the war in Afghanistan, he is using extensions to mask the
duration, and euphemisms to mask its nature. As Thomas
Walkom wrote, the government promise of no boots on the ground is “a
curious pledge in that it left open the question of where exactly Canadian
troops operating there will place their feet.” Like the early days in the lead
up to the last Iraq War, the Liberals support Harper and the NDP is unsure. But
like those days, this can change with popular pressure. The memory of the 2003 anti-war movement
and the Arab Spring is not gone, and while there is currently confusion around
Iraq there’s been a surge in solidarity with Palestinians and Indigenous
communities here—which can reorient people to the imperial threat to Iraq.
Harper wants to
bury the memory of Iraq, ignore the needs of refugees and find an outlet for
tar sands and military spending—through a war that will further inflame the
region and the climate. Instead Canada needs to
1. Stop supporting
the latest war
2. Stop arming
and supporting repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia
3. Stop the tar
sands that fuel wars and devastate Indigenous communities
4. Support US Iraq War resisters and Canadian veterans
healing from past wars
5. Support
refugees access to status, healthcare, and good jobs
6. Divert the $490 billion in military spending
into social, economic and ecological alternatives.
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