As we go to press, the US has asked the Australian government to provide military assistance for what is shaping up to be a major attack on Iraq. Australian workers have absolutely no reason to support this outrageous act. It is founded upon gross hypocrisy - Saddam Hussein is no better or worse than any number of Third World dictators whom the West has supported in the past.
US President Clinton might think he is the world cop - but who will police Washington?
If Australian military personnel are sent to the Gulf, the Australian Government will be guilty yet again of direct involvement in the long and dirty war against the Iraqi people. It has been estimated that over one million Iraqis - most of them children - have died of malnutrition and disease as a result of the US-led boycott. We can expect that hundreds of thousands more will die if the high-tech war of 1991 is resumed.
Militant calls upon all of its readers and supporters to throw their weight behind the movement against war in the Middle East should the invasion take place. A longer article analysing the background to the current situation will appear in next month’s Militant.