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I remember my horror the day of the US military attacked the retreating Iraqi army on the road from Mutta Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq. The war had been won, Saddam Hussein had announced a complete troop withdrawal from Kuwait in compliance with UN Resolution 660, and a defeated, starving army was making its slow journey home. The attack left more than 2000 vehicles and thousands of charred, dismembered bodies littering the 60 miles of highway. The attack was a violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, common article 3, which outlaws the killing of soldiers who are "out of combat". No attempt was made by US military command to distinguish between military personnel and civilians. It was as if a declaration had been made - rules of etiquette no longer apply. There will be no more discourse.
War is, of course, the ultimate failure in communication, but the West has long believed it has had the edge on civility. We can no longer take comfort in this fantasy. Those who support John Howard's easy war rhetoric, those who believe in the fantasy, should educate themselves about the society they intend to destroy.
As of early 2001, the bombardment of Iraq had lasted longer than the US invasion of Vietnam. In October 1999, American officials were telling the Wall Street Journal they would soon be running out of targets - "We're down to the last outhouse".
Iraq's levels of nutrition, schooling and public services were once well above regional standards, with a per capita GNP of over $3000. Today, courtesy of UN economic sanctions, it is under $500, making it one of the poorest societies on Earth.
A land that once had high levels of literacy and an advanced system of health care has been devastated by the West, its people are denied the basic necessities of existence, its soil is polluted by uranium-tipped warheads.
According to UN figures of 2001, some 60 per cent of the population have no regular access to clean water.
In 1997, the FAO reckoned that 27 per cent of Iraqis were suffering from chronic malnutrition, and 70 per cent of all women were anaemic.
UNICEF reports that in the southern and central regions, which contains 85 per cent of the country's population, infant mortality has doubled compared to the pre-Gulf War period. In 1997, it reported that 4500 children under the age of five were dying each month from hunger and disease.
In late 1998, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, former assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, resigned from his post in protest against the blockade, declaring that the total deaths it had caused could be upwards of a million.
Down to the last outhouse indeed.
The majority of Australians remain unconvinced by the Howard government - the majority of Australians do not want their country responsible for any further misery and death in Iraq. I don't believe that the current fear-mongering campaign run by the government and the media will succeed. I believe that the majority of Australians are indeed a peaceful, tolerant people, that the stigmatising of Islamic Australians appalls us, that John Howard's vision of the future is utterly alien to our beliefs.
We're being told that the war is against the Iraqi regime, not the Iraqi people. I challenge Howard, therefore, to revise his views on refugees. I challenge him to justify his government's treatment of Iraqi asylum seekers. Is it possible they're still being told to go home - have we fallen into such a moral abyss?
I challenge the Labor Party politicians to be courageous, to show moral courage. The time has come for you people in public office to stop wasting your energy second-guessing the public - forget about the polls. We want to know what you actually BELIEVE in, we need to know you'll risk your political futures for what you believe in. We need tolerance, compassion, we need wisdom from you. Maybe then we'll listen to you.
I think I understand at least part of the politicians' problem. They believe we no longer have the freedom to act independently. They believe that Australia's economic survival depends on a full commitment to the American world vision.
But we will not slide into the moral abyss, with blood on our hands. Mr Howard, you haven't presented us with a single compelling reason for the further slaughter of innocent people. We do not support your war in Iraq.
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