| Wednesday, February 12, 2003 |
 | Reasons why I am thinking of attending the anti-war protest on Saturday:
I am a huge coward, and I figure that, in these days of heightened security and constant threat, the one place you can be assured of being pretty safe from Metal Gear Solid Freestyle antics is at an anti-war rally. For starters, lots of police. Furthermore, why exactly would any terrorist want to blow up a random sampling of the Muslim League, the yoghurt-knitting social conscience brigade and Tony Benn? You try getting served at the local Working Mojaheddin's Club after that.
This is not so much a question of "not in my name" as "not in my face".
Second, I am an enormous coward, and I figure that, since links between Iraq and al-Qaida are at best tenuous at present, probably the monies that would go towards a mass deployment against Iraq unsupported by the UN could be better spent on bribing people and buying nice kettles and gift certificates for the Pakistani intelligence services. Also that aggression against a nation likely to inflame anti-Western sentiment and activity only makes good sense, from my "enormous coward" point of view, if that nation is currently providing material support to factions acting to attack the West. So far little evidence to that effect has been forthcoming.
Third, and perhaps most germaine, I am a great big fuck-off coward. I would like nothing better than to see Saddam Hussein removed from power in Iraq, and replaced by a elected leadership with popular support and an army intent on maintaining rather than replacing the nascent democracy. I would like to see that followed up by a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, in which the UN declarations on Israel's illegal behaviour are enforced by a US that has lost patience with the UN's failure to back up its own decisions and rhetoric. I would then like to see this US, with the UK as its staunch ally, put its considerable might into rebuilding Afghanistan,and supporting the claims of the new independent Palestine to self-determination, reducing tensions across the Middle East through a combination of aid and highly specialised military intervention in specific areas when borders are placed under threat.
After that, it would be nice to see real pressure brought to bear on the states neighbouring Zimbabwe to exert pressure in turn on Robert Mugabe first to cease his war of extinction against his own nation, then to abdicate and possibly share asylum with Saddam Hussein. This in the context of massive investment in building infrastructure in Africa, along with pressuring pharmaceutical companies into allowing further generics of their HIV medicines to be produced and distributed widely. Then perhaps we could look at defusing tension between India and Pakistan, persuading North Korea to scale back nuclear experimentation in exchange for food aid and a guaranteed border, isolate and confront China on its human rights record...hey, if we're going to police the world, we really ought to make a go of it, eh? I'm sure the UN would stop lollygagging after a while and join in...
Unfortunately, I'm a coward. I just don't dare to dream.
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