We will remember them....
Sian Glaessner | 15.09.2003 22:31 | London
Friday 19 September 2003, London
SIX MONTHS ON - A MEMORIAL FOR ALL THOSE KILLED IN THE INVASION OF IRAQ
6.30-8pm, Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Please bring flowers, wreaths and tributes.
SIX MONTHS ON - A MEMORIAL FOR ALL THOSE KILLED IN THE INVASION OF IRAQ
6.30-8pm, Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Please bring flowers, wreaths and tributes.
Never again...an event to mark six months since the invasion of Iraq and to remember all those killed as a result - Iraqi civilians and soldiers, British and American soldiers, journalists and civilian/NGO staff. The memorial will call for the US and UK governments to be held accountable for the thousands of casualties in Iraq and for the on-going suffering of the Iraqi people. The event will include readings, testimonies and the laying of flowers, wreaths and tributes. Organised by Voices UK.
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What follows is an opinion: not representative of any individual or group other than the author:
6 months have passed since the attack on Iraq began. But that's not quite the whole truth is it. For the people of Iraq, it is harder to assign a "start date" to their suffering. Was it this bad in the darkest nights of Saddams terror, or later, during the First Gulf War or later still, surviving sanctions, or the recent Second Gulf War, or possibly most recently- under occupation.
Someone once said, that while the living deserve respect, the dead deserve only the truth. By marking 6 months since the onset of the most recent attack on Iraq, and by remembering all those who have been killed in that time we will honour our debt to the living and the dead. For the war was launched on a raft of lies, and the lies continue with the occupation.
In all its historic banality the horror of war is unchanged. Those who suffer most are those who had least influence on the "big picture". Who gains? Ask the corporations now sated on fat Iraq contracts.
It is important to act to prevent this happening again, and to end the suffering of the people of Iraq, but it is vitally important to remember the chain of events that brought us here. Thanks to the excellent work of Iraq Body Count we have accurate statistics, so that when this gets painted as a "clean" war, we can stand and say that on the basis of sound evidence, this war was one of the dirtiest the region and possibly the world has seen.
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What follows is an opinion: not representative of any individual or group other than the author:
6 months have passed since the attack on Iraq began. But that's not quite the whole truth is it. For the people of Iraq, it is harder to assign a "start date" to their suffering. Was it this bad in the darkest nights of Saddams terror, or later, during the First Gulf War or later still, surviving sanctions, or the recent Second Gulf War, or possibly most recently- under occupation.
Someone once said, that while the living deserve respect, the dead deserve only the truth. By marking 6 months since the onset of the most recent attack on Iraq, and by remembering all those who have been killed in that time we will honour our debt to the living and the dead. For the war was launched on a raft of lies, and the lies continue with the occupation.
In all its historic banality the horror of war is unchanged. Those who suffer most are those who had least influence on the "big picture". Who gains? Ask the corporations now sated on fat Iraq contracts.
It is important to act to prevent this happening again, and to end the suffering of the people of Iraq, but it is vitally important to remember the chain of events that brought us here. Thanks to the excellent work of Iraq Body Count we have accurate statistics, so that when this gets painted as a "clean" war, we can stand and say that on the basis of sound evidence, this war was one of the dirtiest the region and possibly the world has seen.
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Sian Glaessner
Homepage:
http://www.voicesuk.org
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