It will be a year ago this weekend that an estimated one million people marched through the streets of London against the liberation of Iraq and the armed struggle that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s fascist regime.
Not surprisingly the anti-war movement is proudly marking their anniversary with a party called The Peace Not War Festival.
The promotional material notes the terrible violence that continues in Iraq and which was evident in the appalling atrocity carried out today.
The Festival organisers say:Although the war in Iraq is officially over, more people have died since the conflict ‘ended’ than under the US attack. So far 10,000 civilians have been killed, more than 20,000 are injured, and 600 coalition soldiers have died.
Regardless of the accuracy or otherwise of those figures, what is noticable is that there is no mention by the organisers of who has been carrying out these killings. Why is that?
I am sure we can all agree that it is not US and British forces who have been blowing up police stations and slaughtering ordinary Iraqis who are trying to get on with building a successful country. It is the Jihadists and Saddam supporters of the ‘resistance’.
If we were to be generous to the organisers of this music and arts festival we should presume that it was just an oversight or a lack of attention to detail that led them to ignore pointing out who exactly are the killers, the warmakers, in Iraq now.
Surely anyone who organises or attends a Peace Not War Festival is opposed to the killers of innocent civilians? After all they are in favour of Peace Not War right?
But if that is the case then you have to ask why among the rappers, DJs and rock bands, the list of invited political speakers includes a certain Tariq Ali – a man who has made it abundantly clear that he supports the killers and is in favour not of peace, but continued war in Iraq?
Of course I don’t want to be accused (yet again) of ‘slandering the entire anti-war movement’ or even that section of it that will be dancing, drinking and laughing over the weekend in Hackney in celebration of their great protest .
So I look forward to hearing about how Ali was met with protests and dissent from the decent majority of Peace Not War partygoers who, as we are constantly told, don’t support the killers.
