Martin Linton

Labour Party | Battersea

Iraq

Column for South London Press

I WILL never forget the sinking feeling in my stomach as I watched the south tower of the World Trade Centre collapse, live on television. Nor will I forget the heroism of the firefighters who answered the call of duty by walking into the burning building.

If I had one positive feeling on that grim day last September it was a hope, even a confidence, that the Americans would understand what it meant for them and what they had to do in order to avoid a repeat of that terrible atrocity.

After all, what was the use of all their sophisticated weapons if a bunch of students wearing bandannas and wielding nothing more lethal than Stanley knives could strike such a grievous blow at the heart of the world's greatest military power?

What it meant, surely, was that military superiority was not enough, that even the US was vulnerable to attack and that the US would have to engage with those who felt threatened by its power for its own good as well as theirs.

It meant the US would have to use its power to rekindle the peace process between Israel and Palestine because, whatever the precise motives of the September 11 attackers, that was the main reason the Americans were hated in the Middle East.

But what happened? I regret to say George Bush understood nothing and learnt nothing. He didn't even learn from his father, George Bush Snr, who used his power as US president to stop arms supplies until the Israelis started to negotiate.

Now George W. Bush wants to invade Iraq. He's right, of course, that Saddam Hussein is an evil man who dropped nerve gas bombs on the Iranians and on the Kurdish people in northern Iraq and he is a threat to world peace.

But how can he expect the Arab world to support him in condemning Saddam's atrocious behaviour towards the Kurds while condoning Sharon's brutal behaviour towards the Palestinians? In disarming Saddam while he is still arming Sharon?

Of course Saddam is quite different from Sharon. There is no moral equivalence. But I believe there will be no coalition against Saddam unless there is also a coalition for peace in Israel.