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Iraq and the wider Middle East

I was brought up a Roman Catholic, and I am well aware of the power of confession. It is in the light of that that my contribution today should be judged, because I was one of those who voted for the war in Iraq, based on the issue of weapons of mass destruction. I am aware of the time, so I shall get down to the bones of the argument. It is patently clear that horrendous mistakes were made by the US and UK forward planners in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, and many people have focused on that issue today. The real question that we should be focusing on, however, is the ideological underpinning for the decision to go to war and to invade Iraq. If von Clausewitz was right that war is the"““extension of politics by other means””," we should be looking at the politics that drove that invasion. It is interesting to note that, now that all the other reasons for this disastrous invasion—be they connections to 9/11, links to al-Qaeda, or weapons of mass destruction—have been proven wrong, George Bush has simply fallen back on the idea that the Iraqis are free, and that that is all that really matters. Bush has stated—and it is clear that we must follow what he says, as he is a significant player in all this—that"““Freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every man and woman in this world.””" He added:"““As the greatest power on earth, we””—" the United States, not the UK—"““have an obligation to help the spread of freedom””." What freedoms have been bestowed on the Iraqi people? We must ask that question of the Bush Administration and the British Government. The answer was provided clearly on 19 September 2003, when Paul Bremer, head of the coalition provisional authority, issued orders that included: the full privatisation of public enterprises in Iraq; full ownership rights for foreign firms of Iraqi businesses; the full repatriation of foreign profits; the opening of Iraq’s banks to foreign control; and the elimination of all trade barriers. Those orders applied to all sectors of the economy. Only oil was exempt, because of its key role, first, as a source of revenue to pay for the war and, secondly, because of its geopolitical significance. I hope that the Minister will answer the question raised by several Labour Back Benchers about what is happening to Iraqi oil. The labour market, on the other hand, bucked the trend of neo-liberal thinking. It was to be strictly controlled, with the right to organise unions restricted and strikes forbidden in key sectors of the economy. The dream of all neoconservatives, the highly regressive flat tax, was also imposed. Bremer’s diktats were arguably in violation of the Geneva and Hague conventions, in so far as an occupying power is instructed to protect the assets of an occupied nation, not sell them off, as has been pointed out. The interim Iraqi Government appointed by the US at the end of June 2004 was then declared sovereign but only had the power effectively to rubber-stamp Bremer's existing laws. At the heart of those machinations was the assumption that individual freedoms are guaranteed by freedom of the market and of trade: the key features of the neo-liberal ideology, now subsumed into that of the neocons, which has shaped US strategy towards the rest of the world, whether in eastern Europe, Latin America or Iraq. The freedoms embodied in the artificially constructed state apparatus of Iraq reflect the interests of private property owners, multinational corporations and international finance capital writ large, not the interests of the ordinary people of Iraq. I now believe that the post 9/11 decision to invade Iraq was a mistake of massive proportions. The miserable situation in Iraq will have policy repercussions for decades to come. Already, despite the emphatic vote in the US mid-term elections against Bush’s adventurous policies, we hear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice beginning the process of demonisation and isolation of states such as Iran and Syria. There is real danger in that. Whatever our reservations and serious concerns about the conduct of those or any other nations, it would be even more tragic if the US—and more relevantly, the UK Government—had not at least learned rudimentary lessons from the Iraq debacle, in which we have managed to turn a secular state into a breeding ground for religious jihadist groups. We must now relearn the lesson that emphasis must be given to diplomacy, negotiation and respect for self-determination. Put simply, we can never again engage in military intervention on such a flawed prospectus. Many would argue that the core failure of the Government’s foreign policy has been their inability or reluctance to influence the Bush Administration in any significant way, despite the huge sacrifice, military, political and financial, that this country has made. The Prime Minister has characterised that foreign policy as a ““doctrine of benign intervention". If the disaster of Iraq has not taught us that people do not consider being invaded by a military superpower as benign, I wonder what will. Along with alternative voices in the United States—I am pleased that their volume is increasing—we need to recast our vision for a world that is multipolar and not unipolar. We need to work with the many voices in America that approach foreign policy in the spirit of the famous American historian Daniel Boorstin, who said"““The mission of our country is not to make other people like us, but to enable them to be themselves””." If we can grasp that simple fact, perhaps we can cast a better world.