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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Peaceniks lost the war but changed the shape of battle
(Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, March 22, 2003)
In ways that few could have predicted, the anti-war campaign has helped shape the way the war itself is being fought. . . . Start with the evidence that the peace camp is refusing to wave the white flag, in Britain and beyond. As promised, the first day of military action brought protesters on to the streets in every major city in the land. . . . No one expects the gargantuan figures achieved on February 15, but the commitment is still there. . . . As it is around the world. US embassies have been besieged with protesters from Quito to Bangkok, Buenos Aires to Cairo, with a candlelit vigil in Berlin and a general strike in Athens. The German protest was led by schoolchildren, a sign that the phenomenon of youth protest which has surprised so many here is not confined to Britain: if anything, this war seems to have politicised a whole new generation. Those kids who skipped school to protest against a faraway war, whether in Bristol or Berlin, will never forget the experience. . . . Peace activists outside the US have no reason to feel they "lost the debate". In many ways, they won it. Which brings us to the strange, unexpected influence the anti-war effort seems to have had on the first stages of the conflict. . . . the start … did not come as previously advertised. Instead, it seemed to have been devised with one eye on the concerns of the anti-war movement. . . . The campaign began not with "shock and awe" but a subtler knife, aimed at the surgical decapitation of Saddam Hussein and his regime. One night's bombing of Baghdad lasted no more than an hour. The terrifying spectaculars threatened by Rumsfeld and the boys, reminiscent of the fireworks of the first Gulf war, only materialised last night. . . . there may be another motive for the initial preference for short-and-sweet over shock-and-awe. The US might have wanted to avoid a wave of worldwide revulsion. . . . And perhaps the clearest proof of the anti-war camp's efforts came from our own prime minister: "I know this course of action has produced deep divisions of opinion in our country," he said, just seconds into his own TV message to the nation. No leader wants to go into a war admitting such a thing. But Blair had no choice. As with much else, the peace movement has changed the landscape for this conflict - and the men of war are having to deal with it.
[Comment: The following was sent to us by a close friend and major contributor to this Web site.]
I am proud to say my own 'children of the revolution' my two teenagers … have been out several times on protest marches and demonstrations, my son even defying his school Headmaster and walking out of lessons and having to climb over the school gates which had been locked to prevent them going, about 80 pupils, in his school did this, joining 3,000 other school kids, they went on and blocked streets in the centre of . . . .

posted by Lorenzo 9:38 AM