World Remembers 9/11 Victims, But Leaders Junk Bush’s New War on Iraq

In many countries last week, people of all walks of life remembered the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States where close to 3,000 people died. But a growing number, including world leaders, condemned George W. Bush’s threat to mount yet another war on Iraq even as ambivalence is growing within the powers-that-be in the United States itself.

By Gerry Albert-Corpuz
Bulatlat.com

"The world really did change on Sept. 11. We are now dealing with an explosion of aggression," says Rachel Rosen, a member of the Grassroots Women and one of the organizers of an international conference in the next couple of months in Vancouver, Canada.

Grassroots Women together with the Philippine-based women's group Gabriela is set to challenge the U.S.’ borderless war on terrorism from Nov. 1-4 and rally women of all nations against an avalanche of it says is armed aggression staged by the United States against sovereign states outside the Washington DC.

Ms. Rosen and other people across the globe commemorated the tragic deaths of thousands of innocent people last year with high hopes for justice and determined goals to stop the United States from exploiting the Sept. 11 tragedy to invoke its war against other countries critical and opposed to U.S. ambitious project for global hegemony under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Another woman leader from Bangladesh said the United States had forced their people to pay war surcharge on every export and import while U.S. aggressors were having grand time coming in and out of their air and sea spaces for war.

"The U.S. and its partners including Canada are using the climate of fighting terrorism to justify any intervention or attack, particularly against those who threaten its hegemony," says Grassroots Women adding that marginalized women all over the world are feeling the crunch of a system in crisis.

Buddhists call for peace

In Bangkok, Thailand, around 150 peace activists staged an anti-war demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in the main capital last September 11 to pay respect to the victims of 9/11 bombings but blasted the United States on its war against the Iraq.

Members of labor groups, religious groups, non-government organizations including monks and children attended the anti-US war demonstration. The protesters carried cardboard-sized pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and depicted them as world's war freak leaders.

The Nation, one of the leading broadsheets in Thailand, reported that a Buddhist pressure group, SathirakosesNagapradeepa Foundation, demanded a peaceful resolution to the ongoing crisis in Iraq. The same was echoed by Maesani Kasam, a Muslim woman leader who came to Bangkok together with 50 protesters from Nakhon Ratchasima province." We need people who have the power to use their power in the right way, not against the poor," she said.

The protest was held simultaneously with the brief ceremony held inside the tightly guarded U.S. embassy in Bangkok as American diplomats and expatriates paid respects for those who died in the September 11 attack in the United States last year.

Desecration of 9/11 victims

In the Philippines, Bayan (New Patriotic Alliance) secretary general Teddy Casiño said the U.S. war mongering desecrated the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 bombings in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The message was delivered by Casiño last Wednesday during a memorial service near the U.S. embassy in Manila." The renewed imperialist aggression under President Bush is as condemnable as the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.

Bayan, Justice Not War Coalition, International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) and an inter-faith group of Christians, Muslims and Protestants were joined by the militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May 1 Movement) and Migrante International to an ecumenical mass before marching to the U.S. embassy to offer prayers, flowers and light candles for the 9/11 victims and to denounce U.S. attack on Iraq.

"We should remind ourselves that the terrorists who crashed planes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are as despicable as the terrorists who bombed and massacred civilian communities in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Latin America, Afghanistan and Iraq," Bayan' s Casino said referring to the United States as the world's no. 1 terrorist state.

For its part, Migrante International, an alliance of overseas Filipino groups said migrant workers sympathized with their immigrant brothers and sisters who senselessly lost their lives when terrorists attacked the WTC last year.

"However, the U.S. should not use the occasion as clarion for more violence and revenge," said Migrante International secretary general Poe Gratela. The group's leader said President Bush’s war mongering and fatal attraction to terrorist acts would place 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East in the cross fire.

The protesters were blocked by hundreds of cops deployed to secure the U.S. embassy from any possible terrorist attack.

Nations speak

A day after the first year commemoration of the Sept. 11 tragedy in the United States, world leaders from over a hundred countries met the United Nations’ general headquarters in New York to resolve the Iraq crisis and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, South Asia and Afghanistan.

The Associated Press reported that around 50 presidents and 125 foreign ministers from more than 100 countries attended the session from Sept. 12 to 20.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan assailed the United States' plan to take a unilateral military action and pre-emptive strike against Iraq. He called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to admit weapons inspectors designated by the UN to avert any military attack against Iraq.

The attack of the United States on Iraq will lead to serious destabilization in the Middle East. This was the contention of some countries which expressed apprehensions over Bush’s plan to unseat Hussein.

President Bush has compelled the United Nations to disarm Iraq whom he accused of building a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction despite denials from the Iraqi government that it was into production of nuclear weapons.

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the United States has the right to defend itself but it does not have the carte blanche to act however it wants. "They must follow international law," said Persson. French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and European Commission President Romano Prodi said the decision to attack or not to attack Iraq should be left to the United Nations.

Likewise, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the German government will not join any military action against Iraq because it would lead to the collapse of the Middle East economy. In the same vein, the European Central Bank said the attack on Iraq might speak big trouble for global economy and world market.

In Asia Paficic, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Phan Thuy Thanh said any military action is not appropriate to resolve the Iraq crisis. She said the U.S.-planned military action in Iraq will violate the UN charter as well as the Iraqi people's sovereign rights.

Meanwhile Malaysian Islamic opposition party leader Abdul Hadi Awang warned the Bush government of more terrorist attacks if the Bush administration will push through the plan to invade Iraq. "We are seeing how the United States and its allies are carrying out a new crusade against Muslims," said Abdul Hadi.

Back in the Philippines, Samir A. Masih Bolus, Charge d' Affairs of the Iraqi embassy in Manila asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to reconsider her government's position to allow the United States to use the country's airspace on its war against Iraq.   

Bolus clarified that Iraq was not asking for Philippine support in case of a U.S. attack and all it wanted was for the Philippine government to respect Iraq and the sovereign rights of its people. The Iraqi embassy official said his country is against all forms of terrorism and symphatizes with all victims of terrorism including those who died in the Sept. 11 bombings.

Iraq said that it was a victim of U.S. terrorism citing the 1.7 million Iraqis who have died since the Gulf War in the 1990 due to unjust economic embargo imposed by United States.

The activist fisherfolk group Pamalakaya said President Arroyo should heed the sensible call of the Iraqi government adding that no sensible government would turn down this humble plea from Iraq. "Only puppets, war freaks and mercenaries would give hostile reactions to Iraqi people's prudent appeal to Malacañang Palace to reject the U.S. plan to fly, land and refuel inside the Philippine territory in its war against Iraq," the group said. Bulatlat.com

Photos by Aubrey Makilan

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