Saturday, August 31, 2019

Harold Pinter House of Commons Speech 

21  January 2003 

One of the more nauseating images of the year 2002 is that of our Prime Minister kneeling in the church on Christmas Day praying for peace on earth and good will towards all men while simultaneously preparing to assist in the murder of thousands of totally innocent people in Iraq. 

I believe that not only is this contemplated act criminal, malevolent and barbaric, it also contains within itself a palpable joy in destruction. 
Power, as has often been remarked, is the great aphrodisiac, and so, it would seem, is the death of others. 

The Americans have the ostensible support of the International community' through various sure-fire modes of intimidation: bullying, bribery, blackmail and bullshit. 

The 'international community' becomes a degraded entity bludgeoned into the service of a brutal military force out of control. 

The most despicable position is that of course of this country which pretends to stand shoulder to shoulder with its great ally while in fact being more of a whipped dog than anyone else. We are demeaned, undermined and dishonoured by our government's contemptible subservience to the United States. 

The planned war can only bring about the collapse of what remains of the Iraqi infrastructure, widespread death, mutilation, disease and escalation of violence throughout the world, but it will still masquerade as a 'moral crusade', a 'just war', a war waged by 'freedom-loving democracies', to bring 'democracy' to Iraq. The stink of the hypocrisy is suffocating. This is in reality a simple tale of invasion of sovereign territory, military occupation and control of oil. 

We have a clear obligation, which is to resist. 


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