A PEACE activist from Britain believes that while democracy presents an alternative paradigm to terrorism, it cannot be brought about through the barrel of the gun. This is what is happening in Iraq, where the US claims it is ushering in democracy.
The peace activist, Geoff Brown, a trade unionist, was in Karachi in connection with preparations for the World Social Forum gathering planned for the city in January.
He came to Pakistan in the wake of 7/7 and while explaining where the world was heading after the London bomb blasts, he put them in the context of the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and in Palestine — wars that predated the London tragedy. He described the changing dimension of the terrorist threat when he said that a year ago when he was in Pakistan for a month, his family was worried, but this time round he was worried about his family.
“It is not that the world has changed. People in Britain have now woken up to what most of the world already experiences. And I am afraid that this is how the world will be”, said Mr Brown. “It has been a serious shock. But I don’t think you can say it was a surprise. The question comes to mind as why it was so long in coming. I expected it a long time ago”.
Explaining his premise, Mr Brown said once George Bush was elected it had become obvious that he would be aggressive in foreign policy which became evident soon after 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. It was discovered that for 10 years Bush and his colleagues had been planning a war on Iraq.
Explaining what could be the motive behind the London terrorist attack, Mr Brown cited George Galloway’s remarks in parliament on that fateful day when he said: “Why should we be surprised? We have been killing them, now they are killing us.”
“We killed a hundred thousand Iraqis, this is not a controversial figure,” Mr Brown added as his own comment.
It has been happening for more than 20 years since Carter and Brezenski played the “little trick” to “provoke” the Russians to invade Afghanistan, which culminated in the end of the Soviet state. Pakistan, which became the frontline state during the Cold War and in attempts by a single power to assert its control, has not been able to come out of it.
“There has been violence in Pakistan. It has never been possible to get out of it although there has been a genuine effort to end that,” said Mr Brown who also talked about the serious problem of racism in Britain. He was of the view that this was part of the phenomenon of the need to create a picture of the enemy. In this context he referred to President George Bush’s speech soon after the 9/11’s tragic incident in which he had talked about a ‘crusade’. He was already building stereo-types.
The peace activist said that during demonstrations on the occasion of the recent G-8 summit in the UK the placards carried by the protesters said: “George Bush is the world’s number one terrorist”, amply reflecting the view of a large number of people about unilateralism, which Mr Brown said was itself a form of terrorism. “They understand state terrorism, and the bigger the state, the bigger the capacity for state terrorism. You cannot reduce terrorism to individual or small group activity.”
Mr Brown thinks that the big problem the world faces today is essentially powerlessness. It is not just in Pakistan. In Britain, fewer people are voting in general election than any time in 100 years. In America too the vote is declining. Only 22 per cent of the population of Britain voted for Tony Blair. “This is very dangerous because if one does not have the sense that democracy can work, then what is the alternative? It is necessary to have faith that democracy can work.”
He suggested that Americans should learn from their own revolution against the British to create democracy and said the same will be true if the people of Iraq could create their own democracy. “You cannot bring democracy by the barrel of the gun. It doesn’t work.”
On the possibility of an attack on Iran, Mr Brown was not sure of rational behaviour from the White House which has so many nuclear weapons. “My view is that the Americans are losing in Iraq very, very slowly. They are going to carry on killing Iraqis like they did in Vietnam. They will be humiliated and lose. But they will not retreat into isolation.”
He is convinced that the problem in Iraq cannot be solved without addressing the Palestine issue. “My thesis is that the best answer is democratization. There are young Arabs who want to have the democratic system of Israel but not its politics. If we are going to win the battle of democracy in the Middle East, then Israel’s occupation of Palestine would collapse very quickly. But at the moment we have very evil combinations. The regimes of the Middle East actually depend on the Palestinians not getting their rights.”
A PEACE activist from Britain believes that while democracy presents an alternative paradigm to terrorism, it cannot be brought about through the barrel of the gun. This is what is happening in Iraq, where the US claims it is ushering in democracy.
