Drums of war from the NATO Summit
NATO means war and uprooting of people as refugees
We reply with struggles for peace
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 8th July 2016, Nicosia
The day before yesterday the Inquiry Commission Report on Iraq was published, which on the mandate of the House of Commons dealt with Britain’s policy on Iraq in the period 2001-2009. After seven years, the Commission announced that “Military action in Iraq might have been necessary at some point. But in March 2003 –there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein – the strategy of containment could have been adapted and continued for some time – the majority of the Security Council supported continuing UN inspections and monitoring.” However, the Blair government invaded Iraq in full coordination and cooperation with its NATO ally of the US.
The Report reaffirms now officially what thousands of peace-lovers were shouting in the streets of Europe, and what AKEL was saying as well. That is to say, the whole operation and subsequent occupation of Iraq by the US and Britain, as well as their NATO allies, was built on a lie. The imperialist intervention came as a continuation of the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan; it plunged the entire region into chaos. Iraq was destroyed and thirteen years afterwards its people continue to suffer. The multinational companies have made billions through the selling of arms and the reconstruction of what their war machine had destroyed, through the oil sources they put under their control.
The creation of the “Islamic State” and the spread of terrorism was the consequence of these imperialist policies that were supported by the EU as well, especially after the EU’s policy of coupling with NATO, which was ratified by the Lisbon Treaty. Interventions followed which led to the civil war in Syria and the dissolution of state structures in Libya.
The huge dimensions of the refugee crisis with the thousands of desperate people drowning in the Mediterranean trying in their attempts to reach the territory of the EU, the thousands of people amassed on the borders having to confront a Fortress Europe devoid of any solidarity, is the result of these of these interventionist policies. The hypocritical tears cannot wash away their responsibilities.
As the NATO Summit is convening today and tomorrow in Warsaw, its drums of war are being heard ominously, given that the show of strength is intensifying along the borders with Russia and NATO’s military and naval presence in the troubled region of the Eastern Mediterranean is being strengthened, together with other plans and expansions that are expected to be decided. The only thing the peoples can expect is more wars, insecurity and destroyed countries.
Cyprus a victim of NATO plans and scheming, which is still suffering from the occupation and consequences of the interventions, cannot but oppose any of NATO’s plans and more specifically its involvement in Cyprus.
AKEL condemns the criminal plans of the North Atlantic Alliance, demands the dissolution of NATO and declares it will intensify the struggle with all peace-loving forces to prevent the NATO plans. We are struggling for a peaceful world; a world of solidarity and cooperation.