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Diary entry on the War and Anti-war, by Lisa Ndejuru
Baghdad March 24, 2003

5th day of the American invasion on Iraq. Several hundred civilian casualties on the Iraqi side. Some dozens of dead American soldiers and prisoners of war. More will die and kill and suffer. We will never be able to turn back the hands of time.

The anti war movement is getting stronger in all of the countries represented by the members of the Iraq peace Team and around the world. Few still think that the American led aggression is legitimate. Not only is it not legitimate, it is abuse. It is abuse of power.

What does it mean today to stand truth to power. The truth is that even though the international community through the body of the United Nations refused to give its approval to the US led aggression on Iraq. It is doing nothing to protect Iraq, a country that has up to now shown compliance with international agreements. And it is doing nothing to protect its own legitimacy.

There is no court, to which to take this abuse. Not even the international criminal court as the United States have passed a law that they would use force to remove anyone of their own taken there to be tried. The aggressor country has veto power on the security council of the United Nations. No provision is made to protect the other nations from abuse by one or any of these deciding few. For twelve years the nations of the world were united in applying economic sanctions on Iraq, impacting the country on economic levels but also intentionally hurting the health, the education, the dignity of its population. A whole generation of Iraqi children have grown up knowing nothing different. Today these same nations are standing by as the most powerful military machine on the planet unilaterally decides to wage war on a country it has spent the last several years impoverishing and demilitarizing. The nations of the international community are doing nothing to help one of its members that has complied with the conventions that they agreed upon to govern their relations. And they are doing nothing to stop one of its members that has decided to violate those same agreements.

Silence is betrayal and justice is contigent upon trust. How can the people of Iraq trust the international process to uphold justice? How can anyone? It feels like adding insult to injury to document war crimes to bring to those same international courts when those crimes could have been prevented, when nothing is being done now to oppose the war, and when no one in those courts has held the US accountable for their actions in the past.

The world will expect of Iraq to honour the Geneva convention with respect to Prisoners of War. And Iraq probably will. But what of the abuses perpetrated by the american forces in the last gulf war, what of the surrendering Iraqi soldiers shot at and buried alive in trenches, what of the bombings of civilian targets in the last twelve years and more recently in '98 and '99 again by American forces.

I was shoked to learn that Mr Powell would go to the United Nations to ask for its help in governing post-war Iraq. As if the UN had approved the US 's unilateral decision to go to war in the first place. As if the war was "won". In french there is a saying: "qui ne dit mot consent" Truth is that the rules of the game should apply equally to everyone and they don't. That is why people are protesting, marching, disobeying civilly, not playing by the rules.

The challenge to the credibility of non-violence is that it is seemingly defenseless when faced with the use of force. As the bombs are exploding over Baghdad, and the people keep marching in the world, I realize that in fact abuse of power is possible only with the consent of all the participants. If this war it could not be prevented, it can certainly be stopped, and we all understand that any use of force, and the same goes for bribery or other kinds of enforced silence all serve to secure consent. As long as we do not submit there can be no domination. No authority, not even that of the strongest nation of the world, is independent of the consent of a critical mass of participants. It is a risky proposition to challenge the order of things. But it is riskier still not to. We cannot raise our children to do the right thing when we show them that the right thing will get them nothing. We cannot build communities of trust if we sell out to the highest bidder. We cannot believe in our own humanity when we do nothing to protect it. We cannot give up hope

I sit in Baghdad and wonder what more we can do. What can we do in the face of abuse to transform ourselves and each other? How to face up to the struggle with power? How can we model love and loving ways?

Charlie Litkey, a vietnam veteran and member of our team told me that in the Vietnam war the buddhist monks would immolate themselves before the american soldiers. It was the way they had found to express the horror of the situation without harming anyone but themselves.

I wonder if love must hurt. I look to love as an alternative to power. So far I know that love cannot be forced or cajoled, that love is freely given. My father said: " love! that is enough, the rest will take care of itself". Maybe I should trust.

To receive reports from the Canadian members of the Iraq Peace Team regularly, send a blank email to iptcanada-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Their reports and pictures are also posted on www.nowar-paix.ca. Reports of other members of the Iraq Peace Team appear at www.iraqpeaceteam.org and www.electroniciraq.net.