It is a mad world

The Belfast Telegraph today reports that “More than 50 anti-war demonstrators protested outside the main gates of the Stormont estate after a demonstration in the centre of Belfast included the erection of an Iraqi flag on the City Hall.”

I wonder if they erected the old Iraqi flag representing Saddam Hussein’s genocidal regime. It would be odd if they used the flag of the new Iraq whose elected government is opposed to the demand for troops out now and is seeking to negotiate the continued presence of foreign troops albeit with several big arguments about the terms on which they stay.

As an organisation that emerged from the anti-war movement, we know that it was perfectly honourable to oppose the military intervention. Most of those who founded LFIQ did so. A minority favoured it but we united to seek to assist the new Iraq that is now, with some increasing success, seeking to establish the rule of law and set up a democratic and federal system for a country that was ravaged by decades of fascist-type rule, wars, repression and sanctions. It is high time that the remnants of the anti-war movement started to listen to Iraqis who have sadly become invisible, except on this occasion when their flag was badly misused.

Gary Kent
Director, LFIQ