On 20th March 2003, the US army started to launch missiles on Iraq, while President Bush appeared to make his address on television. This invasion is an act that reaffirms the imperialist ambitions of the US, an act that is turning a deaf ear to the cries of the worldwide anti-war protests and the appeals of the Iraqi people. The Korean People's Action against BIT and WTO(KoPA) firmly states that it is against this invasion and demand the immediate stop to the war.
It is already a well-known fact that this war in reality has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein and the so-called "weapons of mass destruction". As was the case in the war against Afghanistan, this war is nothing more than a means of the US, as the biggest importer of oil, to gain access to the Iraq -one of the biggest producers of oil. US corporations own only 2% of the world oil production, while consuming 25%. Thus, the US is seeking to secure the profits of its oil capital at the same time protecting its "energy security".
Another objective of this war is to strengthen its hegemony in the Middle East region by establishing a pro-US regime in Iraq, just as it did in Afghanistan. The Middle East is a region where the US can hold in check Russia, Asia and Europe all at once, and therefore is of great geopolitical importance. In short, this war is an attempt to secure a stable production and transportation of oil in the region, and is also a military march to establish an empire across the globe.
The "famous" right-wing New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said at the time of US invasion of Serbia, "the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas..." This quote from a decade ago echoed through all the minor and major military manoeuvres of the last decade -in fact during the last several decades- in Latin America, Asia, Africa and now, the Middle East. The US is using military might to enforce neoliberalism, which pushes world peoples into devastation and poverty, and also to suppress the resistance of those peoples. Neoliberal globalization and military imperialism are the "hidden hand of the market" and the "fist" mentioned by Friedman, and are inseparable twins. In fact, after 9.11, the US tried to suppress the resistance against neoliberalism and secure the interests of transnational capital by forming the equation "anti-globalization = terrorism". Also, the world economy is in turmoil !
at the present. The US is attempting to veil this crisis through the war and overcome it by stimulating the arms industry.
The war against Iraq, which started today, is based on the ambitions of the US to dominate the world economically and politically, and to accelerate its neoliberal project. In this process, millions of innocent Iraqi people will face death, starvation and terror, while democracy and justice around the globe will be trampled upon. We are against this war, and we will continue to fight with the peoples of the world until the US stops the war.
The Korean government recently announced its support for the war. According to Article 5 of the Korean Constitution, "the Republic of Korea shall endeavor to maintain international peace and shall renounce all aggressive wars." If the Noh Moo-Hyun government decides to ignore the Constitution and support this war, we will also struggle against the Korean government.
20th March, 2003
Korean People's Action against BIT and WTO (KoPA)
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