Iraq Descends into Chaos

national | anti-war / imperialism | feature Tuesday October 28, 2003 19:01 by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland

Irish Anti-War Movement plans Blockade of Shannon Airport

As the US/UK occupation of Iraq descends further into chaos, the recently reorganised Irish Anti-War Movement has announced a blockade of Shannon Airport to take place on Saturday 6th December. The Blockade is in protest at the ongoing use of the airport by the US Military. Almost 100,000 US Troops have passed through the airport on their way to the Middle-East since the beginning of the year.

Other Developments:

A group of peace activists have called a meeting in Limerick on Saturday 1st November aimed at establishing a non-party political group focusing on the use of non-violent direct action tactics to halt the use of the Airport by the US Military.

The IAWM have also issued an invitation to Legal Professionals to attend a meeting on 8th November in Dublin with a view to establishing an expert legal committee.

The Catholic Worker Five are due to appear in court in the very near future and activists in Galway and elsewhere are preparing solidarity actions for the occasion.

Useful Offsite Links:
Global Indymedia Feature on Iraq
Iraq Occupation Watch
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq
Human Rights Watch on situation for civilians in Iraq

Mainstream News Commentary:
Robert Fisk in Counterpunch notes the high suicide rate among the troops, lack of official investigations and body counts of murdered Iraqi civilians, the sustained level of attacks and the schizophrenic perception of the situation by US officers. George Monbiot in the Guardian dismisses the three ostensible reasons for which Bliar and Co. went to war and points out the especial hypocrisy of US support for Uzbekistan's current regime. Meanwhile Bush is quoted on CNN as inadvertently linking "our progress" with civilian deaths:

"`There are terrorists in Iraq who are willing to kill anybody in order to stop our progress,' Bush said. `The more success we have on the ground, the more these killers will react -- and our job is to find them and bring them to justice.'"