Serangan Udara Inggeris-Amerika ke atas Iraq
Anglo-American Air Strikes Against Iraq
 

Aliran strongly condemns the unilateral aerial attacks on Iraq by the combined forces of US and Britain as they will not resolve the continuing conflict between the US and Iraq.

If anything, such military action will only aggravate the crisis especially when it inflicts massive destruction of property and innocent human lives. It will also jeopardise the political stability of the West Asian region.

We call upon the parties concerned to halt this insanity and return to the negotiating table.

This latest display of military arrogance makes a mockery of diplomatic negotiation and peaceful conflict resolution through international bodies such as the United Nations.

In addition, the timing of the air strikes, at a time when US President Bill Clinton faces impeachment proceedings, makes us wonder if this military adventure is a  convenient political diversion for the American leader.

Any attempt by the US President to invoke a misplaced sense of patriotism among the American citizenry at the expense of the Iraqi people is deeply regretted and deplorable.

As Malaysians, we are all too familiar with attempts to instil patriotism as a means of shoring up support for a beleagured leader. Indeed, exhorting citizens to unite against imagined enemies and to rally around a beleagured political leader who's plagued with problems is a political devise that has been employed by many leaders worldwide.  The fact that it is also used by the president of the world's most powerful nation makes it all the more reprehensible.
 

Aliran Executive Committee
18 December 1998