O n March 16, 2003, Bush, Blair and Aznar of Spain met on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores and declared war on Iraq at a time of their “choosing” unless President Saddam Hussein and his two sons leave Iraq . On March 20, 2003, without explicit authorisation of the UN Security Council and in violation of international law, and against the majority of the world public opinion, the US and Britain attacked Iraq “pre-emptively”.

The violent attack was one of the most severe seen in modern history against a defenceless nation. It caused the death of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Iraq ’s state infrastructure and Iraq ’s cultural heritage were deliberately destroyed and looted in the days following the invasion. It was not a war; it was a new form of Western barbarism.

The principle reasons given for the invasion at the time were to “disarm Iraq ” of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and Iraq ’s alleged links to "terrorism". The real motive was the imperialist control of the Middle East, and support for Israel . There was no firm evidence provided to substantiate the fabricated allegations. To the contrary, Iraq had no WMD since 1991, and Iraq had no link to "terrorism" or the 9/11 attacks on the US . Bush own 9/11 Commission found no link between Saddam and 9/11. In fact evidence shows that the decision to attack Iraq was taken several years prior to the 9/11 attacks, which were carried out by individuals from nations allied with the US and Britain . The war was an illegal act of aggression.

Since March 2003, the principle reasons for the war on Iraq keep changing and are rightly described as "a pack of lies" when repeated again in Bush's Speech at Fort Bragg . The biggest lie of WMD has disappeared from Bush speech. Bush is simply playing the role of a propagandist in order to deceive his own people and continue his war of terror against innocent people. As Dr. Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda (1933-1945) noted at the time: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”. He added; “The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”. “President [Bush] seems capable of nothing but lying and crying about terror while terrorizing others”, wrote Canadian author, John Chuckman.

In order to accept the use of “pre-emptive” attack in the name of self-defence, it is essential to first accept the existence of such a right under the UN Charter. According to Michael Bothe, Professor of Law and an expert on international law at W. J. Goethe University in Frankfurt , Germany ; “lawful self-defence requires the actual existence of an armed attack or of a situation to be considered as equivalent to an armed attack”.

The UN Charter is very clear about the prohibition of the use of force. Article 2(4) stated: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or in any manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”. Iraq was a defenceless nation and Iraq posed no threat to the US , Britain and their allies. Further, there was no evidence of Iraq ’s intention to attack any other state. The attack on Iraq was a premeditated act of terrorism. {mosgoogle right}

The official definition of terrorism, according to a US Army manual: “is the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature. This is done through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear” [1]. The British government definition of terrorism in the Terrorism Act 2000 is: “terrorism is the use, or threat, of action which is violent, damaging or disrupting, and is intended to influence the government or intimidate the public and is for purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause”. In 2005, a UN panel defined terrorism: “as any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organisation to do, or abstain from, any act”.

While these definitions are important, they are only used when Western states and Western interests are attacked by so-called “retail” terrorists. They are deliberately avoided and ignored when Western forces attacked other states. For example, these definitions are not considered appropriate when discussing the daily acts of terrorism practised by Israel against the Palestinian people or the 1981 Israeli “pre-emptive” attack on Iraq ’s nuclear reactor plant in Baghdad , killing two French technicians in the attack. These definitions were also not considered appropriate when the US “pre-emptively” attacked a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan in 1998 killing many civilians and destroyed the country’s vital source of medicinal supplies. The use of the term terrorism is deliberately ignored in the current indiscriminate attacks by US-British forces on population centres in Fallujah, Najaf, Ramadi, Al-Qaim, Hillah, Haditha, Karabila and many other Iraqi towns and cities using prohibited Napalm and chemical weapons. The current premeditated US terror, termed “collective punishments”, to destroy Iraqi towns and cities is in complete violation of the Geneva Protocol and The Hague Convention. Sadly, it is encouraged by the deafening silence of the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Anan, who is only interested in serving his imperial master than serves the principles of the UN Charter.

The US and its allies use terrorism as an “ideological instrument of propaganda and control”. “It is the West and Western interests that have pushed terrorism to the forefront, not the ‘terrorists’”, wrote Edward Herman. Terrorism is the driving force behind Western imperialism and the ongoing illegal conquest of people’s resources and livelihoods.

Furthermore, it is worth remembering that since 1991, the US and Britain used the phantom of WMD to enforce the murderous sanctions against the Iraqi people, and to illegally bomb Iraq in order to force a change in Iraq ’s leadership in total violation of international law.

Meanwhile, d espite the clear illegality of the war and the enormous war crimes committed against the Iraqi people, people in the West, particularly the American people, are reluctant to show solidarity with the Iraqi people and acknowledge the sacrifices of the Iraqi people to defend themselves and their nation against the violence of colonial occupation and state terrorism.