A proportionate response?
November 7, 2001 12:00 AM
By Stephen Williams in Bristol West End News
By Stephen Williams in Bristol West End News
About two and a half years ago I addressed a meeting of the Bristol branch of the United Nations Association. I was there to speak in favour of the NATO bombing campaign against the Serb military forces in Kosovo. A Green party representative spoke against the bombing and the audience gave him a much gentler ride than they gave me. But two years later Milosevic is on trial in The Hague and Serbia is well on the way to gaining an honourable place in the European family of nations where it belongs.
Now in 2001 Britain is playing a small part in another bombing campaign. If a local debate were to be held about Afghanistan I would not be so gung-ho as I was in 1999. I have not joined the brigade of faint hearts and hand wringers who quail from the prospect of military action. But if we are at "war" with terrorism then it's a war quite unlike any other in history. Serbia had one of the largest armies in Europe. It was well equipped with planes and artillery. The Taliban are little more than bandits in a country torn apart by 20 years of war. In Serbia NATO had real targets to hit. In Afghanistan our bombs reduce to dust what is already rubble. The war in Kosovo had military objectives that could be attained in months. The "war" against terrorism may drag on for years and it seems unlikely that Bin Laden will join Milosevic in court.
Our war against the Taliban and the terrorists that they harbour carries with it three great dangers over and above those to our armed forces. Firstly, it is the people of Afghanistan who are likely to suffer, rather than their barbaric rulers. The military campaign is likely to exacerbate a condition of near famine and it is estimated that up to 100,000 are at risk of death this winter. If this war is have any justice associated with it then we must make every effort to distribute food and show that the lives of Afghan villagers are as sacrosanct as New Yorkers. Attention paid to accurate dropping of food parcels must be as important as accurate guidance of missiles.
Secondly, a long drawn out conflict may make the building of ties with muslim nations all the more difficult. I am trying to deepen my understanding of Islam. I hope that one of the silver linings in this otherwise dark cloud might be a reappraisal of "western" values and how they sit with other world cultures.
The final danger is closer to home. Mr Blair's government has possessed a tendency to control freakery since it was first elected. There is a danger in "war" that the government will seek to by-pass parliament, massage the media and rush through illiberal legislation. At our annual conference Charles Kennedy said that whilst the Liberal Democrats supported action to root out terrorism, that support did not amount to a blank cheque. We would offer a "friendly tap on the shoulder" to the government whenever they strayed off course.
To question the conduct of war is not akin to appeasement, as Labour's chief whip appears to believe. If this "war" is about anything it is about our freedom to question, criticise and, if necessary, dissent.
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