Friday, March 28, 2003

Divided EU Parliament rejects all motions on Iraq
'The parliament voted down by 255-218 a joint resolution by the Socialists, Greens and Liberals that pointed to widespread public opposition to the war and the absence of UN legitimacy, and deplored the failure to give peace efforts more time.'

This motion is reasonably worded, and across Europe something like 80% of people are opposed to the war. One of the most important aspects of this crisis is the way in which it has revealed where governments, MPs, and political parties really stand. All too many of them are in favour of aggressive war, warcrimes, unilateral lawlessness, neo-colonialism and a kind of corporate-state fascism, regardless both of international law and the feelings of their own constituents. It is a crisis of democracy, where the values that we were brought up to believe in after the Second World War have been abandoned.

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