Peace is not a bandage

15 years have passed since 15th February 2003, when the people all over the world took the streets in more than 600 cities. They wanted to stop the war, the umpteenth, between the Western Allies and Iraq. A mass of humans swarmed over all 5 continents. Two huge screens in Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni broadcast images from around the world.

Humanity – or to be precise its best part – was uniting beyond ethnic, religious, cultural and political differences. The New York Times described this mass protest of 11 million people as “ the Planet’s second largest superpower”. That day, Iraqis realised that despite the actions of the governments, they were not alone and that after that terrible 2003 they could start rebuilding Iraq’s future together with a network of social movements around the world.

War outdid reason; its unmentionable logic, its nightmare machine and its thirst for domination and profit, drowned this international human tide. World leaders, who had been planning this invasion for some time, lost the war of information. Their nauseating propaganda crafted to beautify the justifications for this war, to the extent of inventing the oxymoron “humanitarian war” (as if war and humanitarianism can be reconciled), eventually crumbled.

Colin Powell’s performance at the United Nations Security Council on 5th February, will go down in history as a global lie. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they were imported by USA fighter planes loaded with white phosphorus to burn the skin, flesh and bones of civilians in Falluja. Those who talked most about the need to defeat terror became its primary source. 

Iraq was torn apart, devastated and humiliated by attempts to ‘free’ the country from Al Qaeda, while sectarian violence, religious fanaticism and eventually the monstrous Daesh (IS) all flourished. But hundreds of thousands more Iraqs moved towards activism with the formation of  associations, youth and women’s movements, often powered by feminists, working on the grassroots rebuilding of  ‘an alternative Iraq’.

We knew that the only good investment was peace, that war would only foster hatred, and threaten the security of everybody, including us in our countries which were now launching pads for invisible bombers, known as ‘Stealth’.

Armchair politics missed a chance to work together with the people. Tens of thousands of rainbow flags hung from balconies were mocked and the government carried on regardless of public opinion. In 14 years of military activity in Iraq, Italy spent 2.6 billion dollars, which would have been better spent on dealing with the humanitarian crisis and investing in democratic institutions, as proposed by the Iraqi Social Forum in a report we published with MILEX.

Un Ponte Per have been active in Iraq since the days of ‘Desert Storm’ which tore it apart in 1991, and from 1991 we tried to clarify the fact that there was more to Iraqi society than its dictator Saddam Hussein (once a Western champion for his stance against the Shi’ites if Iran). The criminal embargo had already affected the civilian population, which was once again suffering from hunger and diseases which had previously been eradicated, with children in the poorest areas  dropping like flies.

This new war ushered in a new layer of criminal injustice. ‘Cruise’ missiles in the ‘intelligent’ ferocity of cruise missiles destroyed not just actual bridges but also the symbolic bridges between people, driving multicultural and multi-denominational cities previously known as the cradles of civilisation back to medieval times. We have been working to rebuild those bridges since 2003, unheard and undaunted.

Many opinion leaders still insist on asking “Where are the pacifists?” while sitting behind their desks in their luxurious offices, when faced with the endless wars breaking out since 2003. With this question they are taking for granted that those massive mobilisations were just a collective blunder, that the mass of protesters were deliberately influenced or just incredibly naive. Yet we have encountered numerous pacifists over the years wherever hope and vitality over-rides human suffering.

As soon as the pacifists became more visible, thanks to their rescue missions to save thousands of people from drowning in the sea, the criticism began. NGOs were accused of acting like  “sea taxis”, or collaborating with local gangs and unlimited funds.

Our funds are certainly not unlimited but we decided to take a stance and focus on humanity rather than cruelty.

We were supporting peaceful protests by Iraqis who in 2016 brought down the walls of Baghdad’s Green Zone who are working to save the River Tigris from the construction of huge dams, to encourage the parliament to approve laws for workers’ rights and women’s rights. Meanwhile, the Chancellors in the West and the authoritarian governments in the Middle East focus on military missions and bombing campaigns, bowing to pressure from the business of war, but widespread constant war will inevitably provoke nationalism, racism and barriers.

World disorder is structured to maintain the status quo. We, however, are pacifists who subvert the current state of affairs, as stated by Father Ernesto Balducci at the start of the first Gulf War. Peace is the construction of a true sense of justice, not just a sticking plaster on the wounds of war.

How we can build bigger, stronger and more welcoming structures, is the subject of daily debate, with the sharing of tools, and taking a break every now and then to share a meal.

We want to celebrate this fifteenth anniversary, to reflect on pacifism in the new millennium; 3 million people protesting in Rome is just the start. Let’s work on this with our Iraqi men and women partners.
By Martina Pignatti Morano and Afio Nicotra, Un Ponte Per