The Britons ask "why Iraq war has not made us safer?"

7/23/2005 3:30:00 PM GMT
By: Virginia Rodino

I was on a train to London when we received the news that London buses and tube stations full of morning commuters were attacked. Traveling with a train full of British anti-war activists from the G8 protests in Scotland, people all around me immediately began making calls to friends and loved ones in London

. Many of us had been planning to attend a political conference whose opening plenary was taking place that evening in the same square as one of the bus bombings. All of us were sickened by the despair and carnage already indicated from media reports and messages from friends in London. Through some quirks, as much public transport had been cancelled, our train was allowed into a now heavily-policed station in London, Euston Street.

My best friend is one of the well-recognized anti-capitalist organizers in the country, certainly within London. He, two other friends and I found ourselves being followed by two officers as we trudged through the London rain to an open tube station across the city. Quickly the two officers on foot were replaced by a van-load of police, which eventually gave up its chase.

This inane use of resources targeting a small group of bedraggled peace activists made me think of the intensified spying and clamp-downs on peace activists in the United States after 9-11. We were all worrying about the potential support for a universal ID card being proposed in Britain - akin to the ID card which recently became law in the United States: an anti-immigrant maneuver by the state which will further endanger the civil liberties of people.

We also thought about the thousands of Metropolitan London police who were shipped to Scotland to protect Bush and Co. in Gleneagles, when the real threat was obviously back at home.

Most importantly, however, was the concern that there were not racist attacks against the Muslim communities in Britain.

In the ensuing days, mosques were set on fire, and individuals were being thrown off buses.

However, the inclusive climate of solidarity created by the mass, multi-racial anti-war movement during the past two years helped to dispel much anti-Muslim sentiment. After marching side by side in demonstrations of millions of people against the war, a lot of ignorance and isolation naturally washed away between Muslims and non-Muslims.

In contrast, by refusing to acknowledge the consequences of the British government's role in the Middle East wars, and by suddenly forgetting the anti-Muslim rhetoric he helped propagate in order to build public support for those wars, Tony Blair is creating the circumstances where Muslims in Britain are scapegoated - and the root political causes of the “suicide bombing” remain unchecked.>>>CONTINUED

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