The US cannot avoid political failure in Iraq: Vietnam

AFP Tuesday 25 March 2003, 11:48 AM

A consistent opponent of Western policy on Iraq, Vietnam condemned the war against Iraq as a gross violation of international law and a move that renders the United Nations ineffective.

The United States will win the war in Iraq but will not avoid a massive political failure, Vietnam’s state-run news agency said.

With a huge war machine, the US will gain victory in military terms. However, they cannot avoid political failure, the government’s VNA agency said in a rare political comment.

War means death and sorrow, running counter to mankind’s aspiration. Nobody wins in the conflict between war and peace. A regime established by violence will not exist for a long time, VNA said.

Washington’s real motive in Iraq was to establish a new pro-American regime in order to control the second biggest oil reserve in the world and then the Middle East region as a whole, the VNA said.

It said the immediate and long-term goals of the US were maximised profits and charged that the lives of Iraqis did not matter to Washington.

By testing the ’pre-emptive attack’ doctrine while exhibiting their absolute military power, the US wants to re-draw the world map, it said.

A consistent opponent of Western policy on Iraq, Vietnam condemned the war against Iraq as a gross violation of international law and a move that renders the United Nations ineffective.

Do the 26 million Iraqi population, 60 percent of whom have been depending on the Food for Oil Programme, really pose a threat of terrorism for security in the US? the news agency asked.

In the first two weeks of March, (the US) attempted to search for a legal mandate to launch war by using the carrot and stick approach to persuade members of the UN Security Council to support its action, it said.

Hundreds of students have staged peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi every day since the US-led attacks against Iraq started last week.

Vietnamese police, however, banned anti-war demonstrations outside the US embassy in Hanoi on Monday for security purposes and also for diplomatic reasons. Protests were allowed elsewhere in the city.