and they're in.......

[Chris Burford]

Now we will learn whether ground troops with air logistical support can be 
any more humane than just bombing from 30.000 feet, as in the Kosovo 
war.  It will be difficult in the first week or two to oppose this outright 
unless you want to argue from a pacifist position. Ground forces come 
closer to a policing operation, which is a more rational response to 
terrorism than war. But if anything they highlight the great gap between 
the goals of the "Coalition against Terror" and the miminum adequate level 
of world consent for such use of armed force to stabilise rather than 
further disturb global peace. Claims by US and Britain that the new phase 
will be better, or the efficient answer to terrorism will be useless if 
there are not major initiatives towards global consensus, that have the 
support of one billion muslims, and are under the auspices of the United 
Nations. A licence to hegemons to do what they will, is only politically 
realistic if they are likely to succeed.

If anything there is even more scope now for a global peace movement, 
provided it gets its broad political orientation right, and links up again 
with the movement for global economic justice that got derailed by 
terrorism on Sept 11th.

Chris Burford

London