Tony Benn joins peace activists to protest NATO expansion
Written by Stewart office
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Tony Benn, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham were joined by Brian Eno, David Gentleman and kate Hudson as they handed in a letter of protest to Downing Street condemning the expansion of NATO which has led to the war in Georgia.
The letter, reprinted below, highlighted the double standards of a government which invades countries across the world then accuses others of doing the same.
When Stop the War Coalition marched against the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, we said that the world would become a more dangerous place as other countries sought to use war to achieve political ends. There is a direct causal relationship between the Iraq war and the Georgian War, not least Georgia's 2,000 troops who learned their trade in Iraq.
If NATO expansion is allowed to continue unhindered, this will be seen not as an isolated incident but the beginning of a new cold war.
Dear Prime Minister,
We write to express our deep concern at the policy of the British government
toward the recent war in Georgia.
Government policy must recognise that the military action of the Georgian
government against South Ossetia was the trigger for Russian military action.
In addition, the government should grasp that the encouragement given to
Georgia by the US and Britain to become part of NATO was seen by Georgia as a
direct encouragement in its conflict with Russia. NATO's eastward expansion to
include most of the countries in Russia's former sphere of influence was bound
to lead to just such a conflict.
We are also concerned that the government's slavish repetition of the
statements being made by the US government, even down to the repetition of
exact phrases, risks re-running the errors that the Blair government made
during the Iraq war.
Those making government statements seem unaware that echoing George Bush's
denunciation of Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" can
only further diminish the standing of those making them when they are widely
seen as responsible for two such invasions - those of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The government needs to break decisively with the US-led aggressive expansion
of NATO around Russia's borders. The end of the Cold War should have been an
opportunity to inaugurate a peaceful era in international relations. But the US
determination to exercise global hegemony through a series of military
adventures, the expansion of NATO, the adoption of first strike and pre-emptive
strike policies and the spread of US bases through the former Soviet central
Asian republics has all but destroyed this prospect.
It should be the policy of the British government to revive this vision of
peace. The first step is to break with the war-drive of the US state.
Yours sincerely
Tony Benn
Brian Eno
David Gentleman
Andrew Murray (STWC)
Kate Hudson(CND)
Lindsey German (STWC)
Billy Hayes (CWU)
