'War has been declared'
2003-03-18 08:15
London - The decision by the US and Britain to press ahead towards military action against Iraq without a second UN resolution came under fierce attack from Britain's left-wing press on Tuesday, with many papers concluding that war had, in effect, been declared.
US President George W Bush on Monday warned Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face a US-led war to topple his "dying regime" and strip Baghdad of weapons of mass destruction.
Even before Bush's ultimatum, Baghdad had rejected any talk of exile.
The fiercely anti-war Daily Mirror tabloid, referring to the looming conflict, said on its front page: "Unlawful, unethical, unstoppable".
The left-wing paper said in an editorial on pages two and three it was horrified that innocent Iraqi civilians were about to be unlawfully killed, adding that military action was against the will of the UN, and therefore international law.
The Mirror said that Bush "likes blood", and called him a "a not very bright Texan oil man" heading a "terrifyingly right-wing administration".
"What we could never have predicted was that the British Prime Minister (Tony Blair), a Labour man, would go along with this current madness."
While the Mirror vowed it would support British troops risking their lives in Iraq, "we will not so easily forgive our Prime Minister or his ministers for going to war in this way.
"It is not unpatriotic to say that this is all a terrible mistake."
"The talking is over. Now the world must confront the reality of war," said the left-of-centre Independent, adding that the conflict was of "questionable legality.".
In an editorial it added: "The war that now seems inevitable constitutes a failure of potentially catastrophic proportions, whose malign effects will fall first of all on the long-suffering people of Iraq.
"The failure of diplomacy is a tragedy," the Independent added.
"Diplomacy dies, now it's war" said the front page headline of the left-wing Guardian daily, which added in an article: "The president's televised address to the nation from the White House amounted to a declaration of war."
"Time's up, Saddam" was the front-page verdict of the right wing Daily Mail tabloid, while the right-wing Daily Express's simple headline was: "At War."
The Express added in an editorial that the UN had become an "irrelevant institution" which had "failed miserably to make the world a better place".
"By not acting against Iraq it has become even more like its useless predecessor, the League of Nations."
The right-wing Sun tabloid said that Britain's UN ambassador Jeremy Greenstock had effectively declared war on Iraq by saying that Britain and the US "reserve their right to take their own steps to secure the disarmament of Iraq". - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA