From The Independent, by Harold Pinter who yesterday won the Nobel Prize for Literature
Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror – and indeed the pity
– of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly
100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more
brutal, more pitiless.
But the “free world” we are told, as embodied in the United States and
Great Britain, is different to the rest of the world since our actions
are dictated and sanctioned by a moral authority and a moral passion
condoned by someone called God. Some people may find this difficult to
comprehend but Osama Bin Laden finds it easy.
What would Wilfred Owen make of the invasion of Iraq? A bandit act, an
act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the
concept of International Law. An arbitrary military action inspired by
a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and
therefore of the public. An act intended to consolidate American
military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading – as a
last resort (all other justifications having failed to justify
themselves) – as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force
responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands upon thousands of
innocent people.