Anthony Barnett (London, OK): It's five years today since a million and a half of us were making our way back from the largest demonstration in British history. What are the lessons - what difference did it make? Over in the Guardian, the Chair of the so-called Stop the War Coalition, Andrew Murray open his reflections with these words:
Five years ago this week most readers of this newspaper were making plans to go on a demonstration. More surprisingly, just as many Daily Telegraph readers were getting ready for the same event.
To which one has to say, "Coalition?" Why didn't a real coalition emerge? Why were there no representatives of the Daily Telegraph readers Murray boasts of on the committees than ran it thereafter? As many have written that day was indeed a historic one. If I can quote myself and Isabel Hilton, as I know where the reference is, it was part of what Tom Nairn calls the "democractic warming" taking place around the world:
Are people ready for open-minded, democratic citizenship? One answer came on 15 February 2003 when millions demonstrated against the proposed invasion of Iraq supported by majorities in many countries. This widespread anti-war sentiment was not the craven appeasement of a dictator whose downfall was welcomed. It was not (on the whole) a celebration of populist simplicities by the unwashed.
It was a wise, well-judged refusal of a war of choice and its likely consequences. The leaders of Anglo-Saxon power who had led the world since 1945 proved less far-sighted than their citizens. This moment should be seen as historic. For it was an argument over a coming use of power: it involved a judgement over future consequences. Leaders in Washington, London, Canberra and Madrid, thought they knew better. Instead, citizens around the world proved themselves to be, on balance, wiser. We need the good sense and open-mindedness to build on this, to defy the threats and pressures of fundamentalisms whatever their source.
How does Murray fit into this? His article does not even have the generosity of spirit let alone political judgement to refer to the many other demonstrations around the world that day, as if the only one that mattered took place in London whereas it was a global event.
The tragic fact is that no group of people threw away a greater political opportunity in Britain than the sectarians of the "Coalition". If they had had a single democratic instinct in their bones they would have respected the extraordinary actual mixture of views and tradition which had come together to say 'No' to the decision to invade Iraq. They would have dropped their opposition as an organisation to the war in Afghanistan, where there was a genuine casus belli. They would have opened the UK Committee to Tories,, Liberals and independents with one single focus: on the legality, propriety and diplomacy of the Blair's Iraq strategy. They would have been picketing outside the Hutton and Butler Inquiries in large numbers with experts tracking what was being uncovered for the wider media, holding open forums for debate and discussion. If they had brought in the Liberal Democrats and Ming Campbell as well as Ken Clark and Robin Cook then... well, no end of a lesson could have been taught to the political class. To go on about how big subsequent demos were is pathetic, given the opportunity that had been created which they wasted.
The decision to invade Iraq was a moral as well as military catastrophe. This is why, unlike many other purely local scandals, it won't be possible for the Labour leadership to simply say it was in the past and everyone should move one. Zapatera's premiership is one example, the Obama candidacy another. (David Miliband take note.) Alas, if the leadership of the the so-called 'Stop the War Coalition' themselves (in contrast to those who marched) achieved one thing, it has been to weaken the integrity of the views and influence of those who opposed the war and to throw away the coalition that came to together on the streets of London five years ago today.
