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Clive Lewis: What Iraq should teach us about Russia’s war [1]
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Date: 2023-03
On the 20th anniversary of the West’s war in Iraq, progressives in the UK will remember the important moment in 2003 when millions stood up to an unjust invasion and said: “Not in our name.”
Yet more than a year into Russia’s war against Ukraine, this is also a moment of nuance. Today, progressives in the West have made a crucial distinction between their own country’s imperialist wars and another democracy’s war of self-defence against imperialism.
This distinction has not come easy.
The West has long been divided about the very concept of war. Its Indo-European root word means confusion and discord, but war is also seen as valorous and honourable in the defence of something most valued. War is driven by something that really matters being at stake. Yet it is shaped by means that are inherently destructive, unruly and hard to contain.
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This confusion applies to the very real risks posed by Vladimir Putin and his nuclear-capable oligarchy – and the sceptical view that progressives rightly take of our own government and its economic and geopolitical motivations for supporting Ukraine’s resistance. That’s a challenge.
As progressives, all wars should sit uncomfortably with us. I know I’ve found it uncomfortable – I still do, even now. When I put down an early day motion in Parliament, demanding more weapons be sent to Ukraine, I agonised over it. I’ve been torn by it.
But it’s OK to be torn, to doubt ourselves. The waging or supporting of war should never come easy to us. The world, after all, rarely fits into a narrative of absolute good and evil.
On the UK’s support for Ukraine, I didn’t want to see more money and power put into the hands of arms dealers and the military industrial complex. I didn’t want to find myself on the same side in Parliament as the Tories and other assorted warmongers.
But I understood my political misgivings. My discomfort was nothing compared to the existential fight and the sacrifices Ukrainians have made and continue to make to defend their homes, their families and their democracy from brutal, naked aggression. I understood, as complex as it is, that supporting the Ukrainian people in their hour of need was, and is, the right thing to do.
Contrary to what some on the left think, the fact I served in the British Army doesn’t make me more prone to militarism or imperial adventurism. For me, it actually works in the opposite way. It makes me even more wary.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/clive-lewis-20-years-iraq-ukraine-war-russia-climate-nato/
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