DEMOCRACY AND IRAQ

an open letter to Gordon Brown from Chris Eubank

September 2007

Dear Mr Brown,

I've always felt personally responsible for Tony Blair becoming Prime Minister. Not just because I voted for the Labour Party in 1997, but also because before that election he reportedly said "if Chris Eubank can beat Nigel Benn, then I can become Prime Minister". Given his subsequent disastrous record on Iraq, I feel I should make amends.

I'm taking this opportunity to call on you, our new Prime Minister, to end our country's involvement in Iraq as quickly as possible. I'm something of an expert on fighting and on posturing in the ring, and I'm thankful that Prince Harry will not now be sent to join in what I believe is an illegal and immoral war. Using the profile of the third in line to the British throne to give credibility to an unjust fight would have been morally wrong, as well as endangering the Prince's own life and those of other soldiers serving with him.

All our brave young men and women who go to war in Iraq run an extraordinarily high risk of being mentally disturbed, maimed or killed in the process of enforcing a government policy that does not have either right or British public opinion on its side. Exactly 170 of our own service personnel have been killed so far in the conflict, and it seems that nobody is able to keep count of the thousands of Iraqi dead.

I believe passionately in democracy. It is a system of government that gives me the opportunity to be my brother's keeper. When I was young and impressionable, my elders taught me that in our democracy I could use my vote to protect the weak, and that I would be free to express views highlighting the plight of the displaced, underprivileged and disaffected. Now I am a man, I have a duty to champion those precious democratic values instilled in me as a young boy and to speak the truth as I see it.

I have been accused of publicity-seeking by protesting against the war in Iraq, but calling on the government to end an illegal war and occupation is a course of action I must follow, for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. As a young boy I was suspended from secondary school eighteen times in one year and finally expelled for protecting children who were being physically and psychologically bullied. I knew that if I got suspended I would get the strap from my father, but that never deterred me. I believe I was right then, and that I am right now to condemn our government for bullying the Iraqis. However odious Saddam Hussein's regime may have been, this was never our battle, our intervention was not just and its effect on the people of Iraq has been devastating.

I and others have been arrested for protesting "illegally" within the vicinity of Parliament under legislation designed to curtail our freedom of speech and assembly. Recently the charges against me have been quietly dropped, but I do not intend to leave it there. I believe that we cannot take our democracy for granted and that each one of us has a responsibility to uphold and celebrate it. We must keep the spirit of democracy strong and healthy in our own country, so that we can influence other nations by our positive example.

So now I call on you, Mr Brown, to show the moral courage required to take a new path. End what Mr Blair began and lead our country into a new era of democratic freedom.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Eubank

 

Response from Gordon Brown, November 2007

Chris Eubank has been arrested on several occasions, protesting against the war in Iraq. He does not consider this a negative thing, but to the contrary, feels that we should all exercise civil disobedience when the legality of government actions is questionable.