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Iraq for Dummies

by Ruth Wilson

The US (with help from Britain) has bombed Iraq 46 times this year(2002), even before any "war" declared by President Bush. PresidentBush's current threats of escalation are receiving much news coverage,but generally the bombardment of Iraq is scarcely noticed by thepress. The US has been bombing Iraq fairly steadily for the past fouryears, since December 1998, and the bombs have killed hundreds ofcivilians and wounded thousands, according to Iraqi reports. There isalso an economic war, which has been going on for the past 12 years.This silent war has caused the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children underage five, according to UNICEF (www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm).The destruction of Iraq's economy and infrastructure has causedongoing shortages of food, clean water, and basic medical care forordinary people. Now things are a little better, due to the UN"oil-for-food" program, which allows Iraq to sell a limited amount ofoil to buy food and medicine, but the future of the program is highlyuncertain.

In August, Iraqi oil exports were cut substantially, and since thenthey have fluctuated at lower than previous levels, meaning lessfunding for the UN oil-for-food program. If this program is cut backfurther, or eliminated completely, the consequences will be dire forthe Iraqi people. Massive shortages of food and medicine could resume.Children are regularly killed and maimed by ordinance left from theGulf War, including scattered pieces of cluster bombs and thousands oflandmines.

US officials like to blame Iraq's problems on Saddam Hussein, but theUN sanctions against Iraq don't target the Iraqi regime. Instead, theoil embargo and other sanctions hurt ordinary Iraqi people. Targetedsanctions could stop Saddam and members of his government fromtraveling freely, freeze their financial assets abroad, and strengthenthe arms embargo against Iraq, rather than destroy the economy of thecountry. Unfortunately, there is evidence that freeing Iraq fromdictatorship may not be a goal of key American leaders. In fact, thereal goal may be to keep Saddam Hussein in power as long as possible.There is evidence that the US has been supporting Saddam both overtlyand covertly since the Gulf War.

One possible motive is that the oil embargo is profitable for USCorporations. Iraq contains somewhat more oil than Kuwait, and in 1989it exported some three million barrels per day. In August of 1990,following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the UN embargo began, whichessentially stopped Iraq from exporting oil. Almost immediately, SaudiArabia stepped in to fill the gap by increasing oil production by 3million barrels per day. For the past 12 years, as the embargo hascontinued, Saudi Arabia has gained most of Iraq's potential oil revenues. Saudi Arabia has earnedover $130 billion dollars, which Iraq has failed to earn. It isprobable that much of this windfall has been invested in US companiesand banks. Like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia is ruled by one family, which isvery closely tied to the United States. The Iraqi military is actuallyquite weak, and can barely fight back against American attacks.Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein serves as a useful enemy to scareAmericans into paying for the most expensive military in history, longafter the breakup of the Soviet Union. The following remarks aboutHussein appeared in the New York Times (Oct 31 1997): "'He's done moreto promote our policy than we have,' one (Washington) official said.Another added, 'God bless Saddam."'

The current imperative is to boost the stock market by diverting theflow of petrodollars from Iraq to Saudi Arabia or a similarfamily-dictatorship. Hussein is likely to cooperate in this effortbecause bombings and sanctions provide a prop to stabilize his shakyregime.

Learn more. See www.wafreepress.org (see Jan.1999 back issue,and click on "American Policy in Iraq"). Also, check out the followingwebsite: epic-usa.org (Education for Peace in Iraq Center).This group, founded by a Gulf War veteran, has for several years beenlobbying Congress to end the war and stop the economic sanctionsagainst Iraq.

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