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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MER FLASHBACK - Published by MER Four Long Years Ago on 2 August 2000
To Understand the Present You Must Appreciate The Past -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 YEARS and 1 MILLION+ DEAD and COUNTING
"Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible for genocide in Iraq. All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible for sustained genocide in Iraq."
"Saddam Hussein remained the only Arab head of state capable of providing Arab leadership and resistance to neo-colonial US/UK and western domination of the Middle East, and its oil."
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 2 August 2000:
It's ten years ago this week that the army of Iraq moved
into the once-British now American protectorate of Kuwait, an area that
indeed once was but a fishing village province of Iraq.
The whole affair has its earliest roots in the 20s when
the British carved the area to become known as Kuwait from Iraq, and as
usual, found themselves an Arab family to annoint on their
behalf. By the 60s, when the British formally departed, the West
had adopted the meaningless borders of the region for their own reasons
of divide and control. By the 80s the West and Gulf Arab client
regimes were arming Iraq to attempt to bring down the Iranian
revolution -- millions died, weapons of mass destruction were
introduced and encouraged. By the 90s Iraq had grown too
powerful, so the U.S. and Israel conspired to manipulate oil pricing
and supply creating a plot that encouraged Iraq to invade Kuwait,
giving them the excuse they wanted to further divide and conquer the
region.
In the wake of Iraq's destruction and the concomitant
occupation of the Gulf region by American military and intelligence
forces, the U.S. and Israel went on to quickly concoct their latest
regional designs known as the "Peace Process." Madrid led to
Washington led to Oslo led back to Washington led to Camp David.
Indeed these days all roads actually lead to Washington, many to
Israeli Jerusalem, and many of the tributaries can be traced to the
power of the Israeli/Jewish lobby and the bank accounts of the
western-created and empowered Arab potentates.
The following article by the former U.N. Assistant
Secretary General who resigned in moral protest against the genocide
being perpetrated on the Iraqi people was published today in the
British paper The Guardian.
TIME TO SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES AND IRAQ
Denis J
Halliday*
[The Guardian - 2 August]
Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible for
genocide in Iraq. Saddam Hussein certainly gave Bush and Thatcher a gift
when he invaded Kuwait in 1990. He facilitated the opening of the
much-needed respectability of a UN umbrella for a US-led alliance to destroy
Iraq.
Why? Because despite the costly debacle of the war with Iran, Saddam Hussein
remained the only Arab head of state capable of providing Arab leadership
and resistance to neo-colonial US/UK and western domination of the Middle
East, and its oil.
The war was always about controlling oil supplies, and never really about
Kuwait. But Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in breach of international law,
provided the opportunity for showing American military muscle, damaged by
the Vietnam defeat; for experimentation with depleted uranium; and for the
destruction of Iraq, combined with impoverishment of the rich Arab world .
All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible for sustained
genocide in Iraq. Today the prime minister, Tony Blair, is on the defensive
on a range of largely domestic issues. He does not appear to be on the
defensive over genocide. His unending endorsement of the Clinton/Albright
programme for killing the children of Iraq is seldom mentioned.
Have decision-makers learned nothing from the Pinochet humiliation? Or do
they still feel immune under international law for crimes against humanity?
What does that say about us all? Does it say that, after 10 long decimating
years of the UN economic embargo on the people of Iraq, we simply do not
care? We do not care when Unicef reports that 5,000 children under five
years old die each month unnecessarily from embargo-related deprivation. And
Unicef does not count the teenagers, the adults and the aged that die.
Do we not care that the UN allies, in breach of Geneva conventions,
destroyed the lives of civilians through direct bombing and destruction of
electric power capabilities, clean water systems, sanitation and health
care?
Do we not care that Iraqi society, culture and learning, rooted in the
cities of Mesopotamia, is dying alongside its people? Are we really that
racist? Are we really that anti-Islamic? Could Britain stand by and watch
the same holocaust within a white Christian state?
What can be done? Why not set aside US propaganda and demonisation and do a
Nixon to China, or a Clinton-Putin outreach to Pyongyang - ie, communicate.
Begin to understand what is happening in Iraq, and begin perhaps to
influence change and better relations within the Middle East.
Why not address the concerns of the Kuwaiti and Saudi leadership, who fear a
resurgence of Iraqi regional ambition, by encouraging their political
collaboration with Baghdad? At the same time ease fears through control of
purchasing by, and sales to, Iraq of offensive weapons of mass or other
forms of destruction. Demand the removal of weapons of mass destruction from
the region, including Israel, as in the US-drafted paragraph 14 of UN
Resolution 687.
Critically, end the economic embargo and allow the Iraqi economy to
resurface. End malnutrition and high child mortality rates. Get people back
to work. Re-establish the dinar and its purchasing power. Repair the power,
water and urban sewage systems. Rebuild agricultural production, health care
and education.
End the killing now. Remove any excuse that Baghdad has today for the
ongoing catastrophe. End human rights abuses by the UN via the embargo.
Demand an end to civil and political rights abuses by Baghdad.
Acknowledge we have reduced the Iraqis to refugees in their own country,
being fed inadequately despite use of their own oil revenues.
Let us not be blinded by wasteful expenditures on palaces or luxury cars.
Should we expect a higher standard in Iraq when the UK spends millions of
pounds on a dome while British people are homeless and hungry?
Let us be honest. We do not care for democracy in the Middle East as much
too threatening to that oil cow Saudi Arabia and its offspring Kuwait. Admit
the US/UK governments want country stability so that they can invest
profitably and be sure of oil but regional instability so that demand for
arms manufacturing and sales is sustained.
Let us invest in people and peaceful coexistence in the world, including the
Middle East. Let's rally around the world as the one small threatened unit
it is today, just as the Iraqis have rallied around Saddam Hussein under
western attack.
Let us recognise the calamity of the US/UK- driven UN economic embargo on
Iraq. Calamitous not only for Iraq and its people, but for us all, including
the very survival of the UN itself as a credible instrument for peace and
security.
Let us take some risks. Let us even remain ultimately self-serving and yet
visionary - by responding to such global crises as Africa, global poverty,
HIV-Aids, the environment, globalisation ills - the things that really
matter, while allowing the children of Iraq to live.
• Denis J Halliday was Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq 1997-98. After seeing first-hand what was happening in Iraq Halliday resigned ending a 30+ career with the U.N. The two subsequent persons sent by the U.N. to take over the same position Halliday held have also resigned for similar reasons.
For details and analysis about the Iraq situation during the past few years go to: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/iraq