Opinion Editorials, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
The truth about the US-UK invasion and occupation of Iraq
By Alfred Roberts
Al-Jazeerah, 11/28/03
I entirely agree that the mass graves and the evidence of routine torture that occurred in Iraq before the war do not provide an acceptable excuse for the war and occupation of Iraq which proceeds a long saxon campaign against Iraq since 1990, which has been waged by dubious diplomatic means and has left millions of Iraqis dead. There is more to the situation in Iraq since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 than internal strife, repression and torture and the desire to be rid of it.
In 1989 UN referred to Iraq as an emerging first world nation, after a massive programme of social spending by the Ba’ath party regime under Saddam Hussein, Iraqis had the highest standard of living, the best health service and the best educated Middle Class in the Middle East. In 1991 the UN stated that the widespread coalition air raids (which destroyed 95% of Iraqi oil, power and water supplies and sewerage treatment works and damaged thousands of schools, hospitals, bridges and houses) threatened to reduce Iraq to the pre – industrial age. Civil order had collapsed amid the ethnic revolts fermented by the west and families had to bathe and draw water from the polluted rivers. Widespread disease was only averted by the Red Cross rushing water supplies in to the country and according to the US journal ‘The Progressive’ the spread of disease was being monitored by the US ‘Defense Intelligence Agency.’ It is hard for us to imagine life in Baghdad or Mosul in the early 1990’s, with no air services, the national airline grounded and the river valleys that form 90% of Iraq’s life totally isolated from the world by hundreds of miles of desert making foreign travel impossible. Returning expats (forced to leave comfortable homes in the west for this bread line existence) described how the world hated them. Economically Iraq was in such dire straights that the country was on the brink of collapse as an organized society. Saddam Hussein became both President and Prime Minister for the first time in 1994 to try to deal with the crises, and later that year, when the UN criticized the Iraqi government for enacting harsh penalties for theft the Iraqi ambassador replied that the UNCEE was the cause of the dire straights Iraq faced which necessitated the measures. Iraq broke off diplomatic relations with USA, France, Britain, Italy and other countries that had supported the UN coalition but many nations retained diplomatic ties and foreign correspondents were still active in the country so the appalling conditions in Iraq must have been known. A picture of a mother holding a dying baby over her shoulder even appeared on the front page of US ‘Time’ magazine in November 1991. Yet it was four years before in 1995 the UN reported that Iraqis had been living on a semi – starvation diet for years, supplies of every commodity having ended on 6 August 1990. It is easy to condemn the West in particular for this appalling crime, but the background to this ghastly saga has to be appreciated. In contrast to the images cultivated to the younger generations by the allies and the left wing critics of their policies in the late 1990’s and 2000’s of Iraqis awaiting their liberation from the regime, or of Iraqis suffering at the hands of the USA and Britain, in 1980’s Iraq had committed gross acts of aggression against two of it’s neighbors and Iraqi nationals had behaved with great barbarity towards other peoples, generating hatred and revulsion across the world and turning Iraq into an international pariah. Iraq had used mustard gas and tabun nerve gas against both Iranian armed forces and Kurdish insurgents of their own nationality, Iraqi political opponents abroad had been murdered by hired assassins or intelligence officers masregarding as diplomats and after the invasions of Kuwait in 1990 western and Soviet citizens living in Iraq had been taken hostage. After they had been released in late 1990 former hostages told that they had been starved and refused medical attention.
It is alleged that the implementation of the UN Comprehensive Economic Embargo UNCEE by the ousted Iraqi government was the reason for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and that the measures in Kurdish Northern Iraq were identical. THIS IS NOT SO, under UN oil for food programme Northern Iraq received ten per cent of the funding for the programme in cash, and there were no US or UK vetoes on contracts, but for government controlled Iraq there was no cash funding from UN only commodities, and the US and UK vetoed many thousands of contracts under the UN oil for food programme. Northern Iraq had not been as heavily bombed as the remainder of Iraq in 1991 (which destroyed 95% of oil, power and water supplies and sewerage treatment works) so infrastructure was in far better state of repair. 65% of diseases alleged to have killed Iraqis since 1990 are as a result of water borne diseases and 80% of these occurred in Southern Iraq (South of Baghdad). Northern Iraq is far upstream on the Tigris and Eurphrates rivers which are Iraq's water supply and as a result the rivers were not contaminated by untreated water upstream before they passed through Northern Iraq. Depleted unranium munitions are alleged to cause many cases of cancer and birth deformities and this was heavily used in Baghdad and Southern Iraq, and little used in the areas of Northern Iraq which were the scene of the Kurdish insurgency in 1970's and 1980's. Even US State Department changed the wording of it's Iraq travel briefing from, "Government of Iraq spending priorities implemented under... have affected the economy including increased crime and decreased availability of medical facilities" in 2001 to, "Twenty years of war, sanctions and government mismanagement of the economy have stunted the economy.. medical facilities are very limited" in early 2003.
What they did not say is that the use of depleted uranium munitions were a big cause of a wave of canvers and infant deformations in Iraq which have left hundreds of thousands dead and that careless disposal of deadly chemical and bio agents in Iraq since the Gulf War are another.
In late – December 1998 after the ‘Desert Fox’ air raids according to an article in ‘Guardian’ newspaper the Iraqi government asked the UN Security Council to withdraw all British and American humanitarian workers from Iraq. In July 2001 the US Consular briefing for Iraq appeared to explain why when it said, “Following the stated inability of the Iraqi government to protect American and British personnel the UN has withdrawn all American and British humanitarian workers from Iraq.” After the dispute with the UN began in 1990 all manifestations of US and British commerce and diplomacy were systematically evacuated from Iraq apart from two which could not be removed. Disused embassy compounds had to be guarded by the Iraqi government, but the first to have borne the brunt of the wrath of the Iraqi population appear to have been the Commonwealth war cemeteries (containing remains of servicemen killed during the World Wars and the rebellions between). In October 2002 an article appeared in ‘The Times’ explaining that all British soldiers gravestones in Basra Commonwealth War cemetery had been smashed – whilst those of commercial travelers, missionaries and diplomatic officials who died during the last century had been left intact. Locals explained that the destruction began in 1991 when bombs fell on residential areas, continued in 1998 during the ‘Desert Fox’ campaign and was completed in 2002 as war clouds loomed, and said the cemetery had been the scene of frenzied demonstrations. A similar fate befell the Commonwealth war cemetery in Al Kut where almost every gravestone was smashed and carried away to be used as building stone and the site used as a tip. The only sign that the cemetery at Amarah ever existed was an ornate entry arch as all the gravestones have been removed and the site was being used as a dumping ground for old buses. Some gravestones in Baghdad Commonwealth war cemetery remained intact, a new perimeter fence was erected in 2002 and the foundations were being laid for a new caretaker’s house, but many gravestones had been smashed and several had been propped up to serve as goal posts in an area of the cemetery which is used as a football pitch by small children. The second symbol of Britain and America who could not be removed from Iraq are people living a generation after than the deaths of the last of the British soldiers buried there forgotten amid the hostility between Iraq and Britain and USA. Between 1970 and 1990 ‘Iraq was the darling of the west’ in the words of one political exile [who reportedly savoured her right to vote for the first time in a London polling station in the late 1970’s, in contrast to the dictatorship she had grown up under.] Some Iraqis had married British or American partners and many of them had been trapped in Iraq after 1990 unable to leave family ties or their livelihood, after foreign travel became impossible and in any case unable to return to their countries of origin because they were tainted by association with Iraq and partners and children would probably have been refused entry. A good example of the feelings of Iraqis responsible for the destruction of the war cemeteries towards Britain and America was provided by one of the UK quality newspapers after the war, when they interviewed an Iraqi – British family living in Mosul, Northern Iraq. The father was a senior doctor, the Mother had grown up in Burnley and before the dispute with the UN began in 1990 the highlight of the family’s year was their trip to Britain every summer. The Mother had caught typhoid from Mosul’s polluted water supply and they had to move house to make way for one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. The daughter (23) was quoted as saying, “I just want to see me Nan.” She went on to say that she had been unable to get a job in 18 month’s since leaving university in 2001 because of her nationality, her 18 – year – old brother described being attacked in the street and beaten up by complete strangers with sticks shouting “You … little British … Go Home!” In contrast to their obviously unhappy offspring the Mother and her Iraqi partner had no interest in returning to Britain.
Returning exiles in 2002 noted a deep vein of anti - American sentiment in Iraq, and this was commented upon by UN personnel in Iraq. In contrast to the constant neo - conservative propaganda that Iraqis desired a 'liberation' from a US - led invasion not a single UK newspaper quoted any Iraqi as saying this among dozens of interviews in the run - up to the war.
When interviewed by 'Sunday Telegraph' a former soldier in the Iraqi Army who served in Kuwait in 1991 war, described the apocalyptic conditions during the collapse of Iraqi resistance under the allied bombing campaign but saw defeat as nothing to be ashamed of - “It was Iraq alone against 31 nations”. Both he and many others who had been there, were proud Iraq stood up to America whatever they thought of Saddam Hussein or the regime. This sentiment was referred to among the general Iraqi population in a article about Saddam Hussein’s birthday celebrations in ‘Guardian’ [“.. there is general admiration of … for standing up to the US…” ] and another in ‘Economist’ [“.. even his enemies admire his defiance…”]. The Arab world’s ‘Grudging respect for Iraq having stood up to…’ has been referred to by columnists in Sunday Telegraph, and in an article in ‘The Times’ in which Arab leaders are said to regard Saddam Hussein as the regional bully, it went on ‘although one or two of them are privately thought to admire his nerve standing up to the US.’
The level of resistance in Southern Iraq, not just from Arab fighters or the Fedeymn Saddam but from the demoralised, poorly trained and poorly equipped Iraqi army proved to be a great surprise to Allied commanders, who had warned their men and women not to expect resistance. Basra was the scene of a lengthy siege and Al Nasiriyah was a hotbed along the main supply route to Baghdad where many civilians took to the streets against US forces, even CHILDREN. Faced by this, many liberating US infantrymen said the Iraqis were 'a sick people .. had got the government they deserved' and senior officers reasoned 'they hate the US more than they hate Saddam'. Only the Iraqi Republican Guard were less of a problem than anticipated, and even so the approaches to Baghdad and the capital saw some fierce battles. Around a dozen of the previously impenetrable US M1A1 tanks were destroyed and after a night helicopter raids on Iraqi Republican Guard positions only seven of 33 Apaches were flight worthy and two had been shot down by small arms fire co - ordinated by mobile phones. The level of US casualties was at the 1991 levels - and it should be remembered that nearly all casualties in 1991 were as a result of 75 Allied aircraft shot down by Iraqi Air Defence Command and Iraqi Air Force.
Many Iraqi exiles voiced outrage at the invasion of their homeland, even Uday's former double. Many returned home to fight for their country.
Reaction to 'the war' from Iraqis after the war varies sharply and I have read many interviews with Iraqis (including from those who had to have their identity hidden from the regime when quoted in the press before the war, a good example of which appeared in a 'Guardian' supplement) who were savagely hostile to the invasion and to Britain and America or Mr Bush and Mr Blair personally.
It is obvious that the US Pentagon planned the invasion of Iraq very poorly and that they were inexplicably out of touch with the real situation in Iraq. The Pentagon believed only $1.5 billion needed to be spent of reconstruction in Iraq after devastation inflicted on Iraq during US, UK, French, Italian and Saudi Arabian air raids during the 1991 Gulf War and the grind of the UNCEE for more than a decade. Which is incredible when one considers that it was the USA which was responsible for the planning of the devastation inflicted on Iraq during US, UK, French, Italian and Saudi Arabian air raids during the 1991 Gulf War. The US state department clearly knew differently, in 1999 US Secretary of State Madeline Albright referred to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from causes unknown in Iraq in the 1980's as "a difficult choice, but we think it is a price worth paying.." In 2001 the US State department's Iraq consular briefing noted, "Iraq's economy was severely damaged in the 1991 Gulf War." A US state department survey in 2002 was ignored. To add to this evidence of their own knowledge, the UN, Red Cross and Iraqi government had produced credible data on the damage to Iraq in 1991 and the situation since for more than a decade.
I note Mr Sahaf's comments that US aircraft attacked buildings which were attacked in 1991 and were then important but which had long since ceased to be used for their former purposes. Clearly the US especially the Pentagon were very out of date. It has been suggested in UK press that the US and the Pentagon especially, were 'duped' by Iraqi opposition groups during the late 1990's and early 2000's running up to the invasion, into viewing a exaggerated threat from the Iraqi government and into a false view of the likely response of Iraqis to a US - led invasion of Iraq, when the Iraqi opposition groups knew very well what would really happen if the US really did invade Iraq.
Part of the toll on Iraq caused by the collapse of civil order has been caused by heavy handed US troops who have become notorious for the unprovoked killings of Iraqis and have stirred up resistance against their rule, in contrast to the British forces around Basra, who I accept are recognised locally as making a real effort with limited resources.
In contrast to the US view of Iraqi resistance as a 'pyramid' structure led by Saddam Hussein and General Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri the British view is that Iraqi resistance is composed of numerous poorly or partially co - ordinated small organisations, each group having their own agenda which varies across the country. This appears rather more likely!
In contrast to Western opinion polls which claimed a 67% Iraqi approval rating for the invasion, Iraqi polls have shown that only around 43% of Iraqis regarded the invading US and UK forces as liberaters in April 2003, and around 46% or 47% of Iraqis regarded them as occupiers.
However I accept that as a result of the repressive and murderous nature of the regime the proportions of Iraqis opposing invasion and agreeing with the Arab world's views and those supporting invasion by their saxon tormenters are almost evenly balanced.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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