Bombing of Iraq another transparent act of thuggery
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 27, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Michael Schwartz Schwartz is a
fifth-year sociology student who can be reached at [email protected].
Click Here for more articles by Michael Schwartz
Since the United States has once again decided to bomb the
nation of Iraq, it’s important to understand the facts
concerning Iraq and the United States itself. The bombs we have
dropped have killed many innocent civilians and even the Los
Angeles Times reported on Feb. 22 that more than half the bombs
dropped missed their target.
Some people, like Professor Theodore Anderson (“U.S.
intervention helps both sides,” Viewpoint, Letters, Feb.
21), argue that actions like this are an example of the help we
give to other nations and point out our “liberation” of
Kuwait. But are the people of Kuwait really liberated? First of
all, Kuwait is a monarchy. They do not even pretend to be a
democracy. The Sabah family has ruled Kuwait since 1751. State
power is transferred down through their family. When ceremonial
elections are held women are banned from voting and only 10 percent
of the male population is eligible. Out of a population of 1.8
million people, around 100,000 male Kuwaiti citizens have the right
to vote.
The people who would have us believe that Kuwaiti citizens were
“liberated” thanks to the United States do admit that
we did help ourselves during the Gulf War. Kuwait happens to have
the second-largest oil reserve in the world, more than 2 million
barrels of oil flow out of Kuwait every day, and the United States
is a main beneficiary. I would think it’s extremely likely
that it was for this oil that we went to war with Iraq and I think
most of you would agree.
I have a few thoughts about the hundreds of billions of dollars
in U.S. aid that Professor Anderson mentioned we have sent around
the world to “help people achieve a better life.” I
wonder if that includes the billions of dollars that the United
States gave the military regime of General Suharto of Indonesia.
For those of you who are not aware, General Suharto came to power
in 1965 in a CIA coup in which more than 1 million innocent
civilians were killed.
Former CIA officers who took part in the coup have documented
the massive genocide that took place. Historian Howard Zinn has
pointed out that the CIA used their Indonesia experience to
successfully overthrow the democratically elected Allende
government in Chile and install the military dictatorship of
General Pinochet. To top it off, almost one third of the population
of East Timor was massacred by the Indonesian military, funded with
the hundreds of billions of dollars given with the same intent as
the mission which Professor Anderson mentioned.
General Suharto himself testified to the fact that he killed
more than 10,000 Indonesian citizens during the 1980s and left
corpses lying on the street as “shock therapy.” Former
President Clinton called the general “our kind of guy”
(http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/chomskyapr98.htm).
 Illustration by GRACE HUANG/Daily Bruin
This brings us to the “help” we have brought to the
people of Iraq. According to data reported by the U.S. government
itself, our massive bombing campaign during the Gulf War was
responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and
35,000 civilians. These figures include the infamous “highway
of death” incident in which thousands of retreating Iraqi
soldiers were incinerated by U.S. bombs.
Since the Gulf War, the economic sanctions the United States
supports so much have been responsible for the deaths of more than
one million people, including more than 500,000 children.
Denis Halliday, the former U.N. coordinator for humanitarian aid
to Iraq, resigned in protest, arguing that the sanctions “are
starving to death 6,000 Iraqi infants every month, ignoring the
human rights of ordinary Iraqis.” Halliday was not the first
humanitarian official to decry the use of the sanctions. He was
preceded by Hons Von Sponeck, another top humanitarian official in
Iraq, who resigned after he likened the sanctions to a holocaust.
Jutta Burghardt, the head of the World Food Program in Iraq,
resigned in solidarity with Von Sponeck in protest of the
sanctions.
When the United States bombs Iraq, it is under the guise of
helping the Iraqi people and to protect us from the dictator Saddam
Hussein. And when the United States condemns Hussein, one thing it
constantly points to is his use of biological weapons on his own
people. But let’s look at what the United States said when
those attacks actually took place.
You see, Hussein did use biological warfare on his own citizens.
One attack took place in 1988 in Halabja. But no one in the U.S.
government got upset. Instead, we gave him uncritical support and
denied that the attack even took place. In fact, the United States
supported Saddam Hussein throughout the 1980s. Of course today the
State Department regularly cites the attack as evidence of
Hussein’s barbarism.
A Senate Banking report shows that we shipped biological weapons
materials to Iraq up until 1989. U.N. Reports from 1986 and 1987
condemned Iraq’s use of chemical weapons, but the United
States refused to support either of the reports.
The Reagan administration instead extended our fullest support
to Hussein. More than $50 billion was given to the Iraqi government
during the 1980s, another example of the “aid” we send
to countries around the world. The Reagan and Bush administrations
both dismissed human rights concerns regarding Iraq and, as late as
1989, former President Bush said, “normal relations between
the United States and Iraq would serve our long-term
interests.”
It is important to remember who created the military regime of
Saddam Hussein. Where would Iraq be militarily without the $50
billion of military aid that the United States gave them? A couple
of weeks ago I asked you to really think about why we go to war
when we do. We are now in the midst of yet another bombing campaign
against the Iraqi people. We claim it’s to protect them from
a dictator whose military apparatus was built up by the United
States. But is that really the reason? Do we really care about the
people of Iraq? Our economic sanctions against Iraq are directly
responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million human beings.
How many times are we going to let them lie to us? How many
times will we fall for their claims of “protecting human
rights?” I am not against helping people. I am against a
government that is directly responsible for the deaths of millions
of human beings. General Suharto, General Pinochet and the former
Shah of Iran all came to power in CIA-sponsored coups. These men
were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people.
And Saddam Hussein himself was also “our kind of
guy.” We supported him while he carried out biological
warfare against his citizens and denied it ever happened.
It’s time to stop the bombing of Iraq and it’s time to
end the sanctions. If there’s a “rogue state”
people should be concerned about, it’s the United States.
Millions of people have already been killed in our name. How many
more have to die before we stand up and do something about it?
