Our
War Against Iraq: Causes & Cure
by Most
Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt Col, USAF, ret
"In August, 1990,
the new Hitler, Saddam Hussein, invaded innocent, democratic Kuwait. The
United States, protector of peace, democracy, freedom, and human rights
responded, along with the United Nations, to drive the Iraqis out and
rescue the people of Kuwait. Ever since, we have been patiently using
sanctions and a minimum of force in an attempt to see that the evil Saddam
never again threatens his neighbors or the world with weapons of mass
destruction."
This much
everybody knows - and it’s total B.S.! What is it? That’s right,
you can say it. I’m a clergyman. I love God and I serve God; and
my God (and yours too, whether you’re Jewish or Christian or Moslem)
is not offended to hear somebody say B.S. You know what offends my God?
the war against Iraq! That’s what offends our God. Dying children
that’s what offends our God!
I’ve
been asked to give a little history of how we came to be where we are
in this war against Iraq. Let’s look at a little real history,
going back a hundred years.
In
1897 and 1898, Britain used assassination, intrigue, and
threats to carve out a piece of Iraq and rule it through the Sheikh of
Kuwait. In 1920, after World War I, Britain, France, and the U.S. seized
the rights to 95% of the oil in Iraq. By 1932, Britain had expanded Kuwait
from a small village on the Gulf into a colony occupying the entire coastline
of the Persian Gulf from Arabia to Iran, completely shutting off Iraq
from access to the Gulf. For the next half a century, British intelligence
murdered almost every Iraqi leader and king, because they called for the
return of Kuwait. By 1958 the U.S. was an equal partner with Britain in
the coups and assassinations. Together they backed a coup against King
Faisal II (who had himself been installed by the British). He was killed
and replaced with Abdel Karim Qassim. But he too called for the return
of Kuwait, so CIA chief Allen Dulles ordered his assassination.
After the job was botched a couple of times, the CIA gave the assignment
to one of its promising young assassins Saddam Hussein. With the help
of a CIA airlift, he succeeded. By 1968, Saddam Hussein was in complete
control and, under CIA direction, killing trade unionists, radicals, and
Communists.
In
1977, US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski
met with Saddam Hussein, the Emir of Kuwait, and a Saudi representative,
and proposed that Iraq invade Iran, seizing the Khuzestan oil fields.
In 1982, US FBI chief William Webster met with the Emir of Kuwait and
plotted the seizure of Iraqi oil fields and the slant-drilling with which
Kuwait and western oil companies stole $14 billion worth of Iraqi oil.
Right
up to the time of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, US Department of Defense
training manuals sang the praises of Saddam Hussein, noting how he had
vastly improved education, medical care, and the standard of living of
his people. His regime was called one of
the most enlightened, progressive governments in the region.
This was in an official DoD document used in the education of high-ranking
officers of all the military services.
But there
was a problem. The Berlin wall had come down. The Soviet Union had collapsed.
And the American people were clamoring for a peace dividend. They had
to find another bad guy fast. In May 1990, a National Security Council
white paper stated that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were (and I quote) "the
optimum contenders to replace the Warsaw pact as the rationale for major
military expenditures."
Two
months later, on July 20, 1990,
General Schwarzkopf conducted training exercises simulating exactly the
contingency of an Iraqi attack on Kuwait. Five days later, April Glaspie
gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait. A week later, he did. Almost
immediately, the U.S. deployed as many troops and twice as much materiel
as was moved for the Normandy invasion. Do you think this was done without
advance planning?
This
was the war they wanted, the war they planned for, the
war they instigated, the war they salivated over. This was the war that
would demonstrate the capabilities of the smart bombs made by our weapons
manufacturers. It was better than a hundred trade shows. This was the
war that would prove that George Bush was not a wimp. This was the war
that would make billions for the oil company owned by the president’s
son, George Bush, Jr., who had exclusive rights to offshore oil in the
Gulf.
Saddam
was suckered into our trap. And he fell for it. He crossed
the undefended border of Kuwait, and in response our government dropped
300 to 400 million pounds of high explosives on Iraq. This onslaught destroyed
tens of thousands of buildings and essentially every bridge, power plant,
and industrial facility in the country. It killed a quarter of a million
Iraqis, including at least 100,000 civilians, of which half were children.
Now here we are eight years later, and the shocking death toll from the
Gulf War has been dwarfed by that from our continuing war against Iraq.
Not only have we failed to rebuild what we destroyed; we have imposed
economic sanctions which have prevented the Iraqis and everyone else from
doing so.
In the eight
years since the end of Desert Storm, one and a half million Iraqis have
died as a direct result of US/UN sanctions. It is now estimated that among
those who have lost their lives are three quarters of a million children
under the age of five! And the dying goes on. A million Iraqi children
are seriously malnourished, and 150 to 200 are dying every day.
Among
the ordnance we used on Iraq were some 500
tons of depleted uranium bombs and artillery shells. The
radioactive dust covering the southern part of Iraq has caused birth defects
and cancer rates to soar. As if that weren’t enough, we periodically
continue to drop bombs and cruise missiles on that devastated nation.
Who are
the bad guys here? Ex-CIA agent Saddam Hussein is no saint. But he is
only one pawn in a century-long history of western intrigue, torture,
murder, and callous disregard for the people who live in what was once
a proud nation.
Is it any
wonder we are considered the great Satan? Is it any wonder we are hated?
Is it any wonder we are the target of terrorists?
We
are gathered here to oppose our government’s war against the Iraqi
people. But we must not see it as an isolated incident, for it is not.
It is but one piece of a bloody history in which foreign policy has been
conducted and wars have been fought on behalf of the financial interests
of multinational corporations. It is time for
a change.
We must
build an America at peace with the world … and with its own people.
We must build an America that leads the world – not by dominating
and manipulating other nations, but by earning their respect and admiration.
We must
build an America that strives not to be king of the hill, but to be a
responsible member of the family of nations. We must build an America
that leads the world – not with military might, but with its vision,
its compassion, its democracy, its productivity, its standard of living,
its treatment of its own people, and its goodness. That’s
the kind of America we want.
I would
like to conclude by proposing seven concrete changes we need to make in
our government and its policies.
- We can
no longer accept a government which allows us to be number one among
industrialized nations: number one in child poverty, number one in the
gap between rich and poor, number one in unimmunized children, number
one in teen pregnancy, number one in deaths by gunfire, number one in
poverty among the elderly, number one in citizens without medical coverage
.…. and yet has a trillion dollars worth of new weapons on the
books at a time when we just ran out of enemies. It’s time for
our priorities to change. Are you with me? Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept a government which promotes and subsidizes arms sales
around the world, especially to dictators who use our weapons to control
their own impoverished people. Our government didn’t listen to
Oscar Romero who pleaded for us to stop sending weapons to El Salvador.
Bill Clinton campaigned against the arms trade ... and then doubled
it. It’s time to stop pandering to the merchants of death. Are
you with me? Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept a government which uses our money to train death squads
in the techniques of torture, intimidation, and assassination. The
School of the Americas must be closed. Are you with me? Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept a government which gives Most Favored Nation status
to the butchers of Tianenmen Square and places an illegal secondary
embargo on the impoverished people of Cuba. We must repeal the Helms-Burton
law, end the embargo, and establish normalized relations with Cuba.
Are you with me? Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept a government in which our relations with the rest of
the world are held hostage by the likes of Jesse Helms. We can’t
free East Timor unless we first free North Carolina! Are you with me?
Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept a government which promotes instability, insurrection,
tyranny, torture, terrorism, and murder around the world in our name
and with our money through the Central Intelligence Agency. Once
and for all, the CIA must be abolished. Are you with me? Is it time?
- We can
no longer accept we will no longer accept a government which
sends our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so our oil
companies can sell the oil under their sand. Do we want our children
and grandchildren used as cannon fodder for multinational corporations?
Do we? Do want them to be used as hired killers for Folgers,
Chiquita Banana, and Exxon? Do we? Better to send them around
the world to feed children and rebuild shattered cities. It’s
time for us to be the good guys once again. No more Iraqs. No more El
Salvadors. No more gunboat diplomacy ... anywhere! Are you with me?
Is it time?
We want
peace, and we want it now! Are you with me? Is it time?
Then let’s
do it. Make them hear us in these buildings, and all the way to Washington.
What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now! Are you with me? Is
it time?
Amen, thank
you, and God bless you!
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