|
CounterPunch
November
20, 2002
The US Attack
on Iraq:
The Casualties of the War
by BEHZAD YAGHMAIAN
Three years ago in New York City, I met a young
Iraqi, a student in New York University. This was an Arab cultural
event: a night of music, book reading, and poetry recitation.
The Iraqi was younger than twenty. A gentle face, looking reserved:
he approached the podium, took out a piece of paper, and read
a poem he had written with pain about his stolen childhood-the
years of missiles and falling bombs, dead bodies, burnt buildings,
and horror. These were the years of the devastating war between
Iraq, and my place of birth, Iran. With tears in my eyes, I
listened to sorrowful words of the young man, and imagined the
horror inflicted on millions of other men and women, young and
old, in these two neighboring countries for eight years. The
meeting ended. I ran out, introduced myself to the young Iraqi,
and thanked him for his sobering reminder of the horrors of war.
I remember the night the Americans began
their aerial attack on Iraq in 1991. I had returned home from
the airport when I heard the horrifying news. No time wasted,
I went to Time Square to join thousands of anti-war activists
who had vowed to be there to protest the war, showing their support
for the innocent Iraqis under the barrage of American bombs.
Many were silently weeping. I embraced a friend, saying no
words. We were in a state of disbelief. A drama had begun.
It had begun in our name.
For nearly a decade, the world watched
with complacency the U.S. and British violence against the Iraqi
people. An economic blockade was imposed on the country, while
American and British fighter jets bombed the country routinely.
What has been the result of the continuous U.S. action? Chronic
malnutrition has affected nearly one in four Iraqi children for
much of the last decade. Infant mortality increased from 47 to
108 deaths per 1000 live births, while child mortality (under
five years of age) increased from 56 to 131 deaths per 1000 live
births. More than a million and a half people died in Iraq as
a direct result of those sanctions. The great majority of the
victims were infants, children, elderly and chronically ill persons.
UNICEF reported in 1997 that 4,500 children under the age of
five were dying each month from hunger and disease, making 500,000
the number of small children killed by the blockade.
It is now November 2002. A new drama is unfolding, a new assault
on people's lives, and a new act of crime in our name. I am
an Iranian-born American citizen. I spent half of my life in
Iran, and the other half in the United States. They are beating
the war drums in my current "home", the United States.
I joined the others signing the statement, "Not In Our
Name."
Wars are devastating. They destroy, kill,
annihilate, and inflict pain on bodies and souls of innocent
people. The Iraqi citizens are helplessly anticipating these
outcomes: bomb shelters, burnt bodies, crying children, and chest-beating
mothers. Imagine the life experience of an Iraqi girl born in
1980. If she survives the falling bombs this time, some day,
she too will write a story of her life in three wars, 10 years
of bombing, and a stolen childhood.
It is now a cliché to say that
the world changed with the September 11 attack on the World Trade
Center. But, the world did change with the election of George
Bush to the presidency of the United States. A new agenda emerged,
the old rules of the game were abandoned, and internationally
agreed laws and protocols were disregarded. "With us or
against us," emerged as the dominant political discourse.
"Regime change," and "preemptive strike"
became non-contested policies. We witnessed the realization
of the "Empire" so finely articulated by Antonio Negri
and Michael Heart.
Regime change is as old as the empire.
The Americans have a long history of forcefully changing governments
in other parts of the world. Iran, Dominican Republic, Chile,
Nicaragua, and Haiti are but a few examples. What is different
now is the open discussion and the overt plans to change another
government, and the silence of the other states. Many states,
from Europe to Iran and Turkey, have opposed the attacked on
Iraq from their own narrow self-interest. None has seriously
questioned the emerging world order and challenged the empire.
And indeed, many are silently benefiting from the new orthodoxy.
The Israelis invade Palestinian cities and murder innocent civilians.
They too are engaged in the act of "preemptive strike."
And the world watches with minimal reaction. The Russians see
their natural right to enter Georgia to haunt "Chechen terrorists."
Setting up "buffer zones" in other sovereign lands
is becoming an accepted norm. Welcome to the world of preemptive
strike!
A maddening new game has begun. The result
is, undoubtedly, increased worldwide violence. We have entered
a new era of violence, one that is fueled by a quest for world
domination and profiteering. Perpetrated by a band of riotous
and arrogant fundamentalists in the United States, the recent
violence is disguised by the language of democracy, and human
rights. It uses the human rights of the Iraqis as a pretext
for its war-an attack on the homes of those whose rights are
to be defended and protected!
The new violence has many victims. Not
only people's lives, but also their rights are its targets.
Aided by the September 11 tragedy, the new violence is wrapped
in the language of fighting terror. This too has become a new
orthodoxy. Political opponents and critics of states across
the world are labeled supporters of terror. From the United
States to the poor countries of the Third World, human rights
and civil liberties are under attack.
Among those branded terrorists, are the increasing number of
migrants and asylum seekers. Fleeing devastating economic, social,
and political conditions at home, millions are on the road to
the West in hope of a better life. Many are from the war-torn
Moslem countries in the East. But, the Moslem migrants are not
accepted in the West. The West is closing its doors to those
desperately in need of protection: the victims of war, Islamic
fundamentalism, and economic violence.
War, political dictatorship, economic sanction, and poverty have
caused the dislocation of a growing number of Iraqis in recent
years. The continuous threat of a U.S. invasion is already causing
more stress and the possibility of a new Iraqi exodus. A disastrous
human movement similar to the 1991 mass escape by the Kurds is
expected to occur. But, this time, the uprooted people carry
with them a stigma deeply engraved in Western attitude and policy:
they are potential terrorists; among them are the enemies of
the West. Driven away from their homes, they will be kept outside
the fortress Europe. Even the neighboring Turkey will not accept
the Iraqi refugees.
War instills fear in the hearts and minds
of people. "Are we next?" asked an Iranian friend
living in Tehran. A nineteen-year-old Iranian asked me in fear
about his own future. The Iranians are worried. They too have
memories of falling bombs, missiles landing on their schools,
crippled bodies, and death. Like their neighbors in Iraq, the
Iranians have been subjected to repression and persecution in
the hands of their own government, and aggression from outside.
Assaulted by their own government, they reached out to embrace
the embattled Americans after September 11, held candle light
vigils, sent messages of sympathy, and showed their genuine sorrow.
But, not long after that, along with Iraqis and North Koreans,
they became the "Axis of Evil." The specter of war
is haunting the Iranians once again.
Iranians, Iraqis, and many other helpless ordinary people in
the Middle East are anxiously watching the developments around
them, praying for peace. They are the first victims of the war.
They rely on the rest of us to stop this madness.
Behzad Yaghmaian
is an international political economists and the author of Social
Change in Iran: An Eyewitness Account of Dissent, Defiance, and
New Movements for Rights (SUNY Press, 2002). He is currently
in the Middle East researching for his upcoming book, Embracing
the Infidel: The Secret World of the Islamic Migrant (Verso Books).
Today's Features
Thomas Haidon
The CIA's
Yemen Operation:
a Legal Critique
Lori Korte
a Report from the School of the Americas Protest
Kurt Nimmo
The Committee
for the Liberation of Iraq:
PR Spinning the Bush Doctrine
Carol Norris
Politically Modified Organisms
Ben Tripp
Take Two
Hits and Call Me in the Morning
William Hughes
The Curse of a Monopolized Press
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
November 14,
2002
Edward Said
Europe vs.
America
Todd May
The Ironies of History
Paul de Rooij
US Aid to Israel
Feeding the Cuckoo
Ben Sonnenberg
Vertov's
Man With a Movie Camera
Gadi Algazi and Azmi Bdeir
Transfer's Real Nightmare
Martin van
Creveld
Sharon's Last Option
Walter Brasch
Scoring the US/Iraq War
Michael S.
Ladah
The Burning Sails of Baghdad
Don Moniak
An Open Letter on the Augusta Golf
Course Campaign
George Fletcher
Is the UN Security Council Vote on Iraq Illegal?
Ralph Nader
A Tribute to Wellstone
Adam Engel
Mannahatta!
(A Tale of Two Cities)
Bernard, Engel, Dailey, St.
Clair
Poets' Basement
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|