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CounterPunch
October
11, 2002
What War Means
to the Iraqi People
by ROMI MAHAJAN
I woke up early to the news today and wish sleep
carried me a little longer. In much poetry, dawn represents the
breaking of the methaphorical night of loneliness, a respite
from pain. But for the Iraqi people, this is not that dawn.
In an early morning vote, the Senate
voted to approve Bush's Iraq resolutions with a stunning 77-23
majority. Yesterday, the House voted more than two-to-one in
favor of the resolution.
The way is now paved for a military attack
on the impoverished Iraqi people. The mightiest power in the
world will soon attack a reeling, poor country of 22 million
people. For us in the U.S., we can only imagine what devastation
will be wroght, but in the sewer filled streets of Basra, in
the filthy, decaying hospitals of Baghdad, in the shanties of
Karbala, the Iraqi people know all too well what awaits them.
Theirs has not been an easy life. For
22 years they have been subject to wars not of their making.
22 years ago, in 1980, Saddam Hussein
attacked Iran. The ensuing war lasted 8 long years and cost each
side over half a million lives. Then, Iran was a vilified enemy
of Washington and thus the U.S. looked at the war favorably.
Of course, the U.S. wasn't simply a dispassionate observer, it
actively abetted: it provided arms, support, and credit to Iraq,
provided Saddam Hussein seed stock for chemical weapons, allowed
Iraqi tankers to sail the gulf under the U.S. flag, and even
shot down a commercial Iranian airliner. Later it was revealed
that the U.S. also sold arms to Iran during this time, supporting
its policy of "dual containment," one dedicated to
the notion that if aspiring brown countries expend their energies
and resources fighting each other, they won't be able to develop
independently.
8 years of war, hundreds of thousands
of dead youth, and a hundred billion dollars later, Iraq emerged
the "victor," albeit one in heavy debt and in which
hardly a family existed who did not lose a loved one in the war.
The next two years saw Saddam and his
forces brutally attack the Kurdish population of the North--
under the watchful eyes of the U.S -- killing tens of thousands
of civilians. And as Iraq reeled under a heavy burden of deebt,
it called upon other Arab nations to pay for their "share"
of the Iran-Iraq war and was turned away. Tensions mounted and
wars of words ensued.
Meanwhile, the entire political world
was changing. The Soviet Union was disintegrating and the U.S.
was emerging as the sole superpower, one that needed a proving
ground for the "New World Order" it was developing
in its own image.
With incredible political legerdemain
coupled with the gift of insanity that the despots it has always
supported have inevitably bestowed upon it, the U.S. got what
it wanted: Iraq in the crosshairs.
On August 2, 1990 Saddam Hussein's forces
invaded Kuwait.
On August 6, 1990 - Hiroshima Day - the
U.S., under the formal auspices of the U.N., put Iraq under the
most onerous sanctions regime in modern History.
And between January and April 1991, the
sole superpower, with a fawning coalition of countries, bombed
Iraq mercilessly, destroying not only military but also civilian
infrastructure. Water treatment plants, drug factories, and electrical
plants were destroyed.
The sanctions war took over where the
bombing war ended. For 12 long years, the Iraqi people have been
under an incredibly onerous sanctions regime. Clean water, medicines,
and food are all in short supply in Iraq. The education system
is in ruins, the economy is in shambles, and the children of
Iraq have been stripped bare of hope.
Also, over the last 12 years, Iraq has
been under the direct attack of the US: a deadly set of missile
attacks in 1993, operation Desert Storm in 1998, and ongoing
bomb runs by coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones.
The Iraqi people have suffered for 22
years. Generations have grown up under war and sanctions.
Children suffer the most. The sanctions
themselves have directly led to the death of over 1 million Iraqi
children.
Now, Iraqi parents must prepare to lose
more.
Many Western journalists report that
in Iraq, people seem non-chalant about war, indifferent. It's
curious to me how this can possibly be true. I wonder how many
of these journalists understand that while one can bomb and starve
a people, their dignity will force them to put up a brave front
to those from the very countries that plague them.
The argument is that after 22 years of
conflict, the people are inured to suffering.
No parent can be inured to the suffering
and death of her children.
The argument is that after 22 years of
conflict, war is no big deal.
That's like saying that since they suffer
anyway and have suffered long, let's make them suffer more.
No, folks, there is no way around it.
War will kill Iraqi people.
And they will sob for their children
with severed limbs, long for their lost mothers, and wait for
their dead brothers and sisters to come home.
Romi Mahajan
can be reached at: romimahajan2000@yahoo.com
Today's Features
Jason Leopold
The New
York Times, Salon, Enron and Me
Jennifer Loewenstein
Khan
Yunis:
Before the Juggernaut
Ben Tripp
Let Wag
the Dogs of War or No Peace at Any Price
Will Youmans
Israel's
Plans to "Transfer" Palestinians During Iraq War
Linda S. Heard
Israel's
Image Problem:
Fire Up the Propaganda Mill
Lawrence McGuire
Eight
Ways to Smear Chomsky
Baruch Kimmerling
Why
is the US Scaring Me?
Alexander Cockburn
Dwarf-Throwing
& the UN:
Shape of Things to Come
Tom Walker
The Work
Ethic and Its Discontents
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