American critics highlight the genocidal nature of West's policies against Iraq

CHALLENGE TO GENOCIDE: LET IRAQ LIVE By Ramsey Clark and others, International Action Center, New York, USA. 1998. pp. 251 Pbk. $12.95

Ghada Ramahi

Rabi' al-Awwal 02, 1420 1999-06-16

Book Review

by Ghada Ramahi (Book Review, Crescent International Vol. 28, No. 8, Rabi' al-Awwal, 1420)

The development and perfection of methods of mass-destruction must be counted one of the greatest accomplishments of the Eurocentric western civilization. No other civilization in history has shown such callous disregard for humanity and human life as this one. The catalogue of its genocides since the establishment of the Church in power is staggering. Europe’s first real holocaust was against its own women: around the 14th and 15th centuries, in the name of Christianity, Europe burned millions of women on grounds of heresy and witchcraft.

The centuries-long extermination of the indigenous people of the Americas was soon followed by the depopulation of Africa. The advancement of the technology of the west simply meant greater efficiency - the destruction could be accomplished on a larger scale and in a shorter time. The 20th century bears witness to this awful truth. The two devastating world wars of the first half of the century, both European constructs, crowned this technology. The end of World War II marked a new beginning. Having achieved unquestioned military dominance, the west re-thought its tactics. The new strategy was a combination of extermination and domestication. In other words, kill and/or enslave, depending on the particular situation. There are times when Muslims should be exterminated; at others, they should be domesticated.

In Bosnia and in Kosova today, the Muslim presence is detrimental to Europe, as it was in Spain. Therefore, Bosnians and Kosovars were subjected to genocide. The Iraqi Muslims are also facing a policy of extermination, but for different reasons. The roots of the conflict between Iraq and the west lie in its earlier wars, with Iran and then Kuwait. Both wars, launched by Iraq against Muslim neighbors, were instigated by the west. The first was an attempt to prevent Iran’s Islamic Revolution from spreading to the Arab countries. Almost as soon as this war ended, Saddam turned to another Muslim neighbor. This time the west’s object was to destroy the power it had earlier built but no longer needed. While Kuwait managed to regain its sovereignty and prosperity, Iraq and its people continue to be slowly exterminated through ‘economic sanctions’ and continuing military actions.

In May 1998, as an act of civil disobedience, the International Action Center of New York organized a humanitarian trip to Iraq in violation of the sanctions. The delegates represented a cross-section of the American public. Challenge to Genocide: Let Iraq Live is a report with background, analysis and first-hand accounts of the devastation brought upon the land and people of Iraq. The book is in four parts, each made up of several essays by different authors. The first part looks at context. Ramsey Clark, the former US Attorney-General, sets the stage for the report, with a brief but robust historical account which connects the Iraq-Iran war to the Iraq-Kuwait one.

Clark discusses how the US planned Saddam’s attack on Iraq as part of a US intervention strategy, known as War Plan 1002. "It was designed at the beginning of the Reagan administration to implement the earlier Carter Doctrine, which said that any challenges to US access to Middle East oil would be met by military force." He continues, "The Pentagon had created the Rapid Deployment Joint Task force in 1980, which in 1983 became US Central Command (CENTCOM)." According To Clark, "In 1988, CENTCOM’s War Plan 1002 was revised and renamed War Plan 1002-90. The last two digits of the war plan, of course, stood for 1990. CENTCOM began devising war games targeting Iraq."

While Clark points to the US oil-interest in the area, he acknowledges the fact that the Islamic Revolution of Iran, and particularly the situation of the US embassy in Tehran, had a lot to do with US strategy. It was important for the US to start wars that "avoid victory for both sides", or, as Henry Kissinger said, "I hope they kill each other." Clark’s sadness as a result of his personal involvement in Iraq’s tragedy is clear as he details a painful picture of the annihilation and genocide that resulted from "arrogance matched with violence".

Also in this section, Rania Masri discusses the criminality of the sanctions and Deirdre Sinnott looks at UNSCOM: its purpose, credibility and constitution. Sinnott discusses how only "53% of the money from the sale of Iraq’s oil really goes for food and medicine. Part of the money goes to fund UNSCOM. All the operations, the inspection, the monitoring systems, the support staff, the offices in New York, Bahrain, and Baghdad are all paid for by Iraq. It comes to about $30 million per year. By mid-1998, UNSCOM had cost Iraq $210 million."

Sara Flounders examines the role of AmeriCares, a supposedly humanitarian international organization. Flounders goes beyond the facade of this CIA organization and shows its connections to General Electric, the largest weapons manufacturer in the world, to the UN and its National Security Council, and the Vatican. Flounders also includes a list of dignitaries involved in this organization, such as Barbara Bush, Oliver North and Colin Powel.

The second part of the book includes reports on the damage done to Iraq’s infrastructure. Each delegate gives his or her account of how Iraq was ruined by the war, and continues to be by the sanctions. The bombing of dams and water facilities has left the Iraqis without clean drinking water. The resultant diseases require medicines which are not available. Children are dying by the thousand, their only crime being that they are Iraqis.

Education is also affected, for the sanctions even outlaws simple textbooks because they might help make ‘mass destruction weapons’. Iraq’s agriculture has been devastated because the land is destroyed by American depleted uranium weapons, which is also causing an alarming increase in all sorts of cancers and birth deformities. The detailed description of the bombing of the Amariyah bomb shelter leaves one utterly stunned. The book ends with one account after another, each adding detail to the American crime against Iraq and its people.

The Eurocentric west has turned the once affluent, self-sufficient and sophisticated Iraq into a black hole cut off from the rest of the world, devastated and with no alternatives to western dependency. Iraq is an example of what can happen when westernized and west-dependent states fall foul of the west. Because the only available contemporary infrastructure is western, the lifelines of any state can be cut, not necessarily with physical war but rather with sanctions under the auspices of the UN and other international bodies.

While the west devastates some places with the intention to go back and rebuild, as is the plan in Yugoslavia, this is not going to be the case in Iraq. In this situation, extermination is more beneficial than domestication. Iraq’s enemies are determined that Iraq, its land and its people should remain an obstacle to keep Iran and Islam at bay.

Muslimedia: June 16-30, 1999