Volume 3, No. 1, January 2002

The Middle East continues to burn and starve. In Palestine, the US lap dog Israel is raining death and destruction. In Iraq, the master himself is striving hard to ensure that the Saddam Hussain regime is overthrown. The people there are pushed to the extremes of disease, malnutrition, joblessness and death through eleven years of strangulating sanctions and continuous bombing from the skies. By various estimates, almost more than a million people have died after the Gulf War was officially declared over. Six weeks of unprecedented bombing of Iraq had devastated its industry, telecommunications, hospitals, bridges, water plants, sewer systems, roads and residential buildings. All these structures were deliberately destroyed to tell the world that whosoever goes against the will of the US must remember Iraq.

The same thing was repeated in Yugoslavia in 1999. Clinton had shamelessly confessed that civil targets were "deliberate". The US intended to destroy Yugoslavia to incite the people against the Solobodan Milosevich regime. It said that he was unable to stop the destruction of the country, and as long as he would remain in power the US would continue to destroy Yugoslavia.

At both places, as things have shown afterwards, much else was desired rather than the concern for the sovereignty of a country (Kuwait) or the plight of the people of a nation (Kosovo). Eleven years have passed since the said purpose of liberating Kuwait was achieved and two years have gone when Yugoslavia was mercilessly strafed with the plea to ensure Kosovar’s rights. But neither the state of war has ceased in Iraq nor Kosovars have been given their independence. The pleas were just ploys to stage imperialist games of control, through war. In both the Middle East and the Balkans, US imperialism has been the main player.

The US and Britain are continuing the war on Iraq through scorching land bombing raids whenever they feel the need to punish the Saddam regime for its defiant attitudes. Or, whenever they come to know that Iraq has rebuilt a part of its industries and infrastructure to run the society. From operation Desert Storm of 1991 to Operation Desert Fox of 1997, the February 2001 heavy bombing over Baghdad and the August 2001 strafing, along with the periodic missile attacks that have continued for about eleven years, Iraq depicts a grim picture of devastation. The stoppage of oil sales that were the mainstay of the Iraqi economy, and the repeated destruction of industrial establishments and social facility structures, have led to a near collapse of the Iraqi socio-economic system.

In the aftermath of the Gulf War more than half of Iraq was declared as a no-fly zone where Iraq was prohibited to fly its planes over its own territory. This was the first gross encroachment on the sovereignty of Iraq. Iraq was attacked on the argument that it had violated the sovereignty of Kuwait, the city-state of twelve lakhs (1.2 million) people, at the southern tip of Iraq.

Here it must be remembered that in olden times, Kuwait had been a small territory first under the control of the Dutch and then as a protectorate of the British. The latter had used it as a port for trade. It was called a small fortress (kut) and the East India Company had built the Kuwait port, which later became the Capital.

With the find of oil in 1938 this enclave assumed greater importance for the imperialists. Whether it had developed into a separate nation is controversial. Iraq had always claimed it as its part, traditionally. More so, it is a rich oil enclave like the Cabinda enclave of Angola and was made into a separate country by the British in 1961.They had run it for three centuries as a trade port by bribing local tribal chiefs who were made servile kings.

The US and its allies were less concerned with its sovereignty and more with its oil and its importance as a lever for controlling the Persian Gulf. Going by the argument that it had its sovereignty, which was inviolable, yet the global policeman, who himself is responsible for hundreds of attacks on the sovereignty of other countries, had no moral right to launch the 1991 war against Iraq.

The Gulf War, in fact, was meant to prevent Iraq from becoming a contending regional power as a rival of Israel and Saudi Arabia and for securing control of the oil of the Middle East. Moreover, though Iraq itself had been a close ally of the US and at the latter’s instigation had launched a ten year long war against the rebel Islamic republic of Iran, yet the US imperialists saw a threat in the increasing power of Iraq. They blew the Iraqi attack on Kuwait out of proportions while the main problem in the Middle East has been the occupation of Palestine. But, Israel is there with the full support of the US and British Imperialism and as an imperialist outpost. Independence and Sovereignty of Palestine is a non-issue for them. Now, they have been destroying Iraq in a planned way for all these years since 1991.

All these years the State of Iraq has been reduced to a farce. Its right to make armaments to defend itself was denied under the pretext that it was making weapons of mass destruction, which was a "threat to peace" in the region. This discipline was imposed by a State which itself is the biggest producer and owner of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons and is a threat to the peace of the whole world. For years, every nook and corner of Iraq was examined by hundreds of ‘experts’ under the over all control of US supervisors to look for these weapons.

Even the palace and offices of the president of the country were searched in a way the police goes for the recovery of stolen goods from an ordinary criminal. This was not only to intimidate Saddam Hussain but to show to the people of a country that they were powerless in the face of the super-cop of the world who has the power even to search the bedroom of their president.

Iraq not only does not have the right to fly its own planes in the north and south of the country but is forced even to tolerate the continuous violation of its skies by the US and British spy planes. These spy planes always come with dozens of military fighter jets ready to bomb anything below. All this is being done in the name of "preventing military movements" of the Iraqi armed forces or anything that is "suspicious looking". The usual pretext offered after bombing is that the bombed structures "could be used for attacking Kuwait" and had other "military purposes" (supposed attacks on the Shia people living in the south of Iraq).

There have been no checks from the UN (under whose cover all this is being done) nor any country has ever protested against these unrestricted and blatantly wicked "rights" of the US and British imperialists. The banditry and despotism of these two murderous imperialist powers went on unchecked and without any fear of reprisals. Of late, the Iraqi government has claimed of shooting down a spy plane in the south in a bid to assert its sovereignty over its skies.

Throughout these years, no-fly zones of south and north Iraq and areas around Baghdad and other cities were bombed hundreds of times. Many times the city of Baghdad was made the target of heavy strafing. For all these crimes the US military bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel were routinely used. Even Iran had a silent consent whenever the so-called "coalition forces" attacked the south of Iraq.

The end result of the unprovoked strafing of Iraq is that the world [governments] at large has long dissociated itself from these intermittent bombing raids. The reactionary Arab rulers, even the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes Kuwait, now do not support the US for its policy on Iraq. They could not justify them among their resenting Arab subjects. With the ‘sovereignty’ of Kuwait ‘reestablished’ in 1991 there was little the Arab rulers could offer as excuse to ally with the imperialist death raids. So, in the end the whole world could see the US and Britain isolated in their military adventure, which had started with a coalition of 46 countries.

Other attacks on the sovereignty of Iraq were no less horrendous. If more than one lakh Iraqis died in the six weeks of the high-tech war, more than a million died unnatural deaths in the ensuing ten years. This war, in fact was unilateral and carried out from the skies. In the real sense of the term it was not a war between two rivals. One adversary was always on the defensive and never attacking, only taking the battering and never striking back.

Iraq was banned from international trade, thereby robing it of the only means through which it could purchase bare essentials, including food and medicines, for its population. Nor could it replace the old machinery or parts of them to keep its plants running. It was also banned from all international conferences except the UN meetings where only Iraqi affairs were to be discussed.

Neither China nor Russia, nor any other of the masters of the so-called democratic world of Europe, or the avowed champions of anti-imperialism and the non-aligned movement ever dared to oppose the attitude of the US-British criminal gang-up. Iraq, as a country was reduced to a pariah, an out-cast. The sovereignty of Iraq was smothered without any trace of recognition. The only thing which the US and British imperialist gangsters could not do was, to kill or overthrow Saddam Hussain. This, in spite of the fact that many missile attacks were carried on the suspected places where he could have been present. Once the US bombarded a TV station when he was addressing the people live; but he was not at the TV station and was speaking from a secret hideout.

It is an irony that the president of a country moves stealthily in his own land to avoid detection and subsequent killing by the ‘free world’ ganglord. And we see this criminal boss of the horrendous imperialist system demanding and forcing other countries to extradite their presidents and other leaders as "war criminals", for trials. Bush senior and Clinton had clearly stated that their purpose was to see Saddam killed or overthrown.

The whole thrust of their policies was Wanted Saddam, Dead or Alive!

For six years it was not allowed to sell a drop of oil in the international market. When it was allowed to exchange oil-for-food it could only import three billion dollars of goods to keep the society running. This was far below its requirements while in the pre-war times its imports were to the tune of 19 billion dollars. Even this money was deposited in UN accounts and not handed over directly to the Iraqi government. It was another blatant attack on the sovereignty of a country, which was denied the right to use its own resources.

Even food and medicines were not allowed to be distributed properly by the American inspectors. And, as protest, two of the UN chiefs who were overseeing this distribution resigned, condemning the US attitude.

Iraq is the first example of what the New World Order means for an oppressed and a dependent country if it defies the wishes of the imperialists and chooses to go its own way. The third world intellectuals, those who are apologists of the theory of globalisation, prattle that now the [imperialist] world has developed to such a stage where interdependence has become the main thing and the concepts of sovereignty and independence are fast losing their relevance. They repeat the imperialist sermon that the "free market" will take care of everything. This is abject surrender. They close their eyes to the reality that this "irrelevance" is nothing but the inability or/and compulsion forced through various means by the imperialist powers on the governments of the oppressed countries.

Though most of the rulers of the third world are in no way anti-imperialist in nature, due to their anti-people and reactionary class character, yet they have to face the wrath of the imperialists if, under some circumstances, they try to go against the will and interests of the latter.

The absolute curbs on Iraqi sovereignty point to the absolutely sinister nature of imperialism. It brings forward the question of defending even the limited sovereignty and independence of countries, and setting up of a system that breaks free of the imperialist chains that bind them in economic dependence and political subjugation.

Sanctions have played havoc with the economy of Iraq. Why could the imperialists do so? The reason is not far to seek. The Iraqi economy was connected with the world imperialist system through a thousand and one threads. It earned its income mainly from the export of oil. But, for industrial goods, food and medicines it was dependent mainly on imperialism. In spite of huge incomes from oil it had not diversified its economy to make it self-dependent. The more the economy of a country is tied to the imperialist world system, the more it is prone to come under its pulls and pressures, and the more it becomes difficult for it to survive. Things become more unbearable if the imperialists decide to quarantine it. The US imperialists could do this to Iraq and made it an out-cast, an untouchable, among the community of countries.

Although, Iraq was very different from the Sheikhdoms of the gulf and tried to provide its citizens many facilities, yet it did not break the economic stranglehold of imperialism. Saddam even acted as a lynchpin for the US in the Gulf after the Shah of Iran was overthrown in an "anti-US Islamic revolution". When it attacked Kuwait to increase its power, this heightened the concerns of the US imperialists. The rest is history.

After the war, the sanctions continued the war against Iraq by other means—through an uninterrupted economic siege. This did nearly obliterate the socio-economic life of the Iraqis. Deaths without bullets and bombs were ten times greater. Today, there is not a single Iraqi who has not lost some one near and dear to him or her. Every household has its own share of agonies and torments. More than half of the dead has been children. Most of the deaths have been due to common diseases which could not be treated for the lack of drugs and medicines. Cancer deaths have shot up considerably, as during the war the US had dropped thousands of bombs made of used-up uranium.

The US Secretary of State Md. Albright justified the deaths of the Iraqi people by saying that such a price had to be paid to get the desired results—making Iraq and the world know what the US can do to those who might indulge in defiance and insubordination.

Reduced to shambles, now Iraq is a country where more than half the population has been rendered jobless. The per capita income has drastically come down to a mere $500 from $3500. Even a doctor and a teacher earn between only 2 to 3 dollars a day whereas an ordinary employee or a worker gets less than fifty dollars a month. Even when the oil-for-food relaxation was extended to the sectors of medicine, health and medical equipment and things for use in the essential industries, many things were not allowed to enter on the plea that they had a "dual use" capacity and could be used for "military purposes". This "dual use" clause gave the American imperialists a leverage to obstruct many essential things that were required to prevent and treat many diseases.

For example, chlorine export to Iraq was banned on the plea that it could be used to make chemical weapons. Otherwise, chlorine was to be used in purifying water to guard against water borne diseases and to make medicines for the foot and mouth disease that played havoc with cattle in Europe, which used to import that drug from Iraq. Moreover, medicines and food too were not properly allowed to be imported into Iraq though it had paid for them through the UN. This led to the death of children in great numbers. Every month five to six thousand children have been dying in Iraq all these years.

On the other hand, the use of depleted uranium in bombs, stopping of the supply of chlorine, bombing of sewer systems, water plants and hospitals have contributed to the polluting of water resources and helped in the spread and non-control of many common diseases in Iraq. This in itself was germ warfare against the Iraqi people. But the world media was flooded with news that Iraq had used chemical weapons against the Kurdish population in the north of the country. This in no way exonerates the US of crimes committed by it in Iraq. Moreover, the US itself has not signed the world treaty that bans the production and use of chemical weapons and has huge stockpiles of these weapons while it insists upon destroying such weapons made by Iraq. These double standards of the US imperialists testify to their criminal character.

Joblessness, hunger and death have taken a heavy toll of the social fabric. Far less new families are coming up now, leading to brothels, drug addiction, corruption and crimes. All these things have staged an upward trend. Women have especially been hit hard. The relatively free woman of Iraq is again coming under the veil. The ruling class is encouraging Islamic orthodoxy.

In the past the ruling Baath Party called itself a "revolutionary organisation" with a "revolutionary command council" at the helm, yet it worked to destroy all kinds of communist forces, pro-Soviet as well as Marxist-Leninists and also revolutionary nationalist forces of the Kurds. Now Saddam is busy constructing mosques to appeal and win the people in the name of Allah, the "great deliverer". Hobnobbing with imperialism, that pushed Iraq into a devastating ten-year war with Iran and, now with religion after the 1991 war, has pushed the whole society backwards.

The sanctions are throttling the people of Iraq while the ruling class is looking for ways to restore the ‘Old Glory’, with help from the EU and Russia. The US-dictated sanctions regime is tottering now as most of the European countries and Russia want to trade with Iraq. Opportunities for investment in devastated Iraq and its great potential of oil resources have made the ex-partners of the US sick of the continuing ban on trade and investment, as this has long blocked the opportunities for their capital.

Two years back, France had suggested that the present sanctions regime be lifted, and replaced with a new regime of smart sanctions that would decide all transactions with Iraq on an issue to issue basis. This was rejected by the Iraqi authorities and also by the US, from opposite directions. Now, more countries have started defying the US "wisdom" in continuing the sanctions. Dozens have openly sent hundreds of planeloads of goods to Iraq in the name of helping the people there. Encouraged by the European initiative, many third world countries have also flown their aircraft to Baghdad. This has announced an unceremonious end to the US imposed economic siege of Iraq.

Pushed to the defensive, now it is the US which demands that the smart sanctions regime be imposed. Iraq vehemently opposes the US position. It says that the smart sanctions will push Iraq into a state "worse than colonialism", that "even protectorates have more rights". But there are few takers now in the EU. No doubt, they are united in not allowing Iraq to build its military capacity to defend and counter-attack against the Great powers, or a rival to the imperialist outpost of Zionist Israel and the reactionary Saudi Arabian Sheikhdom. But they are not prepared to impose strict sanctions on Iraq.

Russia has plans to build the destroyed infrastructures and oil facilities in Iraq worth tens of billions of dollars and threatens to veto the furtherance of any kind of sanctions. The US offered Russia and China huge contracts for the Iraqi oil if they support the smart sanctions. But Russia thinks it can earn more through direct dealings with Iraq than by playing second fiddle to the US.

France makes some voices about smart sanctions but is not very enthusiastic. It has stopped criticising Iraq and wants independent dealings with the Iraqi government. The last meeting of the UN Security Council was not been able to find a common ground for accepting the US proposals.

All these years the US has been propagating that Jordan, Syria and Turkey have been acting as export channels for smuggled Iraqi oil from which Iraq has been earning a lot of unaccounted money. The US has used this "black money" argument against lifting the sanctions. But, it is reported that the ultimate destinations of this smuggled oil have been the US oil companies, though Jordan, Syria and Turkey also have made much money to support their weak and crisis-ridden economies. Lifting of the sanctions altogether would harm the interests of these countries, so all the three support the US position to continue the sanctions regime.

The smart sanctions, if they come to replace the previous regime of sanctions, would benefit the US enormously. It would give the US a strong lever to interfere in all the dealings which the Iraqi state would make with various countries, including the imperialist powers. With such an arrangement the US wants to retain its right to force and/or bombard Iraq, whenever it considers that things are not going according to its interests in the Middle-East. But, with Europe re-asserting itself, there is less possibility of a new arrangement in the present circumstances.

Hitherto, the intermittent bombing raids on Iraq have been carried out by the US and Britain without consulting with anyone from the Security Council of the UN, thus, making the UN a mere tool of the most powerful country of the world. Neither any of the present anti-sanctions enthusiasts, who are sending ‘friendship’ planes to Iraq, ever objected to the US overlording. Everybody saw and waited like opportunists in the wing.

Now everyone is devising schemes to grab the maximum. The powerful ones harbour desires to replace the US as the main beneficiaries of Iraqi oil wealth. No doubt, the present Iraqi regime will try to extract the maximum, through bargains, from the enhanced contradictions among various imperialist exploiters.

The US has been busy in putting the Iraqi people, and other oppressed peoples around the world, to destruction and death. It has acted as an executioner of the rulers of the third world, killing and deposing many through overt and covert operations. It still asks for the blood of those who disobey its dictates. It wanted to kill Saddam but failed. The guillotine man of the imperialist world keeps ready to kill and annihilate. It kills not only the individuals but also the independence and sovereignty of the countries. It conspires against and kills the revolutions and liberation movements of nations. Since the times of the Vietnam War of Liberation it has remained the most hated enemy of the people around the world, and still is.

The sovereignty of Iraq, or of any country or nation of the oppressed world, is impossible to be regained or maintained without destroying the forces that bind them to the world system of imperialism. Replacing one imperialist power with the other won’t bring the desired results. The whole system of imperialism needs to be sent to the guillotines. Only then the countries and nations can escape bullying, interventions and aggressions by the powerful ones and only then the people can live without facing curbs over their sovereignty and independence.

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