http://www.bigeye.com/fcorrlst.htm
It's Time to Put Away the Big Stick
INSIDE TRACK ON WORLD NEWS
By international syndicated columnist
& broadcaster Eric Margolis
Jan. 11, 1999
MIAMI - So, many of the supposed UN arms inspectors in
Iraq were actually American spies. Washington was using
the United Nations as a cover to track and overthrow
Saddam Hussein.
The `inspectors' came from the US Defense Intelligence
Agency and were clearly military men in muffi. Some of
them were also working with Israel's intelligence
service. So this column has said for years.
This week, Washington finally admitted it had used
UNSCOM, the UN inspection team headed by Richard Butler,
to spy on Iraq. The US media was suddenly awash with
reports that Washington had manipulated the UN to cover
its ongoing efforts to overthrow the Iraqi regime, or
keep it isolated.
As I've written before, I detest the brutal Iraqi
dictatorship - and I have a very personal reason, as
well. When I was in Baghdad in 1990, during which time I
ferreted out information on how Britain and the US had
secretly developed Iraq's chemical and germ warfare
programs, the Iraqi security police threatened to hang
me. I've visited Baghdad since 1976 and seen the
sinister works of Saddam's loathsome regime.
But I hate lies and propaganda even more than Saddam
Hussein. Much of the US media has allowed itself to be
used as drum beaters for Washington's intense propaganda
war against Iraq. It's high time the American media has
finally exposed the canard that the conflict with Iraq
is not "a struggle between the world community and
Saddam", but a self-serving campaign by the US and
Britain to topple a dictator, and former ally, who dared
threaten their commercial interests and strategic
domination of the Mideast.
This week, we also learned from legitimate UN sources in
Iraq that the recent, wag the camel, `precision' bombing
of defenseless Iraq destroyed at least thirteen schools,
an important food storehouse, and the municipal water
system of Baghdad's Karrada suburb, leaving 300,000
people without clean drinking water. During the 1991
Gulf War, US bombing wrecked Baghdad's water and sewage
systems, creating a grave health crisis for millions of
Iraqi civilians.
Just about everyone, save Iraq's ruling Sunni Muslim
minority, would like to be rid of Saddam Hussein,
including fellow Arab rulers, who detest the inept
tyrant that led Iraq and the Mideast into disaster. But
the clumsy, brutish policy being followed by the US and
sidekick, Britain, of trying to starve and beat Iraq to
death to get rid of Saddam is clearly counter-productive
and, dare I use the word, immoral. Shattering Iraq could
well produce a second Yugoslavia in the heart of the
Mideast. As the commander of US forces in the Mideast
recently noted, in a remarkably candid admission, a
chaotic Iraq without Saddam could be more dangerous than
one with him.
This week, France strongly denounced the recent bombing
as unacceptable US and British unilateralism that was
opposed by the other members of the UN Security Council,
as well as the General Assembly. The French, who
invented modern diplomacy, called for a negotiated
settlement that would fairly monitor Iraq's weapons
programs, while allowing Baghdad to resume full oil
exports. Washington and London immediately dismissed the
sensible French proposal.
It's amazing how all the usual liberal American voices
that call for mediation and compromise in the world's
conflicts fall suddenly silent when it comes to Iraq.
Clinton's diplomatic opening this week to Cuba was
hailed by the same people who call for the continued
punishment and isolation of Iraq. Yet the Clinton
Administration has offered North Korea, a nation that
threatens to use nuclear, chemical, and, possibly,
biological weapons, against US troops, South Korea, and
Japan, a massive bribe of $2.6 billion to be good. Why
not adopt the same approach to Iraq?
Saddam is unlikely to be overthrown anytime soon. US
efforts to subvert his draconian regime have been
expensive, comical failures. The current US policy of
bombing Iraq every few months, is futile and wrong, an
exercise in gunboat diplomacy worthy of 19th Century
imperialist Great Britain, not the world's greatest
democracy and defender of human rights. Responsibility
for the deaths 500,000 Iraqi children from disease and
malnutrition - these are UN figures - must be equally
shared by Saddam and the US government. The continued
torment of Iraq is provoking rage against Americans
across the Muslim world.
Why not follow France's intelligent de'marche by tying
Iraqi oil exports to the total dismantling of its small,
remaining strategic weapon's arsenal - supervised by
truly neutral inspectors selected by the full Security
Council? The claim Saddam will use oil income to swiftly
rebuild his forces is nonsense. It will take Iraq years
to refurbish its damaged, decayed oil infrastructure. A
naval surveillance force can easily prevent North Korea,
the sole potential supplier of heavy arms, missiles, and
nuclear technology to Iraq, from delivering weapons by
sea. The US has ample power to deter other would-be
sellers of strategic weapons from rearming Iraq.
America has so demonized Saddam it can no longer deal
rationally with Iraq. Let Europe take the diplomatic
lead in returning Iraq to at least semi-civilized
behavior, and alleviating the suffering of its people.
If ending Cuba's economic isolation will help bring
democracy, as Washington now contends, why not Iraq?
Copyright: Eric Margolis, 1998
