WHAT WOULD THE U.S. DO WITHOUT SADDAM?
By Eric Margolis - 23 Sept 1996
Last week, I listened to an American academic `expert' on
Iraq fulminate that Saddam Hussein was behind the bombings
of the New York World Trade Center, the Federal Building in
Oklahoma City, the downing of TWA flight 800, and numerous other
nefarious acts.
I took this Philippic with many grains of salt. Some of the
media's current `anti-terrorism experts' are really paid
propagandists for Mideast nations. Which one might be funding
this particular exercise in demonology, I wondered?
One good soul in our discussion group hotly demanded, `Why don't
we take out Saddam?' Good question, and one asked by many
Americans. Here's why not:
Because Saddam Hussein is a key part of the control
mechanism used by the west to dominate Mideast oil. The
loathsome Saddam, and his sinister Iraq, are the bastard
children of Britain and America.
We don't use the Victorian term `imperialism' any more to
describe the west's domination of Mideast resources. The
current euphemism is, `America's vital interests.'
Invocation of this term allows the US to meddle in the affairs of
soverign nations, overthrow their governments, and, when
necessary, go to war for the sake of cheap gasoline. It applies
mainly to the Mideast, where America's normal policy of promoting
democracy, free speech and human rights around the world is
suspended in favor of keeping regimes in power who keep down the
price of oil.
Britain's old Arab `protectorates,' are today's `America's
Arab allies.' The rapidly growing US military presence in the
Mideast is aimed at protecting US-backed rulers from the anger of
their own peoples as much as from rapacious neighbors. The words
are different, but the song remains the same.
In the 1920's, the victorious British Empire created the
mutant state of Iraq from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire
in order to grab Mesopotamia's recently discovered oil, deny this
oil to Turkey, and open a land route to India. Three totally
disparate regions were stitched together into a chronically
unstable, rebellious mess. Kurds in the oil-rich north; Shia's in
the south. In the middle, Sunni Muslims; Chaldean, Nestorian,
and Assyrian Christians; and Jews. At the time, Baghdad was a
leading center of Jewish culture and population.
Iraq seethed with revolt. The British bombed and gassed
rebellious Kurds, battled Shias, and jailed nationalists -
just as Saddam does today. When the British Empire
collapsed in 1945, America took over, forging a new Mideast
Raj.
The US overthrew the nationalist governments of Iran and
Syria. When an Iraqi officer, Col. Kassem, overthrew the
British puppet monarchy in Baghdad, CIA agents tried
unsuccessfully to assassinate him with a poisoned
handkerchief. CIA helped a certain Col. Aref gun down
Col.Kassem. Aref was murdered. Many bodies later, Saddam Hussein
shot his way to power, probably with some American help.
But when Saddam stabilized Iraq through terror and began
building its economy and military forces, the US, Israel and
Iran joined to destabilize Iraq by financing and arming
Kurdish rebels in the north. After an Islamic revolution
overthrew the Shah of Iran, the US ditched the Kurds, and
backed Saddam Hussein as new policeman of the Gulf.
Washington and London encouraged Saddam to invade Iran,
producing an 8-year war that caused one million casualties. The
west secretly armed Iraq, and supplied the poison gas plants
and toxic materials that Saddam ruthlessly used against
Iranians, and later, against rebellious Kurds. The west never
protested such barbarity - because those being gassed or poisoned
were Muslim troublemakers.
When the war ended, however, Saddam, became too big for his
jackboots. He had pretensions that Iraq, which has the
Mideast's second largest oil reserves, should be a regional
power, and armed, like Israel, with weapons of mass
destruction.
Alarmed, the US set about bringing down Saddam. Kuwait was
used to goad Iraq by running down oil prices, filching Iraqi
oil by slant drilling, and publically insulting Saddam.
Washington then gave Iraq what Baghdad believed was a green light
to invade irksome Kuwait. When Saddam struck, former Texas oilman
George Bush sprang the trap.
But Bush did not `take out' Saddam at war's end for two good
reasons. First, contrary to Desert Storm disinformation and
propaganda, the main force units of the Iraqi Army remained
intact. Bush had no intention to fight his way into Baghdad,
or end up governing and policing ungovernable Iraq.
Second, if Saddam fell,Iran and Turkey would probably invade
and divvy up Iraq's oil regions. The Saudis and Bush
realized they needed a Saddam to hold Iraq together and keep
Iran at bay - but with his wings clipped.
A series of feeble but very expensive CIA operations were mounted
aimed at replacing Saddam with an equally ferocious, but
more pro-American despot. This effort humiliatingly
collapsed three weeks ago as Saddam ran the CIA and its
various networks out of northern Iraq. To cover this pre-
election fiasco, Clinton barraged Iraq with $300 million of
cruise missiles.
The US also needs Saddam as Mideast bogeyman. After Iraq
invaded Kuwait, Washington terrified the Saudis into
allowing US forces into Arabia by showing them satellite
photos doctored to depict an impending, but actually non-
existent, Iraqi attack. Now, the US is again using Saddam,
as an excuse to increase its permanent military garrisons in
the region. This week, Washington dispatched more troops to
Kuwait without even bothering to first seek Kuwaiti
permission.
And, of course, American presidents reply on Mideast
malefactors to boost popularity and prove their machismo.
Reagan made excellent use of Libya's zany Khadaffi. Thanks
to Saddam, Bush went from `wimp' to hero. Clinton's latest
missile attacks on Iraq eclipsed the Dole campaign and
scotched talk about a weak, draft-dodging president.
One night during World War II, Hitler observed, `When I
finish conquering Russia, I'm going to put that man Stalin
back in charge. He's the only person who knows how to deal
with Russians.'
And that holds just as true for Saddam, and for poor,
tortured Iraq.
copyright Eric Margolis 1996
