The Guardian                                    Wednesday August 2, 2000

Time to see the truth about ourselves and Iraq

        By Denis J. Halliday

        Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are
responsible for genocide in Iraq. Saddam Hussein certainly gave Bush
and Thatcher a gift when he invaded Kuwait in 1990. He facilitated the
opening of the much-needed respectability of a UN umbrella for a US-led
alliance to destroy Iraq.
        Why? Because despite the costly debacle of the war with Iran,
Saddam Hussein remained the only Arab head of state capable of
providing Arab leadership and resistance to neo-colonial US/UK and
western domination of the Middle East, and its oil.
        The war was always about controlling oil supplies, and never
really
about Kuwait. But Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in breach of
international law, provided the opportunity for showing American
military
muscle, damaged by the Vietnam defeat; for experimentation with
depleted uranium; and for the destruction of Iraq, combined with
impoverishment of the rich Arab world .
        All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible
for
sustained genocide in Iraq. Today the prime minister, Tony Blair, is on
the defensive on a range of largely domestic issues. He does not appear
to be on the defensive over genocide. His unending endorsement of the
Clinton/Albright programme for killing the children of Iraq is seldom
mentioned.
        Have decision-makers learned nothing from the Pinochet
humiliation? Or do they still feel immune under international law for
crimes against humanity?
        What does that say about us all? Does it say that, after 10 long

decimating years of the UN economic embargo on the people of Iraq, we
simply do not care? We do not care when UNICEF reports that 5,000
children under five years old die each month unnecessarily from
embargo-related deprivation. And UNICEF does not count the
teenagers, the adults and the aged that die.
        Do we not care that the UN allies, in breach of Geneva
conventions,
destroyed the lives of civilians through direct bombing and destruction
of
electric power capabilities, clean water systems, sanitation and health
care?
        Do we not care that Iraqi society, culture and learning, rooted
in the
cities of Mesopotamia, is dying alongside its people? Are we really that

racist? Are we really that anti-Islamic? Could Britain stand by and
watch
the same holocaust within a white Christian state?
        What can be done? Why not set aside US propaganda and
demonisation and do a Nixon to China, or a Clinton-Putin outreach to
Pyongyang - ie, communicate. Begin to understand what is happening in
Iraq, and begin perhaps to influence change and better relations within
the Middle East.
        Why not address the concerns of the Kuwaiti and Saudi
leadership,
who fear a resurgence of Iraqi regional ambition, by encouraging their
political collaboration with Baghdad? At the same time ease fears
through control of purchasing by, and sales to, Iraq of offensive
weapons
of mass or other forms of destruction. Demand the removal of weapons
of mass destruction from the region, including Israel, as in the US-
drafted paragraph 14 of UN Resolution 687.
        Critically, end the economic embargo and allow the Iraqi economy
to
resurface. End malnutrition and high child mortality rates. Get people
back to work. Re-establish the dinar and its purchasing power. Repair
the power, water and urban sewage systems. Rebuild agricultural
production, health care and education.
        End the killing now. Remove any excuse that Baghdad has today
for
the ongoing catastrophe. End human rights abuses by the UN via the
embargo. Demand an end to civil and political rights abuses by
Baghdad.
        Acknowledge we have reduced the Iraqis to refugees in their own
country, being fed inadequately despite use of their own oil revenues.
        Let us not be blinded by wasteful expenditures on palaces or
luxury
cars. Should we expect a higher standard in Iraq when the UK spends
millions of pounds on a dome while British people are homeless and
hungry?
        Let us be honest. We do not care for democracy in the Middle
East
as much too threatening to that oil cow Saudi Arabia and its offspring
Kuwait. Admit the US/UK governments want country stability so that they
can invest profitably and be sure of oil but regional instability so
that
demand for arms manufacturing and sales is sustained.
        Let us invest in people and peaceful coexistence in the world,
including the Middle East. Let's rally around the world as the one small

threatened unit it is today, just as the Iraqis have rallied around
Saddam
Hussein under western attack.
        Let us recognise the calamity of the US/UK-driven UN economic
embargo on Iraq. Calamitous not only for Iraq and its people, but for us

all, including the very survival of the UN itself as a credible
instrument
for
peace and security.
        Let us take some risks. Let us even remain ultimately
self-serving
and yet visionary - by responding to such global crises as Africa,
global
poverty, HIV-Aids, the environment, globalisation ills - the things that

really matter, while allowing the children of Iraq to live.


Denis J Halliday, a visiting professor at Swarthmore college in
Pennsylvania, is a former UN assistant secretary general and UN
humanitarian coordinator in Iraq 1997-98.