Ten Long Years Ago: Why Does the US Talk about Peace while Promoting War?

By Hardly Waite, Gazette Senior Editor

 

 

Ten years ago, (April 3, 1991) the U.N. Security Council approved the official cease-fire resolution that ended the Gulf War and set weapons-inspection demands for Iraq to meet before the economic embargo would be lifted.

For the past decade -- as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died as a direct result of that crippling embargo -- the focus has been on whether or not Iraq has met its obligations under that resolution.

What has gone unnoticed is that the rest of the world -- especially the United States -- hasn’t even attempted to make good on its obligations.

Tucked into the middle of Resolution 687 is the goal of “establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery.”

Last time I looked, there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the part of the United States, or any nation, toward regional disarmament.  In the past 10 years, U.S. firms have delivered at least $57 billion in arms to the Middle East, according to data compiled by the Federation of American Scientists (available online at http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/sales_db.htm). That’s hardly surprising given that the United States is by far the world’s largest arms dealer, all the while proclaiming its unique role as a broker of world peace.

To those not schooled in the intricacies of U.S. foreign policy, this might seem a contradiction. If U.S. officials truly want peace in the Middle East, why are we selling so many weapons, and selling them to all sides?

Perhaps an even more relevant question: Throughout the 1980s, why did we give Iraq financial and diplomatic support as well as helping indirectly to arm Saddam Hussein’s regime and providing it with military intelligence during its war with Iran?

Indeed, all these questions seem puzzling given the rhetoric of U.S. officials, who constantly talk of their desire for stability and peace in the Middle East.

The problems can be cleared up once we translate from the cynical definitions of policy-makers to the plain meanings the rest of us might use.

The U.S. does not want peace in the Middle East, if that term means a just and stable peace in which the people of the region are represented by governments that use the vast resources for the people. Since it began to take over the role of dominant power in the region when British and French influence waned after World War II, the United States has been quite happy with dictatorships and monarchies -- as long as they remain fragmented, and hence more easily controlled.

The aim of this policy is to make sure that no regional powers emerge to challenge U.S. dominance over the flow of oil and oil profits. Toward this goal, instability and conflict are often helpful to U.S. aims.

In that context, Washington’s policy toward Iraq makes more sense.

Though most of the world opposes the economic sanctions, the United States has made the embargo the centerpiece of its policy toward Iraq for the past decade. From a humanitarian perspective, the sanctions have been a disaster. More than 1 million people have died, according to U.N. studies, with the most vulnerable -- children, the elderly and the sick -- the prime targets.

But from a power perspective, with no consideration of human suffering or justice, the sanctions have been successful in helping to maintain U.S. dominance, precisely because Iraqi society has been decimated. No one need pretend Saddam Hussein is a great humanitarian to see that U.S. policy is equally callous.   Nor do we need look far to see that the U.S. provides support to regimes that are equally unjust and oppressive.

With a new administration there have been hints of adjustments in policy, but no suggestion of a change in fundamental goals. Until the American public demands a policy that takes the needs of people as seriously as the lust for power, there is little reason to expect a surge of humanitarianism out of Washington.

That is why from April 26-28, more than 60 grassroots peace-and-justice groups around the country are participating in Nationwide Days of Action to End the War on Iraq. For details on how citizens will be making their call for not just peace, but a just peace, go to www.endthewar.org.

If you are not familiar with the desperate situation in Iraq caused by U.S. sanctions, please read Anthony Arnove's article on our site.

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