Is Iraq A Threat to the United States?
by Lawrence McGuire
Dissident Voice
January 27, 2003
As we all know, the
government of the United States is mobilizing thousands of soldiers and the
hardware (aircraft carriers, bombers, tanks, helicopters etc.) of war near the
border of Iraq, in preparation for an invasion of that country.
George Bush has declared many times that Iraq, under its leader Saddam
Hussein, is a threat to the United States, and this is the main reason he has
given for his war plans.
Is it true? Is
Iraq a threat to the people of the United States?
I’ll begin with a few facts gathered at the CIA
World Fact page:
Iraq is, in area, population, and Gross National
Product, a much smaller country than the United States.
The area of the United States is 9,629,091 sq km. The are of Iraq is 437,072 sq km. This means that the United States is 22
times larger than Iraq.
The population of the United States is
280,562,489. The population of Iraq is
24,001,816. The United States has
11.7 times more people than Iraq.
The GDP of the United States is $10,082,000,000,000
($10.82 trillion). The GDP of Iraq is
$59,000,000,000 ($59 billion). The
GDP of the United States is 174 times bigger than the GDP of Iraq.
Another indicator of a country’s strength is military
capability, including weapons of mass destruction. The most powerful weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear
bomb. By most estimates the United
States has around 10,000 nuclear bombs. Iraq, according
to the weapon’s inspectors, has zero nuclear weapons.
The United States is the only country in
world history to have used nuclear weapons:
two were dropped against Japan in 1945 and killed over 100,000
civilians. The United States has also
used spent nuclear fuel, depleted uranium, against Iraq, Serbia, and
Afghanistan. One result of exposure to
depleted uranium is birth defects. A
scientist involved in the study of depleted uranium said this:
"Unborn children of the region [are] being asked to pay the
highest price, the integrity of their DNA." - Ross B. Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research
Centre, from his report: ‘The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf
Region with Special Reference to Iraq.’ May 1992
Photographic
evidence of birth defects cause by depleted uranium.
''Before the Gulf War, women would ask
when their babies arrived, ‘Is it male or female?’'' Hassan said as she flipped
through pictures of newborns with deformities. ''Now they ask, ‘Is the baby
normal?’'' Boston Globe, Sunday
January 26, 2003
According to the Los
Angeles Times of January 25, 2003, the Bush
administration is considering the use of
nuclear weapons against Iraq.
Chemical and biological weapons are also usually
designated as weapons of mass destruction.
The United States used biological weapons in Vietnam, notably napalm and
Agent Orange. Iraq used chemical
weapons in its war against Iran, and against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. At the time, since Iraq was a close ally,
the United States not only did not condemn this atrocity but, according to the New York Times, actually helped Saddam Hussein. In fact, according to a U.S. Senate investigation the capability for making the weapons came from the United
States. Current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Saddam Hussein in open
support in the early 80’s. In fact, Iraq received more weapons from the U.S.
subsequent to his use of chemical weapons.
The United States destroyed much of the civilian
infrastructure of Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Over a hundred thousand Iraqi
civilians were killed because of the war: Philadelphia
Inquirer, January 2003Philadelphia:
“…158,000 Iraqi men, women and children died during and shortly after the
Persian Gulf war.”
Since then hundreds of thousands have died
because of U.S. imposed sanctions:
“While
estimates vary, many independent authorities assert that hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi children under five have died since 1990, in part as a result of the
sanctions and the effects of the Gulf War. An August 1999 Unicef report found
that the under-five mortality rate in Iraq has more than doubled since the
imposition of sanctions.” Sanctions: Myth
& Reality
The United States has bombed Iraq repeatedly since the
end of the Gulf War, killing many civilians.
The United States patrols two ‘no-fly zones’ (which is illegal under
international law), in violation of Iraqi
airspace.
How many Iraqi civilians will suffer casualties in the
early stages of a United States invasion? According to a
recent United Nations study, as many as 500,000.
In my opinion, all the above evidence proves that Iraq
is not a threat to the United States. In
fact, it seems to me that the United States is a deadly threat to the people of
Iraq.
Many people within the United States and most people
around the world apparently agree with me.
Iraq’s neighbors do not feel threatened by Iraq. According to the Wall
Street Journal, 80-90% of people in Turkey,
Iraq’s neighbor, NATO member, and the closest ally to the United States in the
region, DO NOT support the war. So,
if the people in Turkey are not afraid of Iraq and Saddam Hussein, why does
President Bush claim that the United States is under any threat?
On January 18 hundreds of
thousands of people demonstrated against the war
in Washingon, DC, San Francisco, and across much of the United States. Almost 50 U.S. cities have passed resolutions against the war.
Some questions to ask yourself:
All over the world people link the military build-up
and the threat of war to the fact that the second largest supplies of oil in
the world are in Iraq. Why doesn’t the
U.S. media focus on this question?
Over three thousand people from more than 50 different
countries died in the terrorist atrocities of 9/11/01. There deaths received thousands of hours of
media coverage (and deservedly so, in my opinion). Yet, how many hours of media coverage have the deaths of more than
500,000 Iraqi children due to U.S. imposed
economic sanctions received in the U.S. media?
Why hasn’t the media talked about the number of
civilian deaths which occurred in the Gulf War of 1991?
Why isn’t the media talking about the civilian deaths
which will occur if war resumes now?
Why doesn’t the media talk about the number of U.S.
servicemen and servicewomen who died after the Gulf War, or are now disabled,
because of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’:
“As of May 2002, the Gulf War casualties include
8306 veterans dead and 159705 veterans injured or ill as a consequence of wartime service to our nation. The
official May 2002 Department of Veteran Affairs report classifies 168011
individuals as "disabled veterans". That reflects a staggering
casualty rate of 29.3% for combat related duties between 1990 and 1991.” Doctor Doug Rokke, quoting U.S. government figures.
I’m asking anyone who receives this message to do
something against this war.
Anything. Forward this
letter. Write your Congressional representative. Talk to a friend. Attend a vigil. Help organize a
demonstration.
My favorite anti-war organization is United For Peace, but there are many more around.
Some good websites for alternative sources of
information:
10
Reasons to Oppose the War with Iraq
I’ll end with a quote by Dennis Halliday, the former head
of the U.N.'s humanitarian program in Iraq, from an interview
with Salon.com:
“The five permanent members of the
Security Council produce and sell something like 85 percent of the military
weaponry in the world today. And they're the very countries that supposedly are
in charge of international peace and security. That's quite a ludicrous
situation we've got here.”
Lawrence
McGuire is the author of
The Great American Wagon Road.
He lives in France and can be reached at: blmcguire@hotmail.com