The
Case For Iraqi Genocide
By Ghali Hassan
27 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
For nearly sixteen years, U.S.
and British forces have been killing Iraqis with impunity. The number
of Iraqis killed is increasing rapidly and could easily reach 3 millions
if the U.S. refuses to end the Occupation. Iraq is an example of how
the West uses the word genocide selectively. Genocide is used to describe
the internal conflict in Sudan (Darfur region), but not the mass killing
of innocent Iraqis where the U.S. and Britain are the main perpetrators
of violence and destruction. What is happening in Iraq today is genocide,
as clearly described by the Genocide Convention.
Western violence against
Iraqis started in 1990. The so-called “Gulf war” and economic
sanctions were a deliberate and calculated destruction of an entire
nation accompanied by massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians and retreating
conscripts. The war was followed by more than a decade-long genocidal
sanction that killed more than two million Iraqis, a third of them infant
under the age of five.
In 1995, the UN Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimated that over a million Iraqis,
including 567,000 children had died as a direct result of the sanctions,
which targeted vital goods such as medical supplies and water-treatment
technology, including chlorine, to purify clean water for drinking in
contravention of the Geneva Conventions. According to UNICEF, 4,500
children were dying each month and 825,000 Iraqi children were at risk
of acute malnutrition and possibly death.
Substantial evidence supports
a deliberate policy by the U.S. and Britain to destroy Iraq and empty
Iraq of its human resources. Former assistant secretary general of the
United Nations, Dennis Halliday, resigned in protest in 1998 as the
UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq. He described the sanctions as “genocidal”.
“I’ve been using the word ‘genocide’ because
this is a deliberate policy to destroy the people of Iraq. I’m
afraid I have no other view,” said Halliday. The “sanctions
of mass destruction” killed more innocent Iraqi civilians than
were killed by all weapons of mass destruction in history. It was arguably
the greatest genocide since World War II. [See
article by this author here. – Ed]
After studying several documents
declassified by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Thomas Nagy revealed
that the documents suggest “a plan for the deliberate massacre
of the Iraqi population by judicious use of economic sanctions, and
through the deliberate targeting of Iraq’s water supply”
[1]. It is possible that the U.S. and British government were deliberately
embarking on systematic depopulation of Iraq.
In a short essay in Harper’s
magazine, Professor Joy Gordon of Fairfield University in Connecticut,
described the sanctions as; a “legitimized act of mass slaughter"
of innocent Iraqi civilians. Gordon noted: . . . epidemic suffering
needlessly visited on Iraqis via U.S. fiat inside the United Nations
Security Council. Within that body, the United States has consistently
thwarted Iraq from satisfying its most basic humanitarian needs, using
sanctions as nothing less than a deadly weapon, and, despite recent
reforms, continuing to do so[2].
To avoid mass starvation
of Iraqis and the collapse of the Iraqi state, the Saddam Hussein government
was able to break the sanctions by bribing and corrupting many governments,
including Australia, Greece, Italy and Arab governments. In 2002, Iraq
showed signs of recovery before the leaders of the U.S. and Britain
committed another ‘supreme international crime’ by attacking
Iraq unprovoked and in violation of the UN Charter.
The March 2003 illegal invasion
and subsequent violent Occupation were planned in advance to destroy
Iraq and control its wealth. The people of Iraq did not invite Bush
and Blair to invade and occupy their country. They are rightly and legitimately
resisting the invasion and occupation of their country. The invasion
was justified by lies fabricated in London and Washington, and filtered
through the Zionist mainstream media to demonise the Iraqi people in
order to manipulate public opinion.
A new study published in
the most respected and peer-reviewed British journal The Lancet estimates
that 655,000 – the midpoint between 426,369 and 793,663 people
– Iraqis have been killed as a result of the invasion and occupation
of Iraq [3]. In other words, at least 2.5 per cent of Iraq’s total
population have been killed as a result of U.S.-led murderous invasion
and occupation. “Deaths are occurring in IraqTop of Form now at
a rate more than three times that from before the invasion of March
2003," said Dr. Gilbert Burnham of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health, and the lead author of the study. With 95 per
cent of accuracy, the study is the most credible so far. The larger
sample validates and confirms the Lancet earlier study released in October
2004 that found an estimate of more that 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed
by U.S. force
The “cluster sampling”
method is the best method of measuring mortality in times of war and
disaster and is used widely, even by the U.S. government. The methodology
used by the authors has long been standard practice in estimating mortality
in populations affected by war. It was developed by the U.S. centres
for disease control and endorsed by the World Health Organisations.
The Statistical Assessment Service (STATS)
at George Mason University found the study to be methodically sound
and accurate. “The scientific community is in agreement over the
statistical methods used to collect the data and the validity of the
conclusions drawn by the researchers conducting the study”, writes
Rebecca Goldin of STATS.
President George Bush and
his lackeys (Tony Blair and John Howard) quickly rejected the study
findings and disputed the number of Iraqis killed as a result of their
unprovoked international crimes. Their comment is insulting not only
to Iraqis, but also to scientists. Can you imagine Bush’s response
if anyone disputed the number of people who died in 9/11 attacks? Iraqis
do not count as people. Bush alleged that Iraqis “tolerate violence”.
To the contrary, Iraqis do not tolerate violence. The majority of Iraqis,
including a large number of “parliamentarians” in the U.S.-imposed
government, are in favour of an immediate end to the Occupation, and
are overwhelmingly rejecting Bush’s agenda.
From the outset of the Occupation,
the Anglo-American strategy was the creation of chaos, characterised
by looting, corruption, violence and mayhem. The disbanding of the Iraqi
Army and Police, and the creation, financing and arming of militias
and death squads to murder Iraqi prominent politicians, members of the
Ba’ath Party and professionals (‘de-Ba’athification’),
were the preludes to the current chaos. Iraqis continue to be killed
in larger numbers than they ever did. Most of the crimes are perpetuated
either by the occupying forces or under the radar screen of the occupying
forces. Furthermore, the intent to “kill all military-age males”
is designed to completely pacify Iraq and make communities’ survival
difficult in a society where men are considered the ‘breadwinners’.
Prior to the U.S. invasion
and occupation, Iraq was a country characterised by extensive social
programs, including the protection of women’s right, education
system and health care services that made Iraq the envy of the region.
In today’s Iraq, most Iraqis are deprived of security, education
and health services, adequate employment and sufficient food. Since
the invasion, Iraqis lack adequate electricity and drinking water supplies.
The Iraqi standard of living has deteriorated. “Nearly 5.6 millions
Iraqis are living below the poverty line, according to our most recent
studies. At least 40 per cent of this number is living in absolute and
desperate deteriorated conditions,” said Sinan Youssef, an official
in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The number of people living
in “absolute and desperate deteriorated conditions” has
increased by 35 per cent since the U.S.-led invasion. The unemployment
rate is estimated to be over 60 per cent, while food prices have increased
dramatically.
The U.S.-imposed undemocratic
system and its puppet government of expatriates have failed to provide
for Iraqis and create a safe living environment. The purpose of the
puppet government is to legitimise the Occupation and looting of Iraq’s
wealth by U.S. corporations. The illegal building of U.S. military bases
throughout Iraq and the construction of a monstrous U.S. embassy in
the heart of Baghdad are flagrant violations of Iraqi sovereignty and
independence.
Furthermore, the UN refugee
agency (UNHCR) is estimating 1.5 million people are now displaced, driven
by ongoing military raids and militia violence. UNHCR spokesman Ron
Redmond said: “Our staffs [are] seeing about 2,000 people a day
coming across [to Syria], so it’s more than 40,000 people a month
just into Syria”. Most of the refugees have not registered with
the UNHCR, in what the UNHCR calls a “silent exodus”. Many
more Iraqis have moved on to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Europe. It is
not just a violent Occupation; it is a calculated ethnic cleansing.
Those minorities who remained become increasingly vulnerable.
In addition, the Iraqi brain
drain is the worst in history, and is destroying Iraq’s capabilities.
According to the UK-based charity group, Medact;
“A quarter of Iraq’s 18,000 physicians have fled the country
since 2003, and doctors and other health workers are being attacked,
threatened or kidnapped daily”. An estimated 250 of those who
remained in Iraq had been kidnapped and, in 2005 alone, 65 killed. The
deliberate destruction of Iraq’s health service is increasing
the death rates and suffering of Iraqis, particularly children.
The Western media, particularly
in the U.S., are deliberately ignoring the genocide in Iraq. Instead
the media continue with a campaign of disinformation, portraying the
violence as “sectarian violence”, “civil war”
or “violent insurgency”, removing the Occupation as the
generator of the violence. Indeed, the word Occupation, like the word
Resistance, has been completely removed from the media’s vocabulary.
There is overwhelming evidence
that the U.S. and Britain are directly responsible for the current “sectarian
violence” in Iraq. For example, the recent violence in Balad and
Amara was deliberately provoked to counter the growing demand for an
immediate end to the Occupation. The violence is used as a propaganda
tool to demonise Iraqis and to justify ongoing Occupation. The media
portray the U.S. as mediator (not occupiers) trying to help the Iraqis.
It is important to remember that until the U.S. invaded and occupied
Iraq, the Iraqi people had lived and intermarried peacefully for generation.
In addition to this media
disinformation, the so-called “progressive Left” and the
“socialists” in the West are more concerned with Iraq becoming
“a catastrophe for U.S. imperialism”, and that “Communities
all over America are paying a bitter price for [the Bush Administration]
program of militarism” (WSWS, 17/10/2006). The aim is to blame
Iraqis for everything. The destruction of Iraq is irrelevant and Iraqis
are ‘not’ paying a “bitter price”. This deliberate
and deep ignorance represents a conscious choice to obfuscate reality
and cover up war crimes perpetuated by Western leaders against defenceless
Iraqi population.
A recent report by the Program
on International Policy Attitudes found that the “overwhelming
majority of Iraqis believes that the U.S. military presence in Iraq
is provoking more conflict than it is preventing. More broadly, most
feel the U.S. is having a predominantly negative influence in Iraq and
have little or no confidence in the U.S. military”. In fact, the
head of the British army, Sir Richard Dannatt admitted recently that
the presence of foreign troops (U.S. and British) in Iraq is “exacerbating”
the violence.
Meanwhile, while a genocide
is being perpetuated in Iraq, President Saddam Hussein is on a U.S.-staged
illegal trial accused of allegedly ordering the execution of 140 people
found guilty of conspiring in July 1982 to assassinate Saddam as president
of Iraq, and of allegedly ordering the removal of Kurdish families (to
southern Iraq) associated with the Kurdish insurgency.
Under international law as
stipulated in The
Judgment of the Nuremberg Trials; “To initiate a
war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it
is the ‘supreme international crime’ differing only from
other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil
of the whole”... It follows that the war on Iraq is considered
the ‘international supreme crime’, therefore, all those
who are responsible must be held accountable.
A report
prepared by Consumers for Peace.org with the advice of Karen Parker,
a distinguished lawyer in human rights and humanitarian law, found that
there is ample evidence for full investigations of war crimes committed
by “individual military U.S. [and British] officers in Iraq and
on up the whole chain of command”. In other words, U.S. leaders
and their allies (Blair and Howard) bear full responsibility for the
ongoing genocide and destruction in Iraq.
The number of Iraqis killed
since 1991 could easily reach 3 millions if this modern day genocide
is not stopped. The Bush administration and their Western allies described
the Darfur internal conflict as “ongoing genocide”, contradicting
accurate reports and using the Darfur crisis to divert media and world
attentions from an actual genocide in Iraq. If the death of few thousands
of people in Darfur is considered genocide – by Bush and allies
– why the death of millions Iraqis is not?
It is morally reprehensible
playing a double standard, condemning the crimes in Darfur while ignoring
the far greater crimes in Iraq. More than 150 countries, including the
15 members UN Security Council, are bound to stop the Iraqi genocide
and demand an immediate and full withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth,
Western Australia.
Footnotes:
[1] Nagy, Thomas (2001).
The Secret behind the Sanctions, How the US Intentionally Destroyed
Iraq’s Water Supply.
The Progressive.
[2] Joy Gordon (2002). Cool
War, Harper’s
Magazine, November, 2002.
[3] Burnham, G., Lafta, R.,
Doocy, S. & Roberts, L. (2006). Mortality after the 2003 invasion
of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey. The
Lancet, published online 12 October, 2006.
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