HANDS OFF IRAQ
HANDS OFF
IRAQ
BUILD THE
ANTI WAR
MOVEMENT
END THE
SANCTIONS
Is the government's headlong drive to bomb Iraq over? Don't bet on it!Certainly the war drums are not beating as loudly now and the television and newspapers have returned to scrutinizing the Clinton sex scandal. After a US military buildup which took us to the brink of war, UN secretary general Kofi Annan returned from negotiations in Amman with an arms inspection agreement which may just possibly ease tensions in the Persian Gulf for some time to come.
But plenty of US politicians and media mouthpieces aren't happy about it. They want a war on Iraq and won't accept any resolution short of the US government appointing the next government of Iraq, the way it did in the invasion of Panama.
Ohio State Shows the Way
Some are a little more nervous though. The growing anti-war movement in this country erupted into public view only days before Annan announced the agreement A government-sponsored and CNN-broadcast dog and pony show at Ohio State University didn't follow the script. Radicals, pacifists, anti-war activists and concerned citizens made mincemeat of Secretary of State Albright and Defense Secretary Cohen before a live global audience.
The importance of the OSU disruption cannot be overestimated. It broke through the orchestrated media campaign which portrayed the debate in this country over Iraq as having only three sides: bomb 'em flat; invade and overthrow the government; or send in some B-movie assassination squad to hit Saddam Hussein. Suddenly, millions who shared the reservations of the protesters saw their views represented. Activists were heartened and redoubled their campaign against the war drive.
The message was heard around the world. Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarek, asked why people in Egypt should support bombing when people in Ohio don't. The White House openly referred to it as a public relations disaster. But if it hadn't been OSU, it would have been something else. Two days later, Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson tried again to justify US aggression in a speech at the University of Minnesota. 150 outraged protesters, led by the Progressive Student Organization, stopped him from speaking and drove him off campus.
Our Tasks Now: Target Sanctions
Now TV news and the press are telling us that the crisis has faded. But the danger is still real. There are three things the US government doesn't like about the Annan agreement. It limits the ability of the US to act unilaterally. It doesn't block efforts by rivals of US corporate capital, like the ruling classes of France and Russia, to carve themselves out a bigger role in the oil-rich Middle East. And most important, it lets Iraq get away with continuing its refusal to bow down to the US and thus sets a very bad example for other Third World countries. This agreement could collapse, or be destroyed, at any time.
How do we keep the anti-war movement alive when most of the people in this country think the danger of war is fading? A most important way is to focus on the issue of the murderous economic sanctions which have been imposed on Iraq since 1991. Over a year ago, Clinton was challenged at one of his phony televised "town meetings" about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who have died because their government was blocked from importing food and medicine. "That's not true," he snarled and took another question.
Today, even the US media admit that sanctions have caused untold suffering and death in Iraq. These sanctions stop almost all imports into Iraq. They have crippled the country's economy and turned a prosperous nation into a desperately poor one.
Most important, sanctions have cut the flow of food and medicine to Iraq to a trickle. UNICEF estimates indicate that 4500 Iraqi children die every month of starvation and curable disease. With all the ranting about weapons of mass destruction, the real murderers of civilians stand revealed--the White House, the Pentagon and the ruling class they serve.
Targeting sanctions serves three purposes. First, it can save lives. Even UN officials want to ease the barriers against food and medicine flowing to Iraq. Second, it exposes the criminal hypocrisy of Clinton & Company's posturing against "weapons of mass destruction." UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures show that between 1991 to 1996 over a million Iraqis died as a direct results of economic sanctions. How's that for mass destruction? Third, it keeps a spotlight on the sinister intentions of the US ruling class toward Iraq and lays a stronger foundation for building a mass anti-war movement quickly when the administration and the Pentagon start to step up the war drive again.
National Executive Committee
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
March 1998
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