Over the past year, ninety-four Iraqi civilians have been dying every day, and one hundred or so more get wounded every day. In recent weeks sixty-five university students were killed in a US bombing in Baghdad. The problem is that news like this is no longer suprising. In spite of numb complacency, it is useful to take a look back at the wake of these events.
The conventional wisdom seems to be that all of this chaos, and disorder predates US-UK intervention, and that these are all necessary sacrifices to uproot an evil tyrant, and fight terrorism. While that all seems perfectly plausible, if you are a casual follower of mainstream American media, there is also an untold history lying beneath the surface.
Iraq was usurped from the Ottoman Empire by the British after World War I. Iraq gained independence in 1932, but the British maintained a military presence in an attempt to control the resources of the region (mainly oil). The borders were drawn so that Iraq itself would not have access to the Persian Gulf, forcing them to be dependent on the British to export their resources. Kuwait was thus posited as a buffer between Iraq and the gulf, as a place where the aristocratic oil tycoons could live.
Saddam Hussein, and his tyrannical Ba'ath party were put in power by the US. America has, since the end of WWII, positioned itself to control the Middle East. This is facilitated by supporting Israel, and positioning them as the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear capabilities. Saddam was a useful tool to check the power of Iran, and Iraq in the region. The reason the US "knew" Iraq had weapons of mass destruction is because they sold them to Iraq. During the time of the Iran-Iraq war in the mid 1980's, Saddam's regime began its atrocities against the Kurds (an ethnic group that seeks its own sovereign country of Kurdistan) in Northern Iraq using American made chemical weapons. The United States continued to support Saddam during this time, and also supplied Iran with additional weapons under the table.
When Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 (the event which sparked the Gulf War), he was under the impression that he still had American support. He did not have it because the US suddenly realized the repercussions of Iraq gaining control of their own resources. This is not to say that he was a good leader, or a good man, but it is necessary to understand the history and complexities of the issue.
After the Gulf War, the US and UK imposed strict economic sanctions on Iraq to "hurt the evil administration of Saddam" vis a vis the UN. That appeared effectual on paper, but the ramifications were really quite different. The sanctions killed any avenue for economic reparations to a war-torn nation, whose infrastructure (hospitals, electricity, clean water, education, etc) was in shambles. Ironically, through the establishment of a lucrative black market, Saddam and the powers that be went unscathed. While the tyrant continued to prosper, his control grew exponentially because his people were crippled by economic sanctions, and lack of humanitary aid.
Before the Gulf War and insuing sanctions, Iraq was steadliy growing in prosperity to become one of the most industrialized, and sophisticated societies in the Middle East. They went from having one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, to now being among the most dangerous countries in the world to be born. Over half a million children under 5 years old died as a result of the sanctions in the 1990's alone.
During the time when UN inspections were seeing that Iraq was disarming, the US infiltrated the group of inspectors with spies, and used the inspections as an opportunity to map out military targets and relay intelligence to the Israeli government. Saddam kicked these inspectors out of the country, an act which was cited as a reason for the most recent invasion of Iraq.
Furthermore, the fact that gas prices have not gone down does little to prove that oil was not a motive for invading Iraq. The goal was for control over Iraq's oil by US corporations. Before the war, Iraqi oil was being contracted by French and Russian companies. As a result of the invasion, multi-billion dollar American corporations are now in that position. It would not benefit these companies to get the US consumer cheaper gas. Control over revenue does not connotate sharing benefits.
This war starts to seem cloudy and slightly irrational with respect to the history. There is, however, another factor that clears the picture up. The war is detrimental to the American economy, and citizens as a whole, but it is extremely profitable for a handful of multi-billion dollar defense contractors, whose earnings have skyrocketed since the onset of the war. One company that won numerous private contracts to provide construction, food service, security soldiers, and potentially an oil pipeline in Iraq is Halliburton.
Incidently, the former CEO of Halliburton is vice president Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney is part of a neo-conservative think tank called the Project for the New American Century, whose members infiltrate the highest ranking Republicans in Washington. The PNAC's platform spells out a plan for a hegemonic American domination throughout the world.
These facts simply illustrate that things are not what they appear to be. The juxtaposition of the soi-disant "War on Terror" with the invasion of Iraq creates the false perception that Iraq was involved with Al Qaeda operations, and was responsible for the attack in New York. It is essential, then, that citizens be critical observers. The people must be ready to denounce injustice, and reclaim the tenants of democracy.