By Mike Karadjis
Myth 1: The US bombing of Iraq was necessary because all UN resolutions must be enforced, and Iraq was violating them.
Reality: Many countries violate UN resolutions in much more serious ways than Iraq, but no action is taken against them. Israel has violated every UN resolution in the last 26 years demanding withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights, occupied since 1967, withdrawal from southern Lebanon, occupied since 1978, and more recently, the UN resolution against the deportation of 415 Palestinians.
The US ignored UN resolutions which condemned its invasions of Panama and Grenada and its war against Nicaragua. Indonesia's 18-year occupation of East Timor and Turkey's 19-year occupation of northern Cyprus were condemned by the UN. Not even the mildest sanctions (let alone bombings!) have been declared against these states.
Myth 2: The UN Security Council represents the will of the "international community".
Reality: The UN General Assembly is the body in which all nations are represented. It has passed resolutions against the above violations by the US, Israel, Turkey and Indonesia, as well as Iraq and many other countries. No action is taken against any friends of the US, because the US uses its veto in the Security Council.
The Security Council is an undemocratic club dominated by the five permanent members — the US, Britain, France, Russia and China — who have the right of veto. It acts unilaterally, without consulting the General Assembly. For example, the war against Iraq two years ago was sanctioned by the Security Council, not the General Assembly.
Myth 3: The US attacks only military targets in Iraq, and its "smart bombs" are highly accurate, avoiding civilian casualties.
Reality: With relatively few attacks on Iraqi military targets between January 13 and 18, one bomb hit a block of flats and another a hotel. Many civilians have already been killed.
Further, in the Gulf War, only 7% of bombs dropped on Iraq were "smart". In any case, in the Gulf War, which involved the highest level of bombing in history with the most destructive weapons ever, Iraq's civilian infrastructure was deliberately and systematically destroyed, killing tens of thousands of civilians in the process.
Myth 4: Iraq was refusing to allow UN weapons inspection teams to fly into Iraq, hence violating UN resolutions.
Reality: In fact, all Iraq said was that it could not guarantee the safety of such flights if they entered Iraq through the US-imposed since Iraq does not control the skies in these areas. Iraq offered the alternative of UN planes flying into the country from the west, via Jordan. This perfectly reasonable offer was rejected by the "UN" (i.e. the Security Council club).
Myth 5: Iraq launched four "border incursions" into Kuwaiti territory, again violating UN resolutions.
Reality: This so-called Kuwaiti territory is in fact Iraqi territory which is being taken from Iraq and given to Kuwait by the UN as part of the treaty imposed on Iraq at the end of the Gulf War. The territory being transferred includes major oil deposits and Iraq's only functioning port, Umm Qasr, on which Iraq has spent billions of dollars.
The so-called incursions consisted of unarmed workers dismantling Â鶹´«Ã½ of the port, which the UN recognises as Iraqi property, and taking them back to Iraq.
Myth 6: Iraq further violated UN resolutions by moving military equipment into the no-fly zones in the north and south of the country.
Reality: The no fly zones (parts of Iraq patrolled by US planes in which Iraqi planes are banned from flying) were imposed unilaterally by the US. These zones, which cover nearly half of Iraq and divide the country into three, are not covered by any UN resolution. There is no law that states that Iraqi planes can't fly over Iraqi territory. It is, in fact, the US that is in violation of international law, not Iraq.
Myth 7: The no-fly zone in the north was established to protect Kurds from massive aerial attack by the Iraqi regime.
Reality: Following the Gulf War, the Kurds in the north and the masses in the south (not necessarily Shi'ites) rose up against Saddam Hussein's regime. The regime brutally suppressed these risings, using massive aerial bombardment, while the US stood by and declared "Mr Hussein is the only person who can guarantee the stability of Iraq".
When Hussein had completely defeated the Kurds, the US sent in troops to set up "safe havens" in parts of Kurdish territory. At the same time it imposed a no-fly zone above the 36th parallel, an area which includes areas of substantially Arab population, such as the city of Mosul, and which has important oil reserves. In this "safe" zone, the US-allied Turkish government regularly bombs Kurds who have fled there from Turkey.
Myth 8: The no-fly zone in the south was established to protect Shi'ites from massive aerial attack by the Iraqi regime.
Reality: When this zone was declared in August 1992, there was no sign of any such aerial war (unlike March 1991, when the US stood by). The US cut off this area as part of its drive to cripple and divide Iraq, because this region contains most of Iraq's oil reserves.
The only evidence of repression of Shi'ites was the charge that Iraq inhabited by the "marsh Arabs" (which, in fact, have been partially drained by the Turkish regime's massive diversion of water from Iraq). In any case, drainage of swamps could hardly be fought through a no-fly zone, and the region inhabited by the marsh Arabs is only a fraction of the no-fly zone.
Myth 9: Hussein is such a brutal tyrant that the West must stop him in the name of democracy.
Reality: It is certainly true that Hussein's regime is a dictatorship which uses repression against opposition, but this makes Iraq part of the rule rather than the exception in the capitalist Third World.
There are dozens of brutal dictatorships, nearly all strongly supported by the US and the West: for example, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Zaire, Indonesia, Guatemala and El Salvador. Dictatorships better protect the Western corporations that ruthlessly exploit these countries. Democratic regimes, such as in Nicaragua, are often overthrown by the US.
The US has no intention of bringing democracy to Iraq; in fact it calls on the Iraqi military to overthrow Hussein. It opposes Hussein only because he refuses to be a complete puppet; it wants a regime completely compliant with the interests of Western oil monopolies.
Myth 10: Since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, it deserves to have very strict conditions imposed upon it by the UN.
Reality: Any unjust treaty can be imposed by superior military force, and the treaty imposed on Iraq at the end of the Gulf War was worse then any imposed on a defeated country in the 20th century.
Apart from the totally arbitrary border changes, the treaty imposes a massive reparations bill to be paid for by a compulsory 30% deduction from any Iraqi oil sales. These sales are so limited that after this 30% deduction, the remaining money falls $800 million short of the sum estimated by the UN special envoy as being the absolute minimum required to counter starvation.
As a result of the UN sanctions on Iraq, which continue two years after Iraqi troops left Kuwait, some 200,000 people, mostly children, have died. The Australian government, through the navy, is taking part in this criminal blockade — which amounts to a crime against humanity.