Seeing the Iraqi People

Published on Thursday, October 9, 2003 by CommonDreams.org

Seeing the Iraqi People
by Ramzi Kysia

It would be impossible for me to overstate or exaggerate the devastation that has been imposed on Iraq, and the most troubling, consistent, and unacceptable reason for this devastation has been the failure of the international community, over long decades, to see the Iraqi people. International policy toward Iraq has never been made with the desires and interests of the Iraqi people at heart, and our advocacy today is just as blind.

Opposition slogans such as "End the Occupation Now!," or "Bring Our Troops Home," may be emotionally satisfying, but - like our governments' policies - our protests at home reflect little on the reality of daily life in Iraq.

For 30 years, Iraqis suffered under one of the worst dictatorships this world has witnessed. Hundreds of thousands of human beings were arrested, tortured, disappeared, and often murdered. For 20 of those 30 years, despite this tyranny, Saddam Hussein was the world's friend. Governments all across the world loaned him money, sold him weapons, and ignored how he used them. America, Russia, Europe and the Middle-East all enthusiastically supported his war with Iran - which resulted in the deaths of over 1 million people.

It was only when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, and threatened oil supplies, that the world "discovered" how terrible he was. How did we respond? By dropping 88,000 tons of explosives, in six-short weeks, on Iraq. Military targets were bombed - but so were schools and hospitals, roads, bridges, and electrical plants. Iraq was devastated by the war. At least 150,000 human beings - most of them civilians - were killed. And, according to Marti Ahtisaari - the ex-Finnish president who led a UN mission to Iraq after the war - Desert Storm "wrought near-apocalyptic results," and set the country back to "a pre-industrial age."

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