By Faiza Rady served as US Attorney General in the Johnson administration. He is an international lawyer, human rights campaigner and author. Clark, along with other anti-war activists, rallied hundreds of thousands in street protests before and during the 1991 US-led war against Iraq. Clark is the founder of the International Action Centre (IAC), an organisation that condemned the US-led war coalition against Iraq and the continuing sanctions. Although it is best known inside the US as an anti-war, anti-imperialist organisation, the IAC is "motivated by a broad vision of radical social change as an alternative to the current society's class domination by the military-industrial complex." What prompted the Clinton administration to bomb Iraq at this particular time? President Clinton ordered the bombing of Iraq on the eve of his impeachment hearing to appear strong and presidential and to undermine the impeachment proceedings. Bombing Iraq was a crime and an impeachable offense. There are no political gains for the US from bombing Iraq. It has further alienated Arab peoples, Muslims and those who seek peace. It has weakened the UN. It has damaged the peace process between Palestine and Israel, making Palestinians more determined to achieve a real state. It has weakened Arab states that the US dominates. It has made it more obvious that US military forces should leave the Gulf region. It has strengthened Iraq's resolve to maintain its sovereignty and independence. Why did the Americans and their British allies end the bombing after only four days? The bombing of Iraq ended after four days because impeachment had occurred. The bombing served no military purpose in the first place, missile supplies were exhausted and continued bombing might have so infuriated international opinion that other US interests would have been endangered. President Clinton directly challenged the UN by bombing Iraq while the General Assembly was meeting in an attempt to diffuse the crisis. What was his purpose? Clinton charged that failure to act "would permanently damage the credibility of the UN Security Council to act as a force for promoting international peace." It is a phrase reminiscent of Plato's unnamed Athenian Stranger who favoured "seeking peace by making war". He taunts the UN to act, asserting that "failure to respond [will] embolden Saddam to act recklessly". It is a threat by a weakened president thinking only of his personal political standing. US contempt for UN authority is shown by its defiance of the recent General Assembly vote of 157-2 nations protesting at the US' criminal blockade of Cuba, its refusal to pay dues to the UN year after year and its selective defiance and support for violations by other nations of General Assembly, Security Council and International Court of Justice resolutions. Moreover, Iraq has been decimated by the most severe Security Council sanctions in history since 6 August 1990 (Hiroshima Day). More than a million and a half people have died in Iraq as a direct result of those sanctions, as UN agencies have reported. The great majority of the victims were infants, children, elderly and chronically ill persons. This is unquestionably a violation of the Genocide Convention. What action has the IAC taken and what impact does your work have? The IAC and many other organisations held demonstrations every day of the bombing. The bombing began during our first demonstration in New York. Demonstrations occurred in every major US city. While we were generally blocked from the major national media, demonstrations were reported on local TV, radio and in the newspapers and some major media carried short statements of protest. The demonisation of Iraq has been so thorough that no great change in public opinion has occurred, but there is a slow shift to the realisation that US policy toward Iraq is savage. How would you describe the US media's general coverage of the bombing? Media coverage of the bombing initially celebrated US power, but because there were many US media personalities reporting from Baghdad compared to 1991, coverage soon reflected the terror and damage of the attacks to a greater degree than in 1991. Media coverage of the US attacks gave way to coverage of the impeachment proceedings on the second day and on the third day to football. How do you assess the damage done to the Iraqi people by this latest act of US aggression? There were scores, probably hundreds, of Iraqi people killed. This was premeditated murder. But more people died from sanctions during the four days of the bombing, which included more than a full day during Ramadan, than from the bombing itself. Such genocidal sanctions are a far greater threat to poor peoples and nations than Tomahawk missiles -- and they are the new weapon of choice. Could you put American-Iraqi relations in an historical perspective? Despite its lack of immediate military purpose, this latest aggression is a logical extension of the US' resolve to maintain its control over the Middle East and its oil fields. While supporting Iraq against Iran during the [1980-88] war, the US was planning to intervene militarily in the region as the only way remaining to regain domination after the fall of the Shah. The Pentagon had created the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force in 1980, which in 1983 became US Central Command (CENTCOM). The new facilities would later provide essential support for the assault on Iraq. As early as 1988, the US started identifying Iraq as the enemy instead of the USSR. In January 1990, CIA director William Webster testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the growing Western dependence on Persian/Arab Gulf oil. With Japan and Western Europe's much greater dependence on Gulf oil, the US considered control over the region crucial to worldwide geopolitical power for decades to come. In early 1990 CENTCOM began devising war games targetting Iraq, and in June General Schwarzkopf conducted sophisticated war games pitting thousands of US troops against the Republican Guard. Thus, far from being a surprise, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait had actually been the scenario for intense US planning.
