IRAQ
- USA
_____[A]
Preface_____
I.)
Albert Einstein
II.)
Introduction
_____[B]
The Gulf War_____
I.)
.
The United States of America
and Iraq
- two . countries with two strong leaders
II.)
Economic Backgrounds of the war
III.)
The time before the invasion
IV.)
Operation
Desert Storm
V.)
The role of the media in the war
VI.)
Chronology
_____[C]
The time after the war_____
I.)
Economic and political consequences
II.)
From Desert Storm to Desert Fox
III.) .. Operation
Desert Fox
IV.)
Desert Storm and Desert Fox - necessary
reactions . on a crazy dictator or just senseless
violence?
_____[D]
Appendix_____
I.) . Literature
[A]
_Preface_
I.)
Albert Einstein
"Es gäbe genug Geld, genug Arbeit, genug zu essen, wenn wir die
Reichtümer der Welt richtig verteilen würden, statt uns zu Sklaven starrer
Wirtschaftsdoktrinen oder -traditionen zu machen. Vor allem aber dürfen wir
nicht zulassen, daß unsere Gedanken und Bemühungen von konstruktiver Arbeit
abgehalten und für die Vorbereitung eines neuen Krieges mißbraucht werden. Ich
bin der gleichen Meinung wie der große Amerikaner Benjamin Franklin, der sagte:
es hat niemals einen guten Krieg und niemals einen schlechten Frieden gegeben."
Albert
Einstein
II.)
Introduction
During the last century, the Middle
East has developed to a melting pot of people and states with totally
different religions and beliefs. Because of this fact many conflicts, like the Iran - Iraq
war and the crises which concerned Israel, ended up in violence and
destroyed all visions of a peaceful coexistence in this region. Although there
have been quite a number of Middle East
internal conflicts none of them required the rest of the world to take part as
much as the Gulf war in 1991 did.
This war,
which took place from January until March 1991, was fought between Iraq and the allies with the USA as their
leader. Like a lot of other conflicts in the Gulf region before, this one has
also been based on religious differences between the states, although the
economic intentions behind the war were obvious. Saddam Hussein, Iraq`s Head of
State, was always supporting the idea of rising the oil prices, an idea which
wasn't accepted by the highly industrialised nations in the so called "West".
In this case nearly the whole industrialised world would have entered a new
energy-crises like some of us already experienced
them in
1973 and 1979. Then the oil price multiplied itself by four within a
few
months. This had lasting effects on the world economy, especially on the
oil-based economy of the West. In Saddam´s view the United States together with
the so called "West" are using the Middle East
as a cheap and easy to be controlled source of unlimited energy.
Although
the United Nations succeeded with their peace process and helped to end the 8
years of war between Iran
and Iraq,
they did not manage to solve the middle east conflict at all. One of the main
conflicts in the gulf region is the matter depending the oil fields and
connected with that the often heard accusation of oil overproduction. In case
of oil overproduction the oil-prize would go down, and as the export of oil is
the biggest and most important source of money for nearly each country in the
middle east, this would ruin many of the poorer and less industrialised nations
like Iraq.
Kuwait, a small but very
rich country at Iraq's
southern border is still not accepted by many countries in this region because
of its wealthy and "west-orientated" citizens. On July 17th 1990 Saddam Hussein accused
Kuwait of oil overproduction and theft
of oil from the Rumailia Oil Field, an oil field which is located on Saddam´s
ground. That was nothing special, nobody in the world cared very much about the
made accusations. April Glaspie, US Ambassador, 25th of July: "The
Iraq/Kuwait dispute is an Arab matter, not one that affects the United States."
It
is still not clear why exactly the following actions took place, but perhaps
this comment was one of the initialising phrases that reasoned Saddam Hussein
to invade Kuwait
on August 2nd.
[B]
_ The Gulf War _
I.) The United States of America and Iraq - two
countries with two strong leaders
The main conflict in
the following War was the conflict between the United States with George Bush as
their head of state, and Saddam Hussein with his countrymen behind him.
George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12th 1924 in Milton, MA.
He is married, has five children and is member of the Episcopalian Church.
"While
in high school, George Bush and his classmates were lectured on the horrors of
appeasement by Henry Stimson, who eventually became Roosevelt's
Secretary of War. George Bush remembered this lesson and became the youngest
Navy pilot in the Pacific while his classmates were at college. These lessons
he learned about war and appeasement are certain to be shaping his current Gulf
policy. Faced with the toughest test of his life, President Bush has performed
virtually without flaw in the Persian Gulf
Crisis. Although some fault him for ignoring problems at home, his personal
diplomacy has aligned the world in its opposition to Saddam Hussein."
George Bush entered the U.S. Navy in 1942 and
received three Air Medals before he started his studies at Yale University
in 1948. His political career began in 1954 when he was member of the U.S.
House of Representatives and later became U.S. Ambassador. In 1976 he was
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and later on he ran for the
presidential elections in 1980. After eight years George Bush became president
of the United States of
America until Bill Clinton took over his
office in 1992.
Saddam Hussein was
born in 1937 in Takrit, Iraq. He seems to be married to a
Miss Tofa ( not validated ) and is known to have at least one mistress. He is father of four children.
"Saddam Hussein's life has been marked by violence.
Beginning in the 1950's, Hussein was an active player in the coups and
countercoups that took place in Iraq.
He established Iraq's
secret police force and has used it effectively to eliminate political
opposition to Baath party rule. Soon after acceding to the Presidency, he
invaded Iran
and began a bloody war that killed untold thousands and ended in stalemate
eight years later. He then turned his military against his own people, the
rebellious Kurds, by indiscriminately dropping chemical weapons on civilians.
In August of 1990, he once again flexed his military muscle by invading Kuwait and systematically
destroying that country."
Saddam Hussein studied at the Cairo University
in Egypt before he moved to
the Al-Mustansariyah University in Baghdad.
He was sentenced to death for attempted assassination of General Kassem, member
of the 4th Regional Congress and 6th National Congress what gave him the power
and possibilities to play a leading role in the July 1968 Revolution. After
being Vice-President of the Revolutionary Command Council in November 1969 he
attained rank of a general in January 1976. Saddam Hussein is the President of
the Republic of Iraq since 1979, which are 20 years now.
II.)
Economic Background of the war
The involvement of
the world's economically strongest country, the United States of America, in a
war which was fought in an area where great sources of energy and connected
with that an immense potential of money is located caused this affair to grow
to a world depending affair and "forced" many other countries to intervene in
the upcoming conflict. Australia, Belgium,
Great Britain, Canada, Saudi-Arabia,
France, Germany and Italy,
but also more unimportant countries like Czechoslovakia
and Bangladesh
sent their troops to the middle east.
But with 540,000 soldiers the United States Army played the major role in the
war. The Iraqi army at this time was one of the strongest in the world, with
the best weapons and technology from all over the world - because of this it
seemed to be necessary to show strength
to Saddam. During the years of the Iran - Iraq
war the western governments simply closed their eyes whenever there was a sign
of Iraq
getting too powerful. Companies, under the protection of their governments were
only interested in making money by selling their technology to Saddam who was
willing to pay a high price, and it was quite a lot of money they made during
the years. Saddam Hussein for his part was able to pay for all the equipment
because he had built up his own " () verdecktes, weitverzweigtes Finanzimperium" .
By holding back about 5 percent of the proceeds of the sale of Iraqi oil for
himself he was said to have (and probably still has) accounts all over the
world and to hold stocks of different companies. It is obvious that this could
only have worked by operating under cover, which means that the firms he used
were not really existing. Those companies, when they were real at all, were in
most cases totally controlled by Saddam Hussein`s friends or relatives.
The former Soviet Union, for example, provided
Iraq with Scud missiles and since it was a short-range missile, the former GDR
(German Democratic Republic) contributed the technology which made the missiles
reach even more distant targets like Israel and Saudi-Arabia, two of Iraq`s
main enemies. A lot of nuclear, biological and chemical warfare technology was
built up by West Germany,
whereas France
supplied Saddam Hussein with antiship and antitank missiles. Italy also participated in building up the
nuclear and chemical war machine of Iraq,
while Great Britain
constructed hangars for fighter planes. Germany played an important but still
not decisive role in that war game called "Make - Quick - Money - By -
Providing - A - Weak - Country - With - Important - Military - Equipment".
France, Italy, Britain
and other Western nations flooded Iraq with $13.4 billion worth of
military equipment between 1982 and 1989. This resulted in a quite ironic
situation: The United Nations with their troops had to fight the Iraqi Army
with the same technology they used themselves.
The allies could be roughly divided into two
groups: the ones who mainly supported the rest with money or logistic equipment
and did not send troops to Iraq, like Germany
and Japan
and the others who actively
took part in the battle and fought side by side
with the USA in the name of
the UN, like Britain, France and
Saudi-Arabia. Saudi-Arabia, however, was an exception in that case because it
both paid, together with Kuwait, a large amount of money and fought in the war
by sending soldiers to Iraq as well as permitting the allies to land their
fighter planes at airports in Saudi-Arabia.
Although all the allied governments and the UN
pointed out that aggression from one government to another was something to be
punished and this was their declared aim, it became clear very quickly that
those words were only said to hide the real intentions behind the war - the
economic thoughts depending the oil fields.
III.) The time before
the invasion
The
tension between Iraq
and the West actually started much earlier. It has always been obvious that Israel was
harmonising with the West, and Saddam Hussein with his anti-west politics
always had a serious problem with that. The situation between Israel and Iraq has been quite critical for a
long time because of the cultural and religious differences between both
countries. In 1981, for example, Israel
attacked a nuclear power station in the south of Baghdad
because Israel
was afraid of Saddam Hussein's plans to build the nuclear bomb. As revenge
several journalists from Israel
who worked in Iraq
were killed by Saddam´s secret police force.
Additionally several intelligence actions from both countries took place and
rose the tensions between them and killed hundreds of civilians during the
years. On April 1st 1990 Saddam held a speech in which he was
talking about the destructive power of his chemical and biological weapons. He
accused Israel of secret
intelligence actions in his country: "Der Westen wird einem Irrtum erliegen,
wenn er meint, er könne Israel
Deckung geben, wenn es herkommt und losschlägt (). Ich schwöre bei Gott,
unser Feuer wird halb Israel
verschlingen, wenn es versucht, irgend etwas gegen Irak zu unternehmen."
The reaction of the US State Department was antagonistic: "It is not the
time to talk about the use of chemical or biological weapons. It is not the
time, to increase the tensions in the middle east. The United States of America
represents the opinion that Saddam Hussein has not to speak out such
accusations during a time when the peace process is about to establish"
(translated by the author).
Only one week later Saddam reacted and told the United
States that he would attack Israel if it will be necessary.
George Bush became nervous after hearing about Saddam´s reaction. "Why the
hell is he telling this to everybody, if he does not want to attack at all?"
(translated by the author)
Everybody in the White House became nervous, the NSA (National Security Agency)
and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) were instructed to start collecting
information about Saddam´s plans - Saddam was sure that Israel together
with the west was building up a conspiracy, at least it seemed that he was sure
of it. There has always been the plan to assassinate him with the help of the
CIA, but Saddam´s location was top secret. Even his closest friends and his
family were not allowed to know where he was.
At the
same time when the Israeli conflict became more difficult Kuwait rose his
oil production, which caused the prices to go down. It is important to know
that Kuwait was part of Iraq until 1961, when the British gave them
their independence, but Saddam Hussein never accepted the separation of Kuwait. Only a
few weeks after Kuwait caused the oil prices to go down, on July 19th
about 35,000 soldiers were moved to the southern border of Iraq, about 50 miles
north of Kuwait. First it seemed like Iraq
wanted to show strength, and connected with that to force Kuwait to decrease its oil production, but
during the next days the number of Iraqi soldiers at Kuwait's borders became more than
100,000. But again, the world closed its eyes. April Glaspie, US Ambassador, 25th
of July: "The Iraq/Kuwait dispute is an Arab matter, not one that affects
the United States."
(see Preface)
IV.) Operation
Desert Storm
On August 2nd 1990 Iraq attacked Kuwait. After the information about
the invasion was validated, President Bush freezed the Iraqi assets. The United
Nations called Hussein to withdraw, but Saddam refused. Four days later
economic sanctions were authorised against Iraq, and on August 7th
Saudi-Arabia requested military assistance. Saddam annexed Kuwait, but the
UN declared his request as invalid. Saddam´s special police force started to
destroy oil fields on Kuwaiti ground, and his troops stormed several diplomatic
missions in Kuwait
City. He threatened to
attack Israel
and to destroy all oil fields which are located on Kuwaiti ground (that are about
10 percent of the worlds oil resources). President Bush together with the
United Nations were giving Saddam Hussein the 15th of January as
deadline, if he will not withdraw until this date, the Operation Desert Storm
will start, which means an attack on Iraq by the United Nations. But instead of
reacting to this threat, he still ordered to destroy more oil fields by burning
them down and positioned his troops on all his borders. Israel prepared
for an attack.
Several
aircraft carriers and more than 400,000 troops were now in the gulf region and
waiting for their orders. Most of the ground troops were located in
Saudi-Arabia, while nearly all of the aircraft support was launched on the
carriers. Saddam still refused to withdraw on January 14th, and one day later the
deadline was reached: Operation Desert Storm started as U.S. airplanes attack Baghdad
and other targets in Iraq
and Kuwait.
US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf
Just two days later, on January 17th
Iraq launched the first SCUD
Missile attack on Israel.
Several civilians died and the world was shocked and indignant about the attack
on Israel.
Saddam always threatened Israel
with his SCUD Missiles. Launched either from fixed or mobile launchers, Iraqi
missiles were certain to cause problems for the troops in Desert Storm. It was
feared that he may use this weapon with a chemical or biological warheads
against US forces and even Israeli civilians. Saddam did kill thousands of
Kurds during the Iran - Iraq war with
biological and chemical weapons, so there was great danger of a repetition.
After attacking Israel
he also used his missiles against Saudi-Arabia, but he was only causing minimal
damage. The SCUD missiles can be compared with the V1 and V2 in the second
world war, they caused fear in the peoples minds, but were not very effective.
US Patriot missiles have intercepted the
SCUD attacks on many occasions, but due to the large size of a SCUD (about 15
meters) many pieces of debris have fallen to earth and caused damage to
buildings and people. The basic SCUD technology was bought in the Soviet Union,
but without the help of the former GDR Saddam would not have been able to reach
Israel
with his missiles, only the advanced range technology made it possible to
attack civil targets there. The most
serious damage came when a SCUD exploded on a barrack full of American
serviceman, killing 28 and wounding nearly 100. The war became more complex,
several new nations started to intervene in the conflict by sending troops and
materials or by supporting the others with large amounts of money. At the end
of January more than 500,000 US
troops were positioned in Iraq.
The task of the Air Force in Operation Desert Storm was to obtain air
superiority, provide air support for the ground troops and strike enemy targets
in Kuwait and Iraq. When
Operation Desert Storm was launched,
"it
was the Air Force that conducted most of the raids against the Iraqi military".
From air bases in Saudi-Arabia, Turkey,
England and Egypt the
planes started to bomb down Saddam, to force him to withdraw. The success of
the Air Force was enormous, what is probably the reason that the ground war
only lasted some days. Iraq was
US
aircraft attacking Iraqi ground target down
before the troops were used for
the final attack. Additionally to the air
attacks, the cruise missile attacks were one important point of the gulf war
strategy. "The cruise missile was designed to deliver nuclear weapons into the soviet
union. With its high subsonic speed and a flying altitude below 200 feet it is
nearly indestructible."
Some of the first hits on Baghdad
were cruise missiles
launched
from US ships in the Persian Gulf. Until the
end of the gulf war 288 cruise missiles were launched from US planes and ships,
while only eight of them missed their target. Because of the great success of
the gulf mission nearly the whole world was supporting
the
United Nations with the United
States of America as their leader. But
US
Destroyer launching a cruise missile on February 13th 1991 US airplanes bombed down a building
with Iraqi civilians inside, and nearly 300 died (see picture). Saddam
was using this as propaganda against the United
States, several other attacks on buildings in Baghdad which were
strictly military were shown as destroyed civil buildings like hospitals and
schools. Nobody denies that many civilians had to die during the attacks on Baghdad, but the Iraqi
Newspaper were writing about an obvious attack on civilians, which never was
the case. Saddam Hussein realised that he had no chance to win the conflict
anymore, so he tried to keep his
countrymen
behind him. In one of his speeches he rejected the idea of surrender and
criticised the allied forces for seeking to destroy Iraq.
The allies did not stop their attack although Iraq had no chance at all because a
good percentage of the Iraqi military machine would be allowed to retreat and
saved for another day.
Although the
United
Nation made clear that the liberation of Kuwait is the main goal,
American commanders had made no secret of the
fact that the destruction of Iraq`s military is necessary for this to be
achieved.At
the
end
of the military conflict "only" 125 soldiers were killed on the allied side,
while nearly 4000 Iraqi tanks, 3000 Iraqi artillery, 140 Iraqi aircraft were
destroyed and about 300,000 soldiers and civilians were killed on
Saddam´s
side. Saddam Hussein lost the war in every way possible, but his countrymen
were still behind him, and he was still dangerous!
Destroyed buildings in central
Baghdad, where about 300
civilians were killed.
V.)
The role of the media
in the war
The Gulfwar was also a war of the media and a
war against censure. Due to the fact that in 1991 an own satellite connection still was something very special, and due to the high military
presence in the middle east region it was quite hard for CNN and its competition
to send their own pictures. Only after the US
military allowed and supported CNN with a special satellite connection to the United States
it was possible for CNN to send live pictures, those pictures we all remember.
It was the military which selected the material
we saw on our screens, the war seemed to be clean and unbloody. The destruction
of Iraqi targets from the air, the hit of a cruise missile on a secret police
force building near Baghdad
- everything seemed to be perfect, no dead bodies, no crying women and
suffering children. The United States
did not want to repeat the disaster of Vietnam,
which was the first war that was directly sent into the living rooms of the US citizens.
And it worked, the whole world was paralysed in front of their screens,
fascination and fear are feelings we all
remember when we think about the weapon technologies which have been used and
tested during the weeks of Desert Storm.
The Internet also played an important role in
this case. One has to keep in mind that in 1991 the Internet played a less
important role in the peoples` heads than today. However, in the United States more people than in Europe in this times were using the Internet as first
source of information. It was also a "Web-War",
CNN updated its homepage several times a day, to always present the user
the newest and hottest pictures from the crisis.
At the end one can say that we only saw what
the military wanted us to see, without realising what happened to us. We were
manipulated by some high rank propaganda officials who held their protecting
hands over all transmissions from the middle east. Nobody can deny, and that is
also what I summarise out of the given facts, that this is a dangerous
development which will occur even more in the future due to the fast
development of technology in this area.
VI.)
Chronology: Important
Events
Hussein accuses Kuwait
on July 17th of oil overproduction and theft of oil from the Rumailia Oil Field.
On
July 25th April Glaspie tells
Hussein that Iraq/Kuwait dispute is an Arab matter, not one that affects the United States
Hussein invades Kuwait
on August 2nd. President George Bush freezes the Iraqi assets. The
United Nations calls Hussein to withdraw, but he refuses.
On
August 6th economic sanctions against Iraq are authorised.
Aug 8, 1990 Iraq
annexes Kuwait.
Aug 9, 1990 The
UN declares Iraq´s annexation as invalid.
Aug 12, 1990 The United States of America
announces interdiction program of Iraqi shipping.
Aug 22, 1990 President
George Bush authorises call up of reserves.
Aug 25, 1990 Military
interdiction authorised by the United Nations.
Sep 14, 1990
Iraqi forces storm a number of diplomatic missions in Kuwait City.
Nov 8, 1990 Bush
orders additional deployments to give "offensive options"
to US forces.
Nov 22, 1990 President
Bush visits the troops for Thanksgiving.
Nov 29, 1990 United
Nations Security Council authorises force if Iraq
does not withdraw from Kuwait
by midnight EST.
Jan 12, 1991
Congress votes to allow US troops to be used in offensive operations.
Jan 15, 1991 The
deadline set by the United Nations Resolution for Iraq to withdraw is broken. Saddam
refuses.
Jan 16, 1991
First US
government statement of Operation Desert Storm are made. Marlin Fitzwater
announces: "The liberation of Kuwait
has begun ()"
United Nations warplanes attack Baghdad
and Iraqi targets both on Iraqi and Kuwaiti ground.
Jan 17, 1991 Iraq launches
its first SCUD missile attack.
Jan 30, 1991 US
forces in the Gulf exceed 500,000.
Feb 13, 1991 US
Bombers destroy a bunker complex in Baghdad
with several hundred citizens inside. Nearly 300 die.
Feb 22, 1991
President Bush issues an ultimatum of February 23th for Iraqi troops to
withdraw from Kuwait.
Feb 23, 1991
Ground war begins with Marines, Army and Arab forces moving into Iraq and Kuwait.
Feb 25, 1991
Iraqi SCUD missile hits a US
barracks in Saudi Arabia
killing 28 soldiers.
Feb 26, 1991
Kuwaiti resistance leaders declare they are in control of Kuwait City.
Feb 27, 1991
President Bush orders a cease fire effective at midnight Kuwaiti time.
Mar 3, 1991
Iraqi leaders formally accept cease fire terms.
Mar 8, 1991
First US combat forces return home.
Dates & Happenings compiled from various
sources like www.desert-storm.com
& www.gulfwar.com and Bob Woodward´s "Die
Befehlshaber" 1991 Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln
[C] _The time after the war_
After Iraq surrendered on March 3rd,
General Schwartzkopf, the head of operation
Desert Storm, sat down with his
defeated counterparts and told them the terms of a cease fire: Allied forces
would remain in defensive positions in the area of Iraq. Iraqi forces would be allowed
to leave this area, but could not take any of their equipment or supplies with
them. In addition, no aircraft were allowed to operate in an area near the U.S. forces and
other flights were strictly limited.
Iraq
followed those given terms.
But one has to know that it was not Saddam
Hussein who accepted the terms, but his army, who was in unbelievable bad shape
during the conflict, and had no confidence left to win this war. The thousands
of deaths on the Iraqi side, the six weeks of air attacks on Baghdad made it impossible for the Iraqi
military to resist. But Saddam was still talking about his holy war against the
West, and his people were still behind him, at least those who did not go over
to the allies during the fighting took place. Many of the Iraqi soldiers who
surrendered were hungry and were not supporting the SCUD attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia. They surrendered with
American flags in their hands. One can not find out if they just said and did
these things to have a better treatment on the allied side, or because they
really represented this opinion, but fact is that over 50,000 Iraqi soldiers
surrendered before the official end of the war.
I.) Economic and
political consequences
After the successful liberation of Kuwait, it came
apparent that most of its infrastructure and communication network had been
destroyed mainly by retreating Iraqi troops. The costs of the reconstruction of
Kuwait
were estimated at about $100 billion, it was said to be the biggest investment
program since World War II. Many firms from the West saw their chance to make
big money by rebuilding Kuwait,
by extinguishing the burning oil fields and by helping Saddam to rebuild his
military force (Yes, that is real irony).
The costs of the war on the allied side were
estimated at an average of one billion US Dollars a day, which means a total
amount of about $65 billion. Nobody can deny that the war was increasing the
economic strength of the involved countries on the allied side, especially the United States.
They had the chance to test their new warfare technologies like cruise missiles
and their economy made a great profit of it.
Europe just played a minor role in the military intervention. The United States showed the world that there is
only one super-power left, that the United States of America can act on
their own, which can be also seen later on in Operation Desert Fox. One has to
keep in mind that this presentation of power displayed by the US was only possible because of the decay of the
Soviet Union. The UDSSR has always seen Iraq as a part
of the communistic world, as part of their ideology and economy. It would not
have been possible to threaten Iraq
with military actions if the Soviet Union
still had existed.
Another point is that the United States were able to show strength to the
rest of the world, especially to critical regions like China, India,
Pakistan and Iran. All those
countries are about to build nuclear weapons or are threatening to use it
against their enemies. It was a great chance for the United
States to show that they are not accepting their plans of
attacking their neighbours or of becoming to strong to be controlled by the USA. Not
validated information says that China
for example was supporting the Iraq
with money during Operation Desert Storm, and it seems like Pakistan did
send more than 100 battle tanks to protect Saddam´s palaces.
Saddam was and still is a man with much influence in the middle east, with one
of the strongest non-nuclear armies in the world and is owning a large amount
of the world`s oil resources. Some countries seem to be interested to have
Saddam on their side.
II.) From Desert Storm
to Desert Fox
After
the Iraqi army surrendered, a program was established to certify that no
further development of biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons on Iraqi
ground will be possible in the future and to make sure that Saddam does not
become too strong again. Oil exports to the rest of the world were largely
banned by the UN sanctions in 1991. One has to keep in mind, that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the
world, after Saudi-Arabia, and that this economic sanction hits Iraq very hard.
The so called UN
Inspections were part of the "peace process", consisting of different
inspectors of different nations. Their aim was to control the thousands of
secret military areas, were most of the Iraqi warfare was located. Saddam
refused to have American UN workers on his ground, and he also seemed to still
protect several of his top secret weapons facilities. In these buildings the
United Nations supposed Saddam to have saved much of his high technology
weapons, like the SCUD missiles and its launch platforms, and some ingredients
for biological and chemical weapons. It was also clear that Iraq did not
stop its secret nuclear weapon program, but moved it more into the underground,
so that it was quite hard for the United Nations to take control over it.
"In an age when
instructions for building weapons of mass destruction can be found on the
Internet and a toxin of lethal germs can be mixed in a bathtub, mass terror is
exportable" If Saddam will succeed to build up a weapon of mass destruction, and
if he were cruel enough to use it against his enemies, thousands of people
would die, and nobody would be able to control him anymore. The Intention of
the UN Inspections was to prevent this. "() paranoid about his enemies
() Saddam launches a SCUD missile tipped with lethal chemicals into downtown
Tel Aviv, killing thousands of Israelis. Israel
retaliates - as it almost surely would - by dropping a nuclear bomb on Baghdad."
This vision may be exaggerated, but it is exactly the main thought the
responsible people for the UN Inspections had.
Following the end of
Desert Storm in March 1991 a Kurdish insurrection broke out, but was defeated
by the elite Iraqi Republican Guard. The United
States, Great Britain
and France
create a safe area for the Kurds north of the 36th parallel and ban
Iraqi aircraft from this area.
In August the United
Nations establishes a no-fly-zone along the 32nd parallel after Iraq again
launches new attacks against the Kurds. The United States and its allies begin
patrolling the no-fly-zone. In December a United States aircraft shoot down
an Iraqi plane that violated the no-fly-zone. Later on several attacks on
missile launchers which were illegally moved through Iraq
were attacked by the United
States.
In 1994 Saddam Hussein
again moves troops to the Kuwaiti border, it is obvious that this is only a
provocative action, but the United States
act and deploy a carrier group, warplanes and about 50,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region.
After attacking a city
in northern Iraq which is
known as the unofficial headquarter of the Kurds, US ships and airplanes attack
military targets in Iraq
to punish the Iraqi military. The southern no-fly zone is extended just to the
south of Baghdad.
Everybody knows that this will cause a new conflict, Saddam is not accepting
the new ban.
In early 1997 Saddam started to complicate the
work of the inspectors by denying access to buildings were the UN was supposing
Saddam to hide his weapons. Additionally, he forced American inspectors to
leave Iraq.
Richard Butler, the chairman of the Inspections, decided to pull all of them
out safely.
They seemed to be closing in on a secret cache of ingredients and equipment
to build weapons of mass destruction, and the immediate provocation followed
from Saddam was the decision to deport them out of Iraq.
However, later in November, Iraq announces
it will not allow inspectors access to sites designated as 'palaces and
official residences.'
UN officials protest, having long suspected that such sites were being used to
conceal possible weapons of mass destruction. It was impossible for the United
Nations to be sure that Saddam Hussein is not dangerous anymore. After the gulf
war, the Iraqis admitted that they had 75 SCUD missiles with biological and
chemical warheads (nobody really knows why Saddam did not use them, but
everybody should be happy about it), 30 of them have been destroyed by the UN
teams, Iraq
claims it destroyed the other 45.
The tensions that began in October 1997
continue. In February 1998, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan works out an
agreement with Iraq
that resumes weapons inspections. In turn, Iraq receives promises the United
Nations will consider removing its economic sanctions. Kofi Annan was talking
to Saddam later in 1998, to understand his means and strategies: "The Iraqis
are very keen to get rid of the sanctions. I made it very clear to him that the
only way to do that is to co-operate with the UN Special Commission and get the
job done expeditiously so that it is in their hands. Without their
co-operation, it is not going to happen. They built the nation and had it
destroyed and rebuilt it. So I asked him whether he wanted to destroy all these
wonderful edifices, because that is what will happen."
Inspections continue into August, when Iraq cuts ties
with weapons inspectors, claiming it has seen no UN move toward lifting
sanctions. Richard Butler, chairman of the UN Special Commission responsible
for disarming Iraq (UNSCOM), specified that while progress has been achieved by
UNSCOM, Iraqi officials continue to obstruct the work of the
US troops preparing a laser guided bomb
for a target in Baghdad
|
|
Commission and that this non-co-operation
endangers the safety of UN officials. The
situation did not change in the following months, the United States together
with Great Britain were
threatening with a new attack on Baghdad if Iraq will not
stop to complicate the work of the inspectors. But this time nearly nobody
stood behind the United States,
only Great Britain
was supporting the idea of a new attack. Russia
and China were absolutely against a new
military intervention, and the rest of the
world wanted to solve the conflict in a peaceful way. But all this did not
prevent a new violent conflict. Operation "Desert Fox" started.
Dates & Happenings compiled from various
sources like www.loyden.com, the official US Pentagon site and Saddam´s
Dark Threat, Newsweek, November 24, 1997.
III.) Operation Desert Fox
On October 31st Iraq cuts off all work by the
United Nations. The United States
and Great Britain
warn Saddam of possible military strikes to force him to withdraw and follow
the sanctions. The first time after Desert Storm the military forces in the Persian Gulf exceed 100,000. Saddam again refuses to
follow the instructions, the United Nations Security Council condemns Iraq for violation agreements signed after the
end of the gulf war, and withdraws most of its staff from Iraq.
Due to the fact that
December 19th 1998 was the start of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan
the United States of America
and Great Britain
started their attack on December 16th. This gave them enough time to
destroy all targets, at least that is what they told the UN.
Missile attacks were mainly controlled by
night vision radars on the carriers
|
|
The strikes were
mainly divided into two waves. The first wave included up to 200 cruise
missiles launched from cruisers and other ships in the Gulf region. They were
mainly launched by night, what gave the United States even more advantages.
A second wave of aircraft launched from US carriers attacked the headquarters
of Iraqi Security Police, one of the presidential Palaces of Saddam Hussein, the
Iraqi Intelligence Headquarters and other targets
around Iraq. Saddam
claimed that the attacks also included the house of his daughter and that
several industrial facilities being destroyed. "However it is possible some
of these buildings were struck by falling anti-aircraft missiles, as was the
case during the Gulf War."
Although the holy month
of Ramadan began on December 19th, the attacks by the USA and Great
Britiain were incomplete and continued. Mainly targets that were not completely
destroyed in the first waves were attacked a second time, and some air-to-air
fights destroyed several Iraqi aircraft. In the evening Secretary Cohen
announced that more cruise missiles have been used in this attack than in all of
the Gulf War. The Pentagon also released a detailed target list. Even more than
in Operation Desert Storm, Desert Fox was a public war, everybody was well
informed about the happenings, about targets and the situation in Baghdad. The United States together with Great Britain
completely controlled the picture material that was transmitted from the gulf
region, and if necessary, cut it.
In the early morning of
December 20th the first time British aircraft came into play
launching air strikes against Iraq
from bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Some hours later,
Operation Desert Fox was successfully finished.
Again, nearly no
injuries on the side of the United
States, and thousands of deaths on Iraqi
side. The world was divided into two groups, those who asked themselves if the
new attack really was necessary, if it really helped to weaken Saddam by
killing thousands of civilians during the attacks on military targets, and
those who were supporting the idea of military strikes against Iraq. However,
the supporting side was only consisting of Germany
and France, and even those
two highly industrialised countries were
not accepting all actions by the United States
and Great Britain.
IV.) Desert Storm and
Desert Fox - necessary reactions to a crazy dictator or just senseless
violence?
Iraq is
a country marked by violence. During the last 20 years it stumbled from one war
into another. Saddam Hussein with his Republican Guard killed millions of
people during the 20 years of his dictatorship, political enemies, Kurds,
civilians in Iran, Israel, Kuwait and even in his own country.
One can say without a doubt, that Saddam Hussein is one of the bloodiest and
cruellest dictators in history, and unfortunately also one of the most
dangerous. While the world was supporting Operation Desert Storm, the opinions
separated during the time of Desert Fox. The Question whether a new "war" (if
one can call these 4 days of cruise missile attacks on Baghdad as a war)
against Iraq was necessary can not be answered in one sentence.
First of all it has always been obvious that
destroying targets in Baghdad
mainly endangers the life of many civilians. One cannot deny that an exploding
cruise missile with a destructive power of 200 kilogram TNT is a precise weapon, perhaps for the Americans,
but not for innocent people in an area of 300 meters around the explosion
center. Saddam still is strong, and 5 more attacks against his capital will
still let him appear strong. It does not help to bomb down Baghdad
or any other city in Iraq,
the only result of such actions is that Saddam even becomes stronger, because
of the rising support in the gulf region. Pictures of destroyed schools or
hospitals (no matter if they are faked or not) are bad propaganda for the United States in Arabia.
The fact that the real important military targets in Iraq are too well protected, and
the fact that biological and chemical warfare can be built in a living room,
makes the new attacks of Desert Fox appear senseless.
I am not sure whether the argument of preventing
Saddam to become too strong again is indisputable. The vision of a Saddam with
biological weapons, chemical warfare and a nuclear bomb behind his anti-west
politics may be exaggerated, but if this becomes real, this may cause a new
world wide war, a war where even well protected countries like Germany will
suffer, or even will be involved. Maybe this is why one has to strike Iraq, maybe
this is the justification for thousands of innocent deaths. It is a matter of
principles!
If Saddam succeeds with his violent politics,
if Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait successfully in 1991, other similar
dictators would have taken this as an example and perhaps would have also
invaded their neighbours, killed thousands of peoples and destroyed nearly 2
percent of the worlds oil resources in just some days, and that because they
would be sure nobody punishes them for their behaviour. It is a matter of
principles to show the world that people like Saddam have no chance at all. The
aim of the UN is to "unite the Nations". This is only possible when violence is
not accepted in any way. Perhaps you now think that it was also the UN who
supported the violent conflict against Iraq
in 1991, but just keep in mind: It was Saddam Hussein who invaded Kuwait and
started to use violence.
I am convinced that the attacks against Iraq are
justified, even if the economic backgrounds in this case are also obvious. It
is mainly the cruelty of Saddam´s dictatorship that caused the situation to
escalate.
Perhaps these pages can help to have a new
point of view on the facts.
[D] _Appendix_
I.) Literature
- "Die Befehlshaber" by Bob Woodward,
Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1991, Köln
- "Nuclear Battlefields - Global Links in the
Arms Race" by William M.Akin & Richard W. Fieldhouse, Ballinger Publishing Company 1985, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- "Kriegsfolgen und Kriegsverhütung" by Carl
Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Carl Hanser Verlag 1971, München
- "Atommacht Israel - Das geheime
Vernichtungspotential im Nahen Osten" by Seymour M. Hersh, Droemer Knaur 1991,
München
- "Über eine neue Weltordnung" by Albert
Einstein & Isaac Asimov, Diogenes
Verlag 1996, Zürich
- "Über die Pflicht zum Ungehorsam gegen den
Staat" by Henry David Thoreau, Diogenes Verlag 1996, Zürich
- Newsweek - The international Newsmagazine, Feb 4th, 1991
- Newsweek - The international Newsmagazine, Nov 24, 1997
- Der
Spiegel, 15/1991
- Time
Magazine 7th Anniversary Issue, March 9th, 1998
- Dierke
Weltatlas, Westermann Verlag 1996
Internet
- www.gulfwar.com
- www.gulfwar.com/chronology
- www.desert-storm.com
- www.loyden.com
- www.loyden.com/gulfwar/bush.html
- www.loyden.com/gulfwar/hussein.html
- www.heise.com
- www.heise.de
- www.heise.com/insurrection
- www.geocities.com
- www.geocities.com/h37718/ods/airforce.html
- www.geocities.com/her/hdd9~2/missile.html
- www.geocities.com/her/hdd9~2/h7.html
- www.geocities.com/ghrt8/ods/eco.html
- www.usaltc.com
- www.usaltc.com/storm/g6.html
- www.usaltc.com/storm/g7.html
- www.pentagon.mil
- www.defenselink.mil
- www.defenselink.mil/specials/desert-fox
- www.whitehouse.gov
- www.washington-post.com (photos)
"Ich versichere, daß ich die vorliegende Arbeit
selbständig verfasst und keine außer den angegebenen Hilfsmitteln verwendet
habe."
_____ _______ ______ ________ den ______________
__________ ______ ____ ___
Ort
Datum Unterschrift