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THE GULF WAR, 1991

WHEN I LOOK at the Gulf War, I see a complete waste of human life, civilian and soldier. When bombs and missiles rained down on Iraq, killing and wounding thousands of civilians, this hardware bore the fingerprints of military personnel. It also bore the prints of the workers and technicians of the highest paid work force in the world. The imperialists then tell the Iraqis, after slaughtering their families, that they are to blame the president of their country for the deaths. How convenient!

It took the Americans and the Brits a month or so to drop more bombs and explosives than any equivalent time period in history. The bombing of a civilian air raid shelter in Baghdad drew the most attention, and distortion. Children were incinerated along with their mothers and elders. They were hit by one or two GBU-27's, 2,000 lb. bombs manufactured by Texas Instruments (when they aren't making calculators).

In real deal terms, massive air power always blows away any pretense to rules of war. The bombardment of Iraq has targeted the lifelines of cities and towns: neighborhoods, factories, schools, transportation, and communication systems, fuel, and water systems. Children continue to suffer and die from the devastation, particularly the destruction of water supplies and sewage systems. There's more than one way to kill a kid from a warplane.

I found it interesting when a USAF general played a video of the bombing of the Iraqi Ministry of "Defense" which he referred to as "my counterpart." The Pentagon, to be sure. What would the general's reaction be if the Pentagon were bombed? Would he begin raging about a cowardly criminal terrorist act? Most certainly he would.

U.S. warplanes have been obliterating courthouses, post offices, and other government buildings including that of the Ba'ath Party. Can you imagine the reaction to a bombing of a dominant party headquarters in Washington, D.C. any time these parties foment some act of territorial aggression! They'd have to operate out of bunkers if they took their international law seriously.

For no discernible reason other than the sheer terror value of it, U.S. planes strafed Jordanian and Sudanese refugees fleeing the destruction of the cities. In the most gruesome attack, 60 were killed on a couple of buses, including children who were burned to death. What is the punishment for burning children to death in an act of war? For Air Amerika, it's business as usual and quite deliberate, as college-educated pilots press button after button, dropping bomb after bomb, for which they are decorated for service to their country.

Plants in Burlington, Vermont, and Biddeford, Maine, produce enormous amounts of machine guns. These are not "defense contractors"; they are merchants of death peddling their product line, technology, and skills rather than some rudimentary combat training. Some of these profiteers need to end up before war crimes tribunals. As Hitler's finance minister said at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, "If you want to prosecute the industrialists who made possible the rearmament of Germany, then you will end up prosecuting your own industrialists." He was referring to U.S. corporations that supplied a generous flow of aid and loans to the fascists. Included was General Motors, which had a direct pipeline to Germany's war machine. GM is today a major military contractor. Playing both sides of a conflict to make a financial killing is nothing new, though the Gulf War has served to more clearly illustrate the interlocking parts.

I read an interesting piece in Newsweek entitled "Should We Kill Saddam?" "We" has been one of those terribly exploited words. The author of this article teaches the "law of war" to marine officers at Quantico. His conclusion is that Saddam is suitable for assassination or death by other violent methods because: (1) he's a member of the military within a chain of command, (2) wears a uniform with rank insignia, and( 3) carries arms openly. I see the same rationale as being applicable to the Commander in Chief of U.S. Armed Forces and others. The Newsweek article didn't propose a trial or tribunal for Saddam, just a quick kill.

The public is functionally illiterate when it comes to international law, its applicability, and the role of the United States in thwarting it. One need only examine the abysmal voting record of the U.S. in the United Nations to see that the U.S. has frustrated the implementation of international law at every turn (particularly in the Security Council where it has veto power). The U.S. has vetoed or voted against UN resolutions that condemn the invasion of Panama; Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the occupation of Palestine; the condemnation of the U.S. support of contras and other acts of aggression and economic warfare against Nicaragua (which was also declared unlawful by the World court); and a whole range of UN initiatives which sought to preserve and protect human rights, implement nuclear disarmament, put an end to apartheid and U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. And that's just a small sampling.

Not only does the U.S. block the implementation of international law, it is one of the most frequent violators of it. Now it demands immediate compliance under punishment of death. The UN resolutions became U.S. resolutions as politicians traveled the globe stuffing U.S. dollars and other bribes into the pockets of desperate governments.

There will be no postwar crimes tribunal. Nuremberg involves acts which constitute crimes against humanity (such as apartheid, which the U.S. has supported in all its manifestations for decades); war crimes (such as the U.S. committed in Viet Nam, Panama, and by proxy in El Salvador); and crimes against peace (for which the World Court found the U.S. culpable in its attack against Nicaragua). The U.S. would never tolerate an internationally supervised war crimes trial that examined the conduct of the victor as well as the vanquished. An honest application of Nuremberg principles would lead to the indictment of political, corporate, and military leaders from the highest levels of the U.S. ruling class. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nazi propagandist Herman Goering once said, "Naturally the common people don't want war ... but after all it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy ... the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders ... all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists (etc.) for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." And so it does.

For their part, American citizens have not had direct contact with the human element of war, such as their counterparts in war-swept cities and countryside. They don't receive the full impact of the suffering and blood which war brings to bear on a people. They have not had their schools, hospitals, and factories bombed or children turned to ashes before their eyes (an exception -- the incineration of MOVE families in Philadelphia). To Americans, other workers and peasants are turned into the enemy, a subhuman mass molded into copy by Pentagon representatives and a compliant news media. What does it say for the national character of America which condones the carnage employed against the poor, wherever on this earth imperialism corners them? When the Ugly American becomes more upset over the price of gasoline and a pound of coffee than with the rising cost of injustice?

This was a relatively short war, about six weeks, but with an assemblage of immense killing power. The ground war, nothing short of a rout, lasted a matter of hours. Yet the world's civilian populations hang on the brink, knowing full well that the nuclear threat and chemical/biological bombs were being held by the masters of war.

This was a war in which U.S. soldiers were safer and more comfortable than Iraqi civilians who bore the madness of daily bombing raids and had to struggle for food, water, and medicine.

And with all the concern about chemical warfare I see the unforgivable crime of the Butcher of Bhopal (India) -- the Union Carbide Corporation saturating Indian people with their poison causing over 2,000 deaths and untold suffering.

As the smoke clears from the battlefield, the old wounds will remain. The U.S. will undoubtedly maintain a military presence beyond what it was before the war. The wretched of the earth are still dispossessed in the Middle East and elsewhere. The imperialists still dictate the terms of survival through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. When that policy falters, they send in the CIA and military advisors -- low intensity. If that stick doesn't work, then in come the army, air force, navy, and marines -- high intensity.

I make love with freedom every night, hold to the principles, sing bluesey songs in my head, and reach for the warmth of my children. I've not lost the vision of why I took up the fight 23 years ago. Life is hard and the pain can be excruciating, but we must continue to raise our voices against this madness that destroys the innocence of children.

--Raymond Luc Levasseur, 10376-016, Box 8500 ADX, Florence, CO 81226.

For the full text of this article, please see "A View of the Gulf War, 1991," in Letters from Exile at http://home.earthlink.net/~neoludd/a web site of the December 16th Committee.

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