WARLUST AGAIN! (IRAQ II)
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
We believe these actions to have been taken in error. The actions taken
can scarcely be reconciled with the principles and purposes of the United
Nations to which we have all subscribed. And beyond this, we are forced
to doubt that even resort to war will for long serve the permanent interests
of the attacking nations There can be no peace -- without law. And there
can be no law-if we were to invoke one code of international conduct for
those who oppose us and another for our friends." -U.S. President D.D.
Eisenhower [Speech responding to Anglo-French invasion of Egypt and Soviet
invasion of Hungary; Oct. 30, 1956]
As of this writing, sabers are rattling in Washington, the prelude to yet
another war in Iraq. This time, a bare pittance of states have joined the
fledgling number sworn to attack Iraq, a far cry from that of Iraq I --
"Operation Desert Storm."
As in the first engagement, this latest military option has less to do with
'violating UN Resolutions' than with securing future access to oceans of
petroleum. What was somewhat obscured in the first wave of aerial assaults
in 1991, has been clearly demonstrated in the second: that the UN is but
a thin fig leaf for what are U.S. (and multinational corporate) interests.
Where was this high and mighty concern for the "sanctity" of neighbors
and borders when the apartheid regime ruled in South Africa and raided,
strafed or bombed the frontline states of Angola and Mozambique? Where was
the global umbrage about "weapons of mass destruction" when news
emerged about the apartheid state in possession of nuclear arms? As an outlaw
state, which tortured and killed thousands of her African citizens, which
shot down her own children in Soweto in 1976, and which treated UN anti-Apartheid
Resolutions with a long train of contempt, it is interesting to note that
her best friends in the international arena were the U.S. and Israel. During
the long years of racist state terrorism, the U.S. never once hinted it
was considering military action to liberate the oppressed Black majority
or to relieve the frontline neighboring states. Indeed, it is remarkable
that South Africa's beleaguered neighbors did receive military assistance,
not from the USA, but from the tiny island of Cuba, whose forces bested
South Africa in battle in Angola's Cuito Carnivale.
What makes Iraq's neighbors so worthy of 'help,' and South Africa's so unworthy?
In a word, oil.
Iraq and her neighbors house over 65% of the world's oil reserves.
Once again, we are in the maw of war, where thousands (if not tens of thousands)
face death. The deaths of Iraqi men, women and children to protect the corporate
interests of Western Industry! Is there something obscene here?
American politicians and their PR specialists in the media and the academy
are revving up for death, and the voices of peace are silent. American women
talk of "collateral damage" on TV, as if they are talking about
washing dishes, not the tortured, horrific death of babies.
The U.S., meanwhile, talks about upholding the dignity of the United Nations,
while it refuses to pay millions of dollars in UN fees.
Once more, into the breach -- for oil!
1998 © Mumia Abu-Jamal, all Rights Reserved
Spring 1998-- N.C.Xpress
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