"The U.S. has perverted the U.N. weapons process by using it as a tool to justify military actions, falsely so. ... The U.S. was using the inspection process as a trigger for war." -- Scott Ritter, former head of the U.NN. arms inspection team in Iraq, on the NBC Today show, December 17, 1998.

More than 100 U.S., British and French planes attack radar sites and missile batteries as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's defiance of U.N. peacekeeping grow.

January 1993 - American warplanes strike missle sites and a nuclear facility near Baghdad after Iraq refuses to move missils out of southern Iraq.

U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a missile strike on Iraqi intelligence headquarters, citing evidence of an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush.

June 1993 - The US fires 24 Cruise Missils at Baghdad from warships in the Gulf in retaliation for an attempted assasination attempt on former US president George Bush during his visit to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Illegal US/UK enforced "no-fly zones" (click to enlarge)

September 03 1996 - Operation Desert Strike is implimented after Saddam attacks Kurdish areas in northern Iraq and captures the PUK held town of Irbril (August 31 1996) in violation of resolution 688, the US launches 27 cruise missiles and stages jet fighter attacks against Iraq. The no-fly zone is extended closer to Baghdad.

This coordinated cruise missile attack was launched against the Iraqi air defense infrastructure, including surface-to-air missile sites and command and control nodes in southern Iraq. Laboon (DDG 58) and Shiloh (CG 67), on station in the Gulf as part of NAVCENT's Task Force 50, fired 14 of the 27 cruise missiles while Air Force B-52s, escorted by F-14s from Carl Vinson (CVN 70), from Barksdale AFB [Air Force Base] LA staged out of Guam on a 34-hour mission and fired 13 conventional air-launched cruise missiles (CALCMs) in the early morning hours of September 4th.

The following day, a second strike of 17 Tomahawks from destroyers Russell (DDG 59), Hewitt (DD 966), Laboon and nuclear-powered attack submarine Jefferson City (SSN 759) was conducted. Enterprise (CVN 65) departed the Adriatic Sea on order of the National Command Authorities and conducted a high-speed transit through the Suez Canal, arriving two days later.

Two United States and United Kingdom demarches expanded the southern no-fly zone from the 32nd parallel north to the 33rd parallel. The expanded no-fly zone reaches the outskirts of southern Baghdad and forced relocation of all tactical aircraft to more northern basing.

A Cruise missile with offensive anti-Islamic graffiti. (click to enlarge)

December 1998 - Operation DesertFox is implimented. The US and Britain launch four days of bombing raids on Iraq just as Ramadan(the Islamic Month of fasting) begins.

January 1999 to Present - Iraqi MIG jets 'threaten' allied aircraft in the "no-fly zones" above Iraq and several Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries are bombed after firing at American and British jets. In one incident, a 'way ward' missile fired by an American fighter 'misses' its target and hits a crowded bazaar in Basra killing 11 Iraqi civilians (see Did the US intetionally Bomb Civilians in Basra?).

The US claims that these monthly bombings of Iraq are done in retaliation to Iraqi "aggression" in the "no-fly zones". However, the question that must be asked is what are US planes doing flying over Iraq in the first place?

If Iraqi aircraft were buzzing New York or Washington and occasionally dropping bombs on the bridges, roads, water plants, electricity stations etc. that we rely on, then we might talk of Iraqi "aggression" against the United States. The so-called "no fly zones" are maintained unilaterally by the United States and its rather small ally Great Britain without mandate or authority from the UN. They are not mentioned in, governed by or related to any of the United Nations Security Council resolutions that were passed after the Gulf War and therefore have no standing in international law.

Since Iraq has, despite its best efforts, failed to damage a single American plane, one wonders what kind of "threat" Iraqi Migs or anti-aircraft batteries presents, considering that its entire GNP now amounts, after nine years of lethal sanctions, to less than 5% of the Pentagon budget. These monthly bombings over Iraq have resulted in dozens of Iraqi deaths.