Lies, Fraud, Deceit - a Response from Anti-warForces to Clinton's Bombing of Iraq
Talking Points for Anti-war Organizers

U.S. government claim:

Clinton asserts the right to bomb Iraq because it was not complying with UNweapons inspectors.

Counterpoints:

1.) Even if Iraq was in noncompliance, the U.S. action would be a major violation ofthe UN Charter, international law, and U.S. law. The UN Charter prohibits countries fromcarrying out military action against other countries unless faced with the need forself-defense from imminent aggression.

2.) The U.S. based its attack on the report by Richard Butler, chairman of UNSCOM, butUNSCOM is answerable only to the UN Security Council and the Security Council did notauthorize a U.S. bombing of Iraq. In fact, both Russia and China--two of the five membersof the Security Council--have demanded that Butler be fired for having withdrawn UNweapons inspectors without first receiving the support of the Security Council. Theunilateral decision to withdraw the weapons inspectors was clearly a U.S., not a UN,operation. The Washington Post, on December 16, suggested that the administration hadcarefully orchestrated the timing and content of Richard Butler's unfavorable report aboutIraq. The New York Times, on December 18, says that the U.S. air strikes have been plannedsince December 1 and that Butler's report was simply a "formality."

3.) So far, the U.S. bombing has hit local residential neighborhoods in Baghdad and inBasra and very likely in many other places in Iraq. By conservative estimates, scores ofcivilians have been killed. A Russian diplomat has been killed. Major water pipesproviding water in residential areas in Baghdad have been destroyed. A major civilianhousing unit received a direct hit from a cruise missile on December 17. There is no wayto know yet the extent of the damage, but it will be vast.

4.) Again, no "noncompliance" by Iraq provides legal justification for thisunilateral strike. Everyone in the world knows that the military campaign is coupled witheconomic sanctions and a major CIA subversion effort (ie, $97 million plan approved byCongress and the president) that constitute the core elements of a classic destabilizationstrategy. The U.S did this in Iran in 1953, Guatamala in 1954, Chile under Allende from1970-73, in Nicaragua against the Sandanistas in the 1980s, and elsewhere. The real goalis to replace the current government with a puppet government in a country that contains10 percent of the world's known oil reserves.

5.) But let's look at the specifics of the U.S. charges against Iraq right now. Theytoo are a lie. Was Iraq in noncompliance? Neither Butler nor the U.S. has challenged theIraqi Foreign Minister's allegation that since November 17, 1998, when Iraq allowedweapons inspections to resume, there have been 427 inspections, 128 of them at new sites,and UNSCOM has cited only five so-called obstructions. Five obstructions! And what werethey? One was a 45 minute delay before allowing access. Another was a rebuff to anoutrageous demand by a U.S. arm inspector, Dianne Seamons, that inspectors be allowed tointerview all of the undergraduate students in Baghdad University's Science Department.Another, on December 9, was the inspection of a small headquarters of the Baathistpolitical party. Inspectors left those premises after they were asked what is the relationbetween the small headquarters of a party and the disarmament mission. The last two casesof so-called Iraqi noncompliance were this: UNSCOM asked to inspect two establishments onFridays--the Muslim holy day. The Iraqis told UNSCOM that since these establishments werenot open on Friday, the inspectors could visit the establishments, but they would need tobe accompanied by Iraqi officials. This is in accordance with the agreement between Iraqand UNSCOM about Friday inspections. These five incidents are the supposed legal basis forraining thousands of powerful missiles into Iraq.

6.) Finally, it is the U.S. government that is the largest producer of weapons of massdestruction in the world. Only one country has ever dropped a nuclear bomb--the U.S. didit twice on civilian areas in Japan in 1945. The U.S. has more than 10,000 nuclearwarheads. It has the largest stockpile of chemical and biological weapons. The B-52bombers are currently dropping 3-5,000-pound bombs from 30,000 feet in Iraq.

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