February 17,1998--  The United States seems poised to bomb Iraq, with very little public debate.  The press seems to be more interested in President Clinton's sex life than in whether we will, or should, go to war.  Such discussion as there is accepts the desirability of bombing Iraq as a matter of course.

In my opinion, such an attack would be cowardly, inhumane, and totally without justification.  It would also be stupid.  Here's why:
 

Cowardly.  Everyone seems to agree that we should not send troops to fight in and occupy Iraq, but should only bomb (and possibly shell) the country.  Whatever you think of Saddam Hussein and the political leadership of Iraq, bombing will kill thousands of civilians who have nothing to do with his policies--and it almost certainly will not achieve any of Clinton's declared or undeclared goals.  Bombing will neither destroy any Iraqi capability of making biological or chemical weapons, nor will it change the leadership of the nation. It will only kill people, to end.

Inhumane. All war is inhumane.  Attacking the population of a country because one does not like its leader is particularly inhumane.  That's what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City, but Clinton proposes to kill many more people than that.

Unjustified.  Iraq was wrong to invade Kuwait.  The Kuwait monarchy is wrong to deny its people basic democracy, but that does not justify foreign invasion.  In my opinion, the invasion could have been reversed without another war, but that is water over the dam.  There is no similar justification for attacking Iraq today.  Clinton claims that an attack is justified because Iraq (he claims) has biological and/or chemical weapons.  But the U.S. lead the world in developing such weapons.  Much worse, we have huge numbers of nuclear and thermonuclear bombs.  Let's negotiate an end to germ warfare and poison gas worldwide (and while we are at it, let us join the world-wide ban on antipersonnel land mines!), not go to war over the untenable demand that other nations give up weapons we still have.

Stupid.  Forget all the political questions.  Supposedly, Iraq has vast stores of an especially deadly strain of anthrax.  So we should bomb them?  What will happen to the anthrax then?  How far will the wind carry it?  Bombing a germ-warfare depot makes as much sense as bombing Chernobyl would have.  The cure is more dangerous than the disease.

Here are some other resources regarding Iraq and the Middle East:

 The American-Arab Anti-Discriminiation Committee

 Center for Defense Information Online

 Middle East Policy Council Main Page

 MERIP - Middle East Research and Information Project

You can find links to organizations organizing against war and sanctions on my  antiwar page.

Books useful for understanding the current crisis:
 

Greg Bates, ed., Mobilizing Democracy : Changing the U.S. Role in the Middle East (1991)

Phyllis Bennis and Michel Moushabeck, eds, Beyond the Storm : A Gulf Crisis Reader (1997)

Fran Hazelton, ed., Iraq Since the Gulf War : Prospects for Democracy (1994)

Noam Chomsky,  Fateful Triangle : The United States, Israel and the Palestinians (1984)

Joost R. Hiltermann, ed.,   Bureaucracy of Repression : The Iraqi Government in Its Own Words (1994)

Michael R.Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor,  The General's War : The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (1996)
 

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Revised December 19, 1998