War against Iraq unjustified, unethical

By Patrick Ishizuka and Blair Thedinger

The United States is currently threatening to escalate its brutal war against the people of Iraq. Over the past 12 years, we have witnessed the near destruction of Iraqi society. The Gulf War of 1991, persistent and illegal bombing by the United States and United Kingdom and an inhumane sanctions regime have devastated a once modern and progressive country, contributing to the deaths of over half a million Iraqi children from 1991 to 1998 alone.

Another war against Iraq could destabilize the international community and result in tremendous human suffering, making the United States. less safe and seriously calling into question our country's moral standing. All U.S. citizens have an obligation to resist this aggression, which will with certainty result in the massive suffering of innocent Iraqis following in the wake of U.S. intervention.

Saddam Hussein may be an oppressive dictator, but the worst of his regime's atrocities were committed while Iraq was receiving enthusiastic support from Washington, D.C. The U.S. aided the Iraqi regime economically and militarily throughout the 1980s, explicitly supplying them with chemical and biological weapons. Following the Anfal Operation of 1987, in which the Iraqi regime employed chemical weapons against the Kurds of Northern Iraq, a massacre resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 people, U.S. aid to Iraq actually increased. The United States remained complicit in the Iraqi humanitarian crisis, forsaking the people of Iraq in order to advance economic and political interests.

There is no justification for a war against Iraq. Scott Ritter, a chief weapons inspector for the U.N. from 1991 to 1998, has testified that Iraq poses "absolutely nothing" of a military threat. George Tenet, director of the CIA, has declared that Iraq has no intention of attacking the United States. Lacking both the capability and intention of engaging in a military strike, on what grounds can a devastating war be justified?

There are two obvious motives for the United States to engage in a war on Iraq: oil and political strategic interest. Iraq currently possesses the world's second largest oil reserves, making the installation of a pro-U.S. regime extremely advantageous economically. Iraq's location has profound strategic and political implications for the highly volatile Middle East, as well as for the balance of power internationally. This war is not intended to relieve the suffering of the innocent Iraqi people but rather to pursue U.S. geopolitical interests while securing oil contracts for western corporations in a post-war Iraq.

According to a recent U.N. report, an attack on Iraq would result in as many as 500,000 Iraqi casualties, 80 percent of which would be civilians. We must remember, first and foremost, that these are innocent people: children, women and men. They have done nothing to deserve the violent fate that awaits them. These are people who have endured continuous suffering, always as a result of events and forces over which they have no control.

One of the greatest tragedies of our time is the lack of sympathy for those who are suffering in our world, that we do not feel the pain of our fellow humans, that it does not tear people apart when they think about how lives are affected by placing profits and power above people and how tormented life must be for the parents of a dying child, for which they can do nothing. Despite the horrors that confront us today, with the violence, hatred and injustice that pervade our world, we must actively continue to work for peace and justice. We must maintain hope and live our conscience or we will lose everything.