D O N O T B O M B I R A Q
A Public Statement from the COMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST
For more information see: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/iraqx.htm
The following is a statement from the Committee On the Middle East
(COME) concerning the American threats to bomb Iraq. We urge you to circulate it as much
as possible. The International Advisory Committee of COME, including Middle East experts
and professors throughout the world, is listed at the end. Please join with us and support
our efforts at this critical time. To reach COME: Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 202 362-6965
Email: COME@USA.NET Web: http://WWW.MiddleEast.org/come.htm
D O N O T B O M B I R A Q
While the United States clearly has the military power to further devastate and
prostrate Iraq, we strongly believe that the course the U.S. has chosen is not only
grossly unjust, but also exceedingly hypocritical and duplicitous. We further believe that
though the U.S. may be able to pursue its imperial policies without substantial opposition
in the short term, the policies being pursued today, especially the new and massive
military assault being prepared against Iraq, are likely to have tremendously negative
historical ramifications.
As Middle East experts and scholars - many with close and personal ties to this long
troubled and misunderstood region - we feel a political, a moral, and a historical
responsibility to speak up in clear opposition at this critical time.
Origins of Today's Imbroglio:
Throughout this century Western countries, primarily the United States and Great
Britain, have continually interfered in and manipulated events in the Middle East. The
origins of the Iraq/Kuwait conflict can be found in the unilateral British decision during
the early years of this century to essentially cut off a piece of Iraq to suit British
Empire desires of that now faded era.
Rather than agreeing to Arab self-determination at the end of World War I and the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Western nations conspired to divide the Arab world into a
number of artificial and barely viable entities; to install Arab "client
regimes" throughout the region, to make these regimes dependent on Western economic
and military power for survival; and then to impose an ongoing series of economic,
cultural, and political arrangements seriously detrimental to the people of the area. This
is the historical legacy that we live with today.
Throughout the 1930s and the 1940s the West further manipulated theaffairs of the
Middle East in order to control the resources of theregion and then to create a Jewish
homeland in an area long consideredcentral to Arab nationalism and Muslim concerns.
Playing off one regime against the other and one geopolitical interest against another
became a major preoccupation for Western politicians and their closely associated business
interests.
Following World War II:
After World War II, and from these policy origins, the United Statesbecame the main
Western power in the region, supplanting the key rolesformerly played by Britain and
France. In the 1960s Gamel Abdel Nasserwas the target of Western condemnation for his
attempt to reintegratethe Arab world and to pursue independent "non-aligned"
policies. By the1970s the CIA had established close working relationships with key
Arabclient regimes from Morocco and Jordan to Saudi Arabia and Iran -regimes that even
then were among the most repressive and undemocratic in the world - in order to further
American domination and to secure anever-growing supply of inexpensive oil and the
resultant flow ofpetrodollars.
By the late 1970s the counter-reaction of the Iranian revolution was met with a Western
build-up of the very same Iraqi regime that is socondemned today in a vain attempt to use
Iraq to crush the new Iranianregime. The result was millions of deaths coming on top of
theterrible devastation of Lebanon, itself a country that had been severedfrom Greater
Syria by Western intrigues, as had been the area ofsouthern Syria, then known as
Palestine. Additionally the Israelis were given the green light to invade Lebanon, further
devastate thePalestinians, and install a puppet Lebanese government - an attemptwhich
failed leading to an American and Israeli retreat but ongoingmilitarism to this day.
Meanwhile, throughout all these years Western manipulation of oil supplies and pricing,
coupled with arms sales policies, often seriously exacerbated tensions between countries
in the region leading to the events of this decade.
The Gulf Conflict:
It was precisely such American manipulations and intrigues that led to the Gulf War in
1990. Indeed, we would be remiss if we did not notethat there is already much historical
evidence that the U.S. actuallymaneuvered Iraq into the invasion of Kuwait, repeatedly
suggesting toIraq that it would become the pivotal military state of the area in
coordination with the U.S. Whether true or not the U.S. subsequently did everything in its
power to prevent a peaceful resolution of the conflict and for the first time intervened
with massive and overwhelming military force in the region creating today's dangerously
unstable quagmire.
The initially stated American goal was only to protect Saudi Arabia. Then after the
unprecedented military build-up the goal became to expel Iraq from Kuwait. Then the goal
evolved to toppling the Iraqigovernment. And from there the Americans began to impose
various limits on Iraqi sovereignty; took over much of Iraq air space; sent the CIA to
repeatedly attempt to topple the Iraqi government; and placed anear-total embargo on Iraq
that many - including a former Attorney General of the United States - have termed
near-genocidal. The overall result has been the subjugation and impoverishment of Iraq and
the actual death of approximately 5% of the Iraqis as the direct result of American
sanctions, plus the reallocation of oil quotes and petrodollars to American client-states.
With the Clinton Administration, the U.S. began to insist on the "dual
containment" of both Iraq and Iran - both countries which just a few years ago the
U.S. was working very closely with and providing considerable arms to.
With few in the press able to remember from one year to the next, or to connect one
historic event with another, somehow Washington has come to insist on Iraqi disarmament
and Iranian strangulation. Furthermore, these policies are being pursued even while Israel
and key Arab client states are receiving American weapons in ever larger amounts, with
Israel's weapons of mass destruction aking her forces 7 to 8 times stronger than all Arab
armies combined.
Furthermore still, the U.S. and Israeli strategic alliance has never been closer, the
U.S. has repeatedly helped Israel defy the will of the international community and the
United Nations, and the U.S. continues to champion a disingenuous Israeli "peace
process" which in reality on the ground continues to dispossess the Palestinians and
to corral them onto reservations in their own country!
The Future:
In a future statement we will move on to the crucial subject of whatalternative
policies the United States should be pursuing. But at thiscritical moment we are compelled
to come forward and urgently condemnthe policies now being pursued by the United States
and regional allyIsrael. We call for an immediate cessation of the economic embargo
against Iraq, an end to U.S.-imposed restrictions on Iraqi sovereignty and airspace, and
most of all immediately suspension of all plans to attack Iraq using the overwhelming
technological and militaryinstruments available to the U.S.
If the U.S. continues to pursue its current policies then we conclude and predict it
will not be unreasonable for many in the world to brand the U.S. itself as a arrogant and
imperialist state, and if that becomes the historical paradigm it will be both
understandable and justifiable if others pursue whatever means are available to them to
oppose American domination and militarism. Such developments couldquite possibly lead to
still more decades of conflict, warfare, and terrorism throughout the region and beyond.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
COME Advisory Committee: Arab Abdel-Hadi - Cairo; Professor NahlaAbdo - Carleton
University (Ottawa); Professor Elmoiz Abunura -University of North Carolina (Ashville);
Professor Jane Adas - RutgersUniversity (NJ); Oroub Alabed - World Food Program (Amman);
ProfessorFaris Albermani - University of Queensland (Australia); Professor Jabbar Alwan,
DePaul University (Chicago); Professor Alex Alland, Columbia University (New York);
Professor Abbas Alnasrawi - University of Vermont (Burlington); Professor Michael Astour -
University of Southern Illinois; Virginia Baron - Guilford, CT.; Professor Mohammed
Benayoune - Sultan Qaboos University (Oman); Professor Charles Black - Emeritus Yale
University Law School; Professor Francis O. Boyle, University of Illinois Law School
(Champlain); Mark Bruzonsky - COME Chairperson (Washington); Linda Brayer - Ex. Dir.,
Society of St. Ives (Jerusalem); Professor Noam Chomsky - Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Cambridge); Ramsey Clark - Former U.S. Attorney General (New York); Professor
Frank Cohen - SUNY, Binghamton; John Cooley - Author, Cyprus; Professor Mustafah Dhada -
School of International Affairs, Clark Atlanta University; Zuhair Dibaja - Research
Fellow, University of Helsinki; Professor Mohamed El-Hodiri - University of Kansas;
Professor Richard Falk - Princeton University; Professor Ali Ahmed Farghaly - University
of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor Ali Fatemi - American University (Paris); Michai
Freeman - Berkeley; Professor S.M. Ghazanfar - University of Idaho (Chair, Economics
Dept); Professor Kathrn Green - California State University (San Bernadino); Nader Hashemi
- Ottawa, Canada; Professor M. Hassouna - Georgia; Professor Clement Henry - University of
Texas (Austin); Professor Herbert Hill - University of Wisconsin (Madison); Professor Asaf
Hussein - U.K.; Yudit Ilany - Jerusalem; Professor George Irani - Lebanese American
University (Beirut); Tahir Jaffer - Nairobi, Kenya; David Jones - Editor, New Dawn
Magazine, Australia; Professor Elie Katz - Sonoma State University, CA; Professor George
Kent - University of Hawaii; Professor Ted Keller - San Francisco State University,
Emeritus; John F. Kennedy - Attorney at Law, Washington; Samaneh Khader - Graduate Student
in Theology, University of Helsinki; Professor Ebrahim Khoda - University of Western
Australia; Guida Leicester, San Francisco; Jeremy Levin - Former CNN Beirut Bureau Chief
(Portland); Professor Seymour Melman - Columbia University (NewYork); Dr. Avi Melzer -
Frankfurt; Professor Alan Meyers - BostonUniversity; Professor Michael Mills - Vista
College (Berkeley, CA);Kamram Mofrad - Idaho; Shahab Mushtaq - Knox College; Professor
MinervaNasser-Eddine - University of Adelaide (Australia); Professor PeterPellett -
University of Massachussetts (Amherst); Professor Max Pepper,M.D. - University of
Massachusetts (Amherst); Professor Ruud Peters -Universiteit van Amsterdam; Professor
Glenn Perry - Indiana StateUniversity; Professor Tanya Reinhart - Tel Aviv University;
ProfessorShalom Raz - Technion (Haifa); Professor Knut Rognes - Stavanger College
(Norway); Professor Masud Salimian - Morgan State University(Baltimore); Professor Mohamed
Salmassi - University of Massachusetts;Qais Saleh - Graduate Student, International
University (Japan); AliSaidi - J.D. candidate in international law (Berkeley, CA); Dr.
EyadSarraj - Gaza, Occupied Palestine; Henry Schwarzschild - New York(original co-founder
- deceased); Professor Herbert Schiller -University of California (San Diego); Peter
Shaw-Smith - Journalist,London; David Shomar - New York; Dr. Manjra Shuaib - CapeTown
(SouthAfrica); Robert Silverman - Montreal; Professor J. David Singer - University of
Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor Majid Tehranian - Director Toda Institute for Global Peace
and Policy (University of Hawaii); Dr. Marlyn Tadros - Deputy Director, Legal Research and
Resource Center for Human Rights (Cairo); Professor John Williams -College of William and
Mary; Ismail Zayid, M.D. - Dalhousi University (Canada).
The Committee On The Middle East - COME
Phone: 202 362-5266 - Fax: 202 362-6965
Email: COME@USA.NET
