M I D - E A S T   R E A L I T I E S - WWW.MiddleEast.Org
************************************************************************
News, Analysis & Commentary They Don't Want You to Know
************************************************************************
 To get MER regularly email to: INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org
 
JEWISH COMPOSER SPEAKS OUT
ON GENOCIDE AGAINST IRAQ
More Than One Million Dead in Iraq Because of USA "Sanctions"
 

MER - Washington - 19 December:
    Ramsey Clark, a former Attorney General of the United States, had called U.S. policies toward Iraq genocidal and repeatedly stated that these policies are similar to "war crimes".  Few in the American
public have heard this perspective, even though Clark once held the highest legal position in the country and his father served on the U.S. Supreme Court.
   The following article is written by a Jewish composer in Iceland, Elias Davidsson, and has been translated from Icelandic to English. The author indicates he wrote it in solidarity with the voiceless
children of Iraq as a plea for understanding and for justice.
    We are under no illusions U.S. policy can be easily changed. Indeed, it is quite likely the U.S. military will soon be striking again at Iraq and further using economic and covert weapons against the 22 million people of that country to force it to "disarm".
    And make no mistake about it, this is all being with considerable Israeli prodding as the Israelis now hold the dominant political hand in Washington and have infiltrated (yes we use that word purposely)
the Clinton Administration as no other American government in history.
    Even so, however powerless the various voices speaking up around the world, it is important that knowledgeable, caring, and independent people be heard based on the merits and logic of what they have to say; rather than simply based who has the financial power to purchase and manipulate the means of mass information in our "modern" world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
MASS MURDERERS IN DARK SUITS
 
by Elias Davidsson
 

    Mass murderers are generally considered as mentally disturbed individuals who commit their heinous crimes in the shadow of the night.  When they are found, such individuals are normally arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to lengthy imprisonment. Mass media usually follow-up such cases in detail, both as regards the acts committed and the persons involved.

    Mass murderers in dark suits are a totally different sort of people. Even when found guilty, they are treated with great reverence. The most known among them is probably Adolf Eichmann, one of the top
Nazi leaders who presided over the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry in World War II.  In his trial in Jerusalem Eichmann declared that he never hated Jews.  His participation in genocide was merely the
accomplishment of orders given by superiors, which he attempted to fulfill as conscientiously as possible.

    Most heinous crimes of our times are in fact committed by gentlemen in dark suits: National leaders and high-ranking public officials. Their weapon is the pen, not guns or napalm bombs. These people never see their victims cry for mercy and die slowly in agonizing pain. The act of murder is often committed thousands of miles away from the place of death. Is there any human act more abhorrent than to kill people without incurring oneself the slightest risk ?

    From August 1990 until this day governments across the world have participated in the extermination of 750,000 Iraqi children. Why ? It appears that these children's "Godfather" (Saddam Hussein) is
threatening world peace, whatever that terms means.  As "world peace" is as elusive as ever, and as there are still children remaining in Iraq, the infernal machine continues to grind to death 6 Iraqi children
an hour, day and night, seven days a week.  The weapon inflicting death are the so-called "UN trade sanctions against Iraq", a misnomer for what is an "economic siege of the entire Iraqi population". This collective punishment of an entire nation has led to large-scale food and medicine shortages, epidemics, permanent health damage and death, to name but a few of the dramatic consequences.  God have mercy upon those, such as Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, who consider such human sacrifices as "worth it".

    It is sometimes maintained that the aim of the "trade sanctions" is not hurt Iraqi civilians but to force the Iraqi authorities to respect UN resolutions (by imposing "hardship" on the civilian population). The
massive deaths of Iraqi children is thus claimed to be an unfortunate "collateral" in the accomplishment of a noble aim, a price which "we" must be ready to pay.

    Trade sanctions is a weapon. When they are aimed at an entire nation, they become a weapon of mass annihilation. Those who wield this weapon are fully aware of the consequences ensuing from its use.  That's why they push the trigger again, and again.

    But who are the people who wield this deadly weapon ?  They are well groomed gentlemen, known as cabinet members. And known to each other as members of an international platoon.  Among the members of this platoon you will probably identify your own Minister of Foreign Affairs, believing himself (herself?) to represent you in summarily executing  Iraqi children.

    And when an international platoon of ministers executes somebody, somewhere, none is responsible. Absolutely none of them. Because not one of them knows for sure who had inflicted the fatal signature. When somebody inadvertently asks what they have been doing in this platoon, these cowards wail: "It is not me who killed the innocent infant, it is not me". But they return next day to execute a new batch of infants.

    Adolf Eichmann sent half a million human beings to death. He fulfilled his duty conscientiously in accordance with a superior order. For this he was rightfully hanged, his body burnt and the remaining ashes spread over the sea. The act was primarily symbolic for it is not humanly possible to punish one person for killing half a million people.

    What can, what should be done with the members of the international platoon who individually and collectively signed the death warrant of over one million Iraqi civilians, and cannot even claim that they were just following superior orders?

        Elias Davidsson
        ICELAND
        10 December 1997
 
 

 M I D - E A S T  R E A L I T I E S
(202) 362-5266, Ext 638   Fax: (202) 362-6965    MER@MiddleEast.Org
******************************************************************
For information about the weekly TV program, MID-EAST REALITIES, send email to
INFORMER@MiddleEast.Org.
******************************************************************
For previous MER information, commentary, editorials & Readers Comments:
http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org