Healing Our World
A Weekly Column of Opinion
By Jackie Giuliano

Originally published February 21, 1998

War! Is it any wonder?

(NOTE: This article was written in early 1998 when the Clinton Administration was preparing to bomb Iraq. That confrontation never happened. Sadly, this piece is very relevant today as the U.S. conducts genocide on the Iraqi people. Some of the links may be outdated. -Jackie)

Developing a relationship with the natural world can have profound effects on our perceptions of the universe. Opening our minds and hearts to include the idea that a tree has rights and that a dolphin may be our neighbor can forever change one’s appreciation for life.

Consciously choosing not to eat meat because of the deplorable conditions under which animals are kept can develop a connection to the world and the universe that can only come from accepting full responsibility for our actions.

Even flushing the toilet with a mindfulness that the waste is, after minimal treatment, going into the ocean and not magically disappearing can dramatically alter perceptions.

But with an open heart and open mind comes a price – and it is a high price for those living in the U.S. today. That price is the horror, shock, revulsion, and powerlessness that you will feel at the thought of the United States going to war – again – against the people of Iraq.

Make no mistake – it is the people of Iraq (and the ecosystem and the animals) – that we will hurt.

The leaders of the U.S. have been hurting them every hour of every day since the Gulf War. Look at the horrifying statistics of the effects of the sanctions against Iraq (from the PAX Christi USA "Iraq Crisis Factsheet"):

• There are 4,500 children under the age of 5 dying each month from hunger and disease. In Central/Southern Iraq, 27.5 percent of Iraq's three million children (some 900,000) are now at risk of acute malnutrition (UNICEF Report).

• The Ministry of Health estimates that 109,720 persons have died annually between August 1990 and March 1994 as a direct result of the sanctions (from The Children are Dying: Reports by UN Food and Agriculture Organization).

• Since August 1990, 567,000 children in Iraq have died as a consequence of the sanctions (The Lancet, Volume 346 Number 8988. Saturday December 2, 1995).

• After the sanctions, there was a two-fold increase in infant mortality and a five-fold increase in under-5 mortality (The Lancet Volume 346, Number 8988. Saturday December 2, 1995).

• Due to the hazards of the water supply, government statistical office figures show 1,819 cases of typhoid fever in 1989 and 24,436 cases in 1994. There were no reported cases of cholera in 1989, but 1,345 cases in 1994 (From the Children are Dying: Reports by UN Food and Agricultural Organization).

• Fifty percent of rural people have no access to potable water. Wastewater treatment facilities have stopped functioning in most urban areas (UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs).

• In rural areas, only half the people have access to a water supply from a network, public tap, or well, and only 34 percent have a sanitary type of latrine (UNICEF Report).

The sanctions say that Iraq, whose economy is based almost entirely on the sale of oil, is able to export only a tiny amount. It is not allowed to purchase medicine, machinery, spare parts, agricultural supplies or even chlorine to purify the water. Malnutrition and water-borne diseases like cholera and typhus are out of control, affecting the youngest, the oldest and the poorest. A sewage pumping station in Basra broke down more than a year ago, turning many streets into permanent rivers of raw waste.

Iraqui babies, suffering from malnutrition (courtesy Voices in the Wilderness)

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark wrote, "No failure to comply with the U.N. condition can possibly justify the collective punishment of the entire nation and the direct deaths of infants, children, the elder population and the handicapped. You are fully aware that no hidden arms or arms program in Iraq can possibly pose the threat to life anywhere that the sanctions inflict on Iraq every day. These sanctions kill more people each week than Iraq with all its armies and materiel ... could inflict on foreign armies ... when Iraq was under assault" in 1991.

War. That is the only solution our leaders can think of. But how can we blame them. We as a culture have been at war with the natural world for many centuries. We have been trying to tame nature, to "bound her into service" and "make her a slave," said Francis Bacon at the start of the scientific revolution in the 16^th century. We are control freaks, desperate for an orderly world. The natural chaos of the universe frightens us, we who have been brought up in air-conditioned, climate controlled, and insect-free spender.

Our President and his advisors will do anything to make it appear that solutions are simple, that enemies are easy to point to, and that they have the support of the American people. They have been staging town meetings now, since the "uncontrolled" one at Ohio State University on February 18, 1998 got out of hand when people voiced their opposition to the war. In the Ohio town meeting (read details in The Boston Globe at http://web3.boston.com/dailyglobe/globehtml/051/Policy_is_sparking_an_antiwar_reviv.htm), the activist who asked Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright some probing questions, was allowed to speak in exchange for the silence of the group who was making the noise. There would have been no probing questions if not for those protesters using their voices.

Since that uncontrolled meeting, the Administration staged another "public" meeting in South Carolina where 100 handpicked honor students were invited. They were told to "be polite" and to give Albright a standing ovation when she arrived. Protesters were kept blocks away and out of sight.

The President attended a $10,000 per plate fundraiser dinner recently and Secret Service busses blocked the view of the protesters from the President and the press photographers. They wanted to be sure that no photographer could get a photo of the President and the protesters in the same picture.

There can be no excuse to wage a selective war on a county’s people. We must rise to the wisdom in all our heart’s. We must cast away the assumptions:

• The assumption that bombing Iraq will force Saddam Hussein to see it our way. There is no evidence to support this.

• The assumption that we have smart bombs that can pinpoint targets. Totally not true. Clinton’s war machine will rely on mostly the same technology that failed for George Bush. The 250 Tomahawk Block 3 missiles currently in the Persian Gulf ready to fire still rely on TV screen technology to do their final targeting. The weather and terrain often interfere with those weapons. There is no way to avoid civilian casualties.

The effect on the environment will be devastating. The Iraq landscape, infrastructure, and ecosystems have already been compromised by the U.S. imposed sanctions. And someone please tell me: How does it make sense to bomb suspected sites of biological warfare agents, only to risk releasing those very substances into the air? Am I missing something? I don’t think so.

We must think. We must insist. We must reclaim our power. Did you know that many believe that it was the Allied-imposed poverty and humiliation of Germany following its defeat in World War I that brought Adolph Hitler to power. We can not and must not repeat this history by fostering even more resentment among Iraqi youth.

Article 48 of the Geneva Convention reads: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food, livestock, agricultural areas and drinking water installations." So who is the real war criminal in this battle?

Take your power. Please examine the resources below. Write your letter to the President right now and e-mail it to him at the address below. E-mail him (and make phone calls if you can), every day. Be able to say that if our leaders do wage another obscene war that you did what your heart demanded. Demand that we wage peace.

We have lost our sense and our senses. How can we get them back?

RESOURCES

1. Visit the Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq at www.endiraqsanctions.org.
2. The Fellowship of Reconciliation recommends that "Overwhelm the government with phone calls of protest: demand an end to the economic sanctions, and state loud and clear, "DON'T DROP THE BOMBS" . . . call (202-456-1111), fax (202-456-2461), and e-mail (president@whitehouse.gov) the White House and Capitol (call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121) on this day (and every day)." Visit their web site at http://www.nonviolence.org/for/iraq0298.htm for a complete list of actions you can take to prevent this senseless war.
3. Send a letter, NOW to the President telling him your feelings. Do it at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/html/couples.html
4. Visit the National Catholic Reporter’s web site for alarming statistics about the human tragedy in Iraq at http://www.natcath.com/archives/052397/052397a.htm
5. Visit the Nonviolence Web site at http://www.nonviolence.org/past.htm to learn more about opportunities for ending violence.
6. See the facts about the human crisis in Iraq at http://www.nonviolence.org/pcusa/iraq0298c.htm
7. See the UNICEF report detailing their findings about the children dying in Iraq at gopher://gopher.unicef.org/00/.cefdata/.prgva96/prgva35
8. Visit Changelinks for a comprehensive listing of activist happenings in Southern California as well as links and articles at http://www.labridge.com/change-links/
9. Visit a comprehensive list of peace listings at http://www.nonviolence.org/links.htm
10. Visit the Iraq Crisis Antiwar Homepage at http://www.nonviolence.org/campaigns/iraq.htm
11. Read about the mythology of smart bombs at http://web3.boston.com/dailyglobe/globehtml/051/US_bombs_not_much__smarter_.htm
12. Learn more about the U.S. military from those in the business from the Center for Defense Information. Their video, "The Language of War," discusses the abuse of language by the military. Visit them at http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy/Government/Military/cdi/cdiinfo.htm

[Jackie Giuliano can be found preparing for war in Venice, California. He is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, and the University of Phoenix Southern California Campuses. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com]