This terrible violence will place about 10 million Iraqi civilians at risk, says Vincent Browne.
Donald Rumsfield, the US Defence Secretary, signed two major deployment orders last week sending 62,000 more troops to the Gulf, where there are already 60,000 troops. On Christmas Eve he issued another deployment order sending 25,000 troops. Thus in a few weeks there will be close to 150,000 troops ready to invade Iraq, to disarm Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction, to remove the threat of his sponsoring terrorism in the region, and depose the dictator who invaded a neighbouring country.
The same Donald Rumsfield was the presidential special envoy to Iraq in December 1983 and he paved the way for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the US and Iraq. This led directly to a major involvement by the US on the side of Iraq in the horrific war caused by its invasion of a neighbouring country, Iran.
As a consequence of the resumption of diplomatic relations, the US provided Iraq with intelligence in the war with the country that Iraq had invaded. It provided Iraq with cluster bombs, poisonous chemicals and biological viruses which were transformed into chemical and biological weapons and used against the Iranians. This was done at a time when the US was receiving almost daily reports of Iraq's use of chemical and biological weapons. Rumsfield has since lied about his apart in all of this, claiming that at meetings with Saddam Hussein he had "cautioned" Hussein about the use of chemical weapons but the official US notes of the meeting should he issued no such caution (all this was published in the Washington Post on December 30th last and reproduced in The Irish Times subsequently).
At the same time the US administration led by Ronald Reagan and George Bush snr removed Iraq from the State Department terrorist list and kept Iraq off that list, knowing that in 1985 Iraq was shielding well-known terrorists, including Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, who had masterminded the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, which resulted in the killing of an American tourist.
The American support, initiated by Donald Rumsfield, continued throughout the 1980s, even after the use of biological and chemical weapons by Iraq against "its own people" the Kurds. And then in July 1990 the US ambassador in Baghdad, April Glaspie, told Saddam Hussein that his plan to invade Kuwait was a matter for him.
So now the US, led by the son of the president who was up to his neck in arming and encouraging Iraq 15 years ago, is about to inflict terrible violence on what is now one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to undo precisely what the Americans themselves created - eliminate the weapons of mass destruction they provided or helped to provide and prevent Iraq from harbouring terrorists, although this was no problem 15 years ago. And this terrible violence, according to a UN agency, will place about 10 million Iraqi civilians at risk of hunger and disease and give rise to close to a million refugees. In addition, of course, to slaughtering thousands of them. And Ireland is an accomplice to this both through its wimpishness on the UN Security Council and its provision of refuelling facilities for the agents of this humanitarian disaster.
TONY Blair made it clear at his press conference on Monday that irrespective of what the UN Security Council decides, if the US and the UK determine that war against Iraq should be launched it will be launched . Remember the self congratulation over the terms of the UN Security Council resolution requiring the Security Council to "discuss" the issue before there is an assault? We now know, if, sheepishly we did not then know, what "discuss" means.
And this is only the beginning of it. The very same logic that propels the Americans into war with Iraq applies even more forcibly to Iran, North Korea, Libya, and Sudan. On Tuesday of last week the CIA published Unclassified report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Advanced Conventional Munitions. It identifies Iran as the major source of concern. It states "Iran is vigorously pursuing programmes to produce indigenous WMD - nuclear, chemical and biological". It goes on: "The United States is convinced Teheran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme." It says of North Korea, that it "probably has produced enough plutonium for at least one and possibly two nuclear weapons".
Libya "continues to develop its nuclear infrastructure" and this could present Libya with "opportunities to pursue technologies that also would be suitable for military purposes".
Syria has a nuclear research centre that it too could move towards the production of nuclear weapons. Sudan is producing chemical weapons and perhaps biological weapons as well.
It's good that Ireland is off the Security Council. Perhaps Germany, which will chair the Council from next month, will exercise a restraining influence and maybe Greece which has assumed the EU Presidency will be able to initiate a peace initiative which will queer the pitch for the warmongers.