Time to Stop the Slaughter of Iraqis
By: E. Yaghi

“Those who stand for nothing may fall for anything.”-Alexander Hamilton

    Recent scenes on CNN of American and British air strikes against the Iraqi people brought back dark memories of the Gulf War that took place early in 1991. As an expatriate American living in Jordan, the Gulf War was one of the most difficult periods that I lived through since I came to the Middle East.  Jordan is a semi-arid country where the cold of winter seems to penetrate right through heavy clothing and maintain a permanent chill until the arrival of spring. But this particular winter was harsh and bitter. It was at this time that my family and I knew for certain that my sister-in-law was dying of the cancer that had penetrated her body more thoroughly than the piercing winter cold.

    It was also a time when 29 coalition countries chose to attack Iraq in a battle called Desert Storm. No one who has not experienced living through a war can imagine how terrifying it is to be caught in the middle of one. I remember the scenes of Baghdad on the first night that the Allied forces bombed Iraqi targets and when Iraqi anti-aircraft fired back. On television, the flashes of light brought about by attackers and defenders lit up the eerie black sky and a feeling of the deepest dread hung over my family and me like a sinister plague. I hated the thought that so many people would die because of this war. I knew that helpless women, children and the elderly would perish as a result of a campaign that was allegedly embarked upon to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Yet, I knew this was not true. Desert Storm was not undertaken just to get Saddam out of Kuwait or to dispose of him as the leader of Iraq. The purpose was not only to destroy a proud people and bring them to their knees but also to ensure that Arab oil would remain flowing into American markets. The result was that the flow of oil continued but the Iraqi people were economically devastated, militarily defeated and politically isolated.

    Jordan was literally caught in the middle. Right over Jordanian heads flew Iraqi scuds aimed at Israel. My family and I prepared our shelter with some meager provisions and I fashioned my own gas masks that were supposed to protect us in case Israel and Iraq engaged in something more lethal than missile attacks.

    It was a time of great uncertainty. It was a time of intense soul-searching. It was a time when television stations broadcast scenes of people dying right before my eyes and a time when I heard American generals boast about it. As an U.S. citizen, I can guarantee that it is no fun being caught at the other end of American bombs.

    Right at the time when the Allied forces struck the Amariyah bomb shelter in Iraq, killing over 400 civilians, I sat in my sister-in-laws house paying my last farewell to a woman I deeply loved. In the next room, even as she lay dying, her husband and his relatives were whispering secrets that had nothing to do with death. That night, after my sister-in-law passed away, I tried to console my husband over the loss of his sibling. I think what hurt him the most was the fact that her death was taken so lightly by her spouse. “Just imagine,” my husband said bitterly, “even as she was dying, her husband and his relatives were joking and trying to think who his next bride would be.”

    The betrayal of my sister-in-law by her husband and his relatives as she lay dying was a metaphor of the betrayal of Iraq by its Arab neighbors. I could not justify either one.

    Fortunately, I never had to try out my homemade gas masks on my family. Five and a half weeks after it began, the Gulf War ended. A mood of depression swept over Jordanians the day Iraq surrendered. Allied casualties had been kept to a minimum but around 100,000 Iraqis had been killed.  Since then, more than a million Iraqi people have died as a result of the sanctions. Approximately 5,000 Iraqi children die each month due to lack of medicine, proper food, airborne diseases, and unclean water supplies.

    But the sanctions have done more than this. They have destroyed the way of life of millions of Iraqis. The lucky ones were those able to leave the country. The unlucky ones remained behind. Yet, the tragedy did not end here.

     On February 16, 2001, Marine Lt. General Gregory Newbold informed the world shortly after the U.S. led air strikes that the situation in Iraq, “reached the point that it was obvious to our forces that they had to conduct the operation to safeguard those pilots and the aircraft. In fact (it was) essentially a self-defense measure.”

    On the evening of the strikes the Iraqi News Agency stated that, “Two people were martyred and more than 20 injured during the aggression launched by American and British planes last night.”

    Whatever happens to Iraq affects all the people living in the region. Jordan, though not directly involved, has suffered immense economic hardships as a result of the Gulf War and the sanctions. The latest air strikes will only prove to make life more difficult for Jordanians, more impossible for Iraqis, more frustrating for an American like me who is a witness to the brutal hand of the American government.

    President George W. Bush has a great opportunity to build new relations in the Middle East. It is time to stop punishing a country for the deeds of its leader. It is time to stop bombing the Iraqis and time to remove the sanctions. It is a time to stop the killing of an innocent people. Bush cannot build bridges where there is no water, nor is he expected to, but he can forge peace where there is war and he can bring hope where there is despair.

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