U.N. Must Act to Prevent U.S. Attack on Iraq
Letter by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to all members of the UN Security Council, with copies to the UN General Assembly and Senator Biden
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Dear Ambassador,
A global human society based on poverty for many and prosperity for a few, characterized by islands of wealth, surrounded by asea of poverty, is unsustainable
Pres. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa World Summit on Sustainable Development
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Any remaining hope the peoples of the United Nations have to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war through the United Nations would be
crushed by another United States attack on Iraq. Threats to attack, invade
and overthrow the government of Iraq by President George Bush, Vice
President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, various cabinet officers
and Pentagon officials have been routine for a year. The psychological
warfare is itself a crime against peace and violates the U.N. Charter. The
front-page story in the New York Times, "U.S. Exploring Baghdad Strike As
Iraq Option," is typical of the in terrorem intention of the threats. The
danger to civilian life in Baghdad from such a strike would be enormous.
If the United Nations is unable to restrain the United States, a permanent
member of the Security Council, from committing crimes against peace and
humanity as well as war crimes against a nation that has already been
violated by the U.S. beyond endurance, then what is the United Nations
worth? At the very least, opposition to any attack or attempt to overthrow
the government of Iraq by force must be publicly expressed by the United
Nations.
The U.S. Bombed Defenseless Iraq Mercilessly for 42 Days in 1991
The U.S. led and glorified a massive assault on Iraq in January and February
1991. The Pentagon announced it conducted 110,000 aerial sorties against the
defenseless "cradle of civilization," dropping 88,500 tons of bombs. The
widespread bombing destroyed the economic viability of the civilian society
throughout the nation. It killed tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and
others. A major part of the bombing was directed at civilians and civilian
facilities. It was less accurate than the recent indiscriminate attacks in
Afghanistan. U.S. bombs destroyed Iraqi water systems, electric power
transmission, communications, transportation, manufacturing, commerce,
agriculture, poultry and livestock, food storage facilities, markets,
fertilizer and insecticide production, business centers, archeological and
historical treasures, apartment houses, residential areas, schools,
hospitals, mosques, churches and synagogues. The Pentagon stated its
casualties were 156. One third of these were from "friendly fire"; the rest
were accidental. The U.S. had no combat casualties.
The U.S. Forced the Imposition of Genocidal Sanctions on Iraq in 1990
The U.S. crafted economic sanctions against Iraq which the Security Council
approved on August 6, 1990. Those sanctions are the direct cause of the very
cruel deaths of more than a million people. This is the greatest crime
against humanity in the last decade of the most violent century in history.
Each painful death of an individual wasting away "from malnutrition;
Kwashiorkor; the rush of dehydration from contaminated water and from
diseases" was preventable. The sanctions continue to this time to cause
hundreds of deaths each day. Every United Nations agency dealing with food,
health and children"including FAO, WFP, WHO, UNICEF"has proclaimed the
horror, magnitude and responsibility for this human catastrophe. The great
majority of the deaths caused by the sanctions are of infants, children, the
elderly, the chronically ill and emergency medical cases. These are the
people most vulnerable to polluted water, malnutrition, and the lack of
medicines and medical equipment and supplies. U.S. claims that it is the
Iraqi government that is responsible for deaths from shortages of food and
medicine are false. The U.S. blocked oil sales by Iraq for six years before
appearing to yield to humanitarian pleas to permit oil sales to purchase
food and medicine. Since 1997, when sales began, it has effectively
frustrated and delayed the Oil for Food program, which does not provide
sufficient income at the levels approved to stop the daily deterioration of
health and growing death rates in Iraq. Before sanctions, there was
virtually no malnutrition in Iraq and free hospital, health services and
medicines were a model for the region. Its present system of government
distribution of available food staples is a model of fairness and
efficiency, lacking only in quantity and variety of food.
U.S. Military Aircraft Have Attacked Iraq at Will for 11 Years
The U.S. has engaged in air strikes against Iraq at will since March 1991,
when the massive attacks averaging one aerial sortie every 30 seconds ended.
Iraq is Not a Threat to the U.S., Countries in the Region or Others
The U.S. has falsely claimed that Iraq is working to develop weapons of mass
destruction to attack the U.S., Israel, its neighbors and others. The U.S.
claimed its 1991 attacks destroyed 80% of Iraq's military capacity. The U.N.
inspection efforts claimed to discover and dismantle 90% of Iraq's post-1991
capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iraq, its peoples and
resources are exhausted. It has a "stunted" generation of children under age
10 and a debilitated population at all ages.
The U.S. is the Greatest Purveyor of Violence on Earth
Two of the highest U.N. officials responsible for U.N. weapons inspection
within Iraq and a principle U.S. citizen participating in the inspections
have resigned, denounced the sanctions and denied that there is a threat
that Iraq will develop weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. has more
nuclear weapons than all other nations combined, as well as the most
sophisticated and numerous systems for the delivery of nuclear weapons,
including the Trident II submarine fleet. It possesses the greatest
stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and the most advanced and
extensive research in mass destruction weaponry in the world. Military
spending by the U.S. exceeds that of the earth's nine next largest budgets
for war combined. The U.S. has renounced treaties controlling nuclear
weapons and their proliferation; voted against the protocol enabling
enforcement of the Biological Weapons Conventions; and rejected the treaty
banning land mines, the International Criminal Court and virtually every
other international effort to control and limit war. The U.S. war against
terrorism is a declaration of right by the U.S. to attack first—anyone,
anywhere, on mere suspicion and without excuse, unilaterally. The U.S. wants
to overthrow the government of Iraq and many others, in violation of law.
Unless restrained, the chance for peace and global equality of economic,
social, cultural and political opportunity among nations will be lost. Which
government presents the greater threat to peace, the U.S. or Iraq?
An Attempt to Overthrow the Iraqi Government Would be a Flagrant Violation
of the U.N. Charter, the Nuremberg Charter and International Law
If, as promised so many times, the U.S. does attack Iraq to overthrow its
government, it will be the most notorious, arrogant and contemptuous
violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the Nuremberg Charter and
international law yet experienced, or likely hereafter. Only absolute power,
unrestrained by any rule of law or standard of human decency, openly taunts
an intended victim as President Bush has taunted Iraq. If, 12 years after
its devastating aerial assault and genocidal sanctions, the U.S. commits its
coup de grace on the people of Iraq to the silence of the U.N. and wealthy
nations of the world, human shame and impotence will doom us to ever greater
violence.
A U.S. Assault on Iraq Will Cause More and Greater Violence
I urge you to immediately activate the United Nations, the General Assembly,
the Security Council and all its agencies to denounce the continuing threats
by the United States against Iraq, to demand immediate cessation of the
threats, and to warn the United States that an attack by it on Iraq will
violate the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the
friendship of all who seek peace and respect the dignity of humanity.
A U.S. Attack on Iraq Would Violate the U.S. Constitution and Laws
An attack on Iraq by the United States would also violate the Constitution
and laws of the United States and expose President Bush to impeachment by
the House of Representatives under the Constitution of the United States for
the highest of crimes, those against peace and humanity.
Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark
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