From MIM NOTES 110 MARCH 1996 RAIL PROTESTS GULF WAR VILLAIN ***On January 31 a crowd of activists protested outside a speech given by Amerika's Gulf War commander, Norman Schwarzkopf, on the campus of the University of Southern California. The protest was organized independently by the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League (RAIL) and USC's Muslim Student Association. The protesters defied rain and the pro-militarist audience in order to demonstrate their opposition to the Gulf War and the continued Amerikan presence in the Persian Gulf. Protesters carried banners which said, "U.S. is Guilty of War Crimes," and "700,000 killed for profit;" RAIL supporters also passed out informational flyers and discussed the reasons for the protest with audience members and passers-by. A supposedly "progressive" and "alternative" weekly with a large circulation, the Los Angeles Reader, exposed its true colors. Not only did the Reader fail to publicize the information on the rally which RAIL sent them, but it instead gave free publicity to Schwarzkopf's lecture itself, complete with ticket prices and purchasing information.(1) The following article is an edited version of the flyer the RAIL activists distributed.*** U.S. OUT OF THE PERSIAN GULF! Five years ago in January the United Snakes of Amerika launched its largest military operation since Vietnam: The Gulf War. Like the war in Vietnam, the invasion of Panama, and "covert" U.S. intervention in Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, this war was fought to extend U.S. economic and political power--in this case, power over the oil reserves in the Persian Gulf and the whole Middle East. More than 200,000 people died as a direct result of the bombing and the invasion and more than 500,000 Iraqi children have died because of damage to the civilian infrastructure and the economic embargo on Iraq.(2) THE MYTH OF AMERIKA'S "ALTRUISTIC" MOTIVES EXPOSED The United Snakes claims that it besieged, bombed and invaded Iraq in order to "oppose aggression and dictatorship." This is not true. The United Snakes itself has a history of aggression and invasion (Vietnam, Panama, etc.) and regularly turns a blind eye when one of its allies invades a neighbor. Turkey invaded Cyprus, displacing 200,000; Israel invaded Lebanon and killed 20,000; Indonesia invaded East Timor and killed 200,000--the United Snakes had nothing to say about its friends acts of aggression, and continues to send them lots of aid. The United Snakes also has a long history of supporting dictators in foreign countries and then ousting them when they become too independent or too ineffective: Ngo Diem in Vietnam, Marcos in the Philippines, Noriega in Panama, and of course Saddam Hussein himself. The United Snakes had nothing to say when Hussein killed 20,000 Kurds with poison gas (Amerika was supporting Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war at the time), but when Hussein invaded Kuwait (500 people died, according to Amnesty International) and threatened to disrupt Amerikan control of Middle East oil reserves, the United Snakes sent in its troops.(3) THE GULF WAR WAS AN ATROCITY Once the United Snakes decided to defend its interests in a big way, a negotiated settlement could not be enough. The U.S. military planned and carried out a brutal operation against the Iraqi military and people. The Pentagon admits that army bulldozers buried thousands of Iraqi soldiers alive during the first hours of the ground offensive.(4) Thousands of retreating soldiers were killed when Amerikan planes bombed the highway leading north from Kuwait City. The carnage was so great that even the Amerikan pilots called this highway the "Highway of Death"(5) The Iraqi soldiers had nothing to gain from this war--even if they won--but they lost everything anyway. UNITED SNAKES IS NO FRIEND OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE The economic and political situation for the majority of the Iraqi people has worsened. Even before the war began, international doctors' groups claimed that the economic blockade of Iraq had doubled the infant mortality rate.(6) Now doctors estimate that the infant mortality rate has quintupled.(2) U.S. bombers directly targeted water and sewage treatment plants during the war, which caused outbreaks of cholera and typhus.(7) The bombings and the blockade have also caused a severe food shortage, and as many as 3.5 million people in Iraq suffer from malnutrition.(8) TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS After the Gulf War, U.S. imperialists deepened their ties with allied states in the region and got juicy new economic deals. Aside from renewed Amerikan investment in the oil industry in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, U.S. companies got 70% of the contracts for the rebuilding of Kuwait.(9) The U.S. military was guaranteed a massive presence in the Middle East and used the war to justify its role as "world cop," which allows it to threaten "Rogue Nations" (read: Third World countries which refuse to take Washington's orders) with invasion. In fact, the U.S. military recently expanded its presence in the Persian Gulf, saying that the Iraqi "threat" could only be minimized "as long as the United States is there."(10) Currently, about 13,000 Amerikkkan military personnel and 40 U.S. warships are stationed in the Persian Gulf. Every day, Amerikkkan aircraft fly more than 100 sorties over southern Iraq.(11) THE REAL CULPRIT: IMPERIALISM The Gulf War was part of Amerika's struggle to defend the political and economic system which sucks raw materials and labor out of the Third World and leaves it impoverished. For example: U.S. companies encourage the production of cash export crops like coffee and bananas instead of staples like rice or beans, to the point where entire countries cannot feed themselves. As a result, 14 million children die of malnutrition every year in the capitalist Asian countries alone.(12) And in order to preserve "stable" conditions for Amerikan investment, the U.S. government sends money and military advisors to repressive regimes waging "low intensity war" against their own people. The U.S. is currently involved in such wars in the Philippines, Palestine, and Kurdistan, to name a few. The oppressed peoples of the world can work economic and political miracles when they are allowed to manage their own affairs and develop economies to suit their own needs, not the whims of international finance. U.S. military intervention serves to bolster the exploitation of these nations and cannot bring democracy or peace--not in Iraq, not in Somalia, not in Haiti, not in Bosnia. Build public opinion against the Gulf War and all imperialist wars! Take a stand on the side of the majority of humanity and oppose Amerikan imperialism and its lackeys! NOTES: 1. Los Angeles Reader, Jan. 26, 1996, p. 33. 2. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1995. 3. Z Magazine, Feb. 91, p. 55. 4. Detroit News, Sept. 31, 1991. 5. PBS Documentary, Jan. 14, 1996. 6. Washington Post, Dec. 15, 1990. 7. BBC World Service, Mar. 22, 1991. 8. UNICEF Report, Sept. 1995. 9. NYT, Feb. 28, 1991. 10. Daily Bruin, Jan. 15, 1996. 11. Daily Bruin, Jan. 16, 1996. 12. World Military and Social Expenditures, 1987- 88, p. 25.