23 November 1998
BERGER: U.S. SEEKS TO END IRAQ'S CONFRONTATION WITH THE WORLD
(Op-Ed article published in Arabic Daily Al-Hayat Nov. 23) (1260) By Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger U.S. National Security Advisor A week ago, Saddam Hussein was hoping to have it both ways, by defying the international community while demanding an end to international sanctions. But his neighbors and the world insisted that Iraq meet its obligations in full, and the United States and Great Britain made clear that we were ready to back that insistence with military force. Faced with a firm and united international response, Saddam capitulated. And now UN weapons inspectors are back in Iraq, doing their jobs not because we trust Saddam's commitments, but because we wish to test them. From the start of the crisis, we said that the best way to achieve our common goals would be to resume UN weapons inspections in Iraq, because that is the most effective tool we have to uncover, destroy and prevent Saddam from rebuilding the weapons he has used against his people and the world. Now that Iraq has backed down and permitted the inspectors to return, nations throughout the world are united in insisting that Iraq meet its obligations, including Iraq's neighbors in the Arab world. And it is important to understand why. First of all, the entire world is fed up with Iraq's continuing deception and defiance. Iraq agreed as a condition of the Gulf War cease-fire that it would disclose its weapons of mass destruction arsenal within 15 days. Instead, it has spent the better part of a decade shirking its obligations, withholding information from the inspectors, blocking their work, destroying information in plain sight. There is no clearer example than the recent discovery that Iraq produced VX the most deadly chemical weapon in the world -- and loaded it into missile warheads that could be launched at any time against its neighbors. Experts from over a dozen countries have now confirmed this finding. Second, the entire world remembers recent history and understands that Saddam is a menace to peace. Year after year, in conflict after conflict, Saddam has demonstrated that he seeks weapons in order to use them. And each time he has used them, his victims have been the people of the Middle East. He pursued a decade-long war against Iran, costing at least half a million lives. He repeatedly unleashed chemical weapons against Iran's soldiers and fired SCUD missiles at its cities. In 1990, his troops invaded Kuwait, executing those who resisted, looting the country, setting fire to 600 oil wells, spilling tens of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, firing missiles at Riyadh and Manama. The main victims of Saddam's misrule have been the Iraqi people themselves. More than 70,000 Iraqi Kurds disappeared during Saddam's murderous Anfal campaign in 1988; at least 5,000 were killed by mustard gas. More than 150,00 Arab marsh dwellers were forced from their homes when Iraqi forces drained the southern marshes after the Gulf War; their culture was destroyed; many were massacred by artillery shelling and helicopter gun ships. Some 1,500 political prisoners were executed in Iraq in 1997, according to the UN. Today, all Iraqis live in fear of arbitrary arrest and deportation from their homes. For the last seven years, it is the international community, not Saddam, that has tried to keep the Iraqi people alive. When sanctions were imposed on Iraq after Saddam invaded Kuwait, the United Nations exempted food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. After the Gulf War, the United States took the lead in proposing that Iraq be allowed to sell controlled quantities of its oil and use the proceeds to purchase humanitarian supplies. Until 1996, Saddam refused to do so, hoping to manipulate international opinion by starving his people. Now that the oil for food program is being implemented, it generates about $3 billion a year with which Iraq can purchase food and medicine. The food supply in Iraq has grown, providing the average Iraqi citizen with approximately 2,030 calories a day, an amount exceeding the UN recommended daily minimum. The amount of humanitarian aid available to Iraq is nearly as great as the total provided to all the countries in the world targeted by the UN for relief over the last three years combined. Even so, Saddam continues to hinder the program and reject foreign donations of food and medicine. In the meantime, the Iraqi government has spent its own money building lavish palaces, hiding its weapons, and hoarding food for its elite military units. Iraq has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from smuggling, but most of this money has lined the pockets of Saddam's family and supporters. Since the oil for food program has been implemented, the regime has reduced its own food purchases by between $300 and $500 million a year. Right now, under international sanctions, Saddam's regime is permitted to spend its oil revenues on only two things: food and medicine. If sanctions were lifted, Saddam could spend his country's oil wealth on anything he wanted. Oil for food would likely become oil for tanks. Iraq's people could well have less to eat. Iraq's neighbors would certainly have more to fear. That is why the United States will continue to work, with patience and determination, to prevent Saddam from endangering his people, threatening his neighbors, and undermining the security of the world. We do not seek confrontation with Iraq, but rather to end Iraq's confrontation with the world. We do not question Iraq's integrity as a nation, but rather the Iraqi government's oppression of its people, which has been tearing Iraq apart. Our policy is pro-Iraqi, in that its goals are consistent with the interests of the vast majority of the Iraqi people. It is pro-Islamic, in that it seeks to build an Iraq in which all people of faith can live in peace, and a Middle East in which all people of faith can live in security. Indeed, the six million American Muslims who worship in our country's growing number of Mosques and Islamic centers reflect the reality that there is no conflict between Islam and America. As President Clinton has said, "Even as we struggle to reconcile all Americans to each other and to find greater unity in our increasing diversity, we will remain on a course of friendship and respect for the Muslim world. We will continue to look for common values, common interests, and common endeavors." Certainly, when it comes to a rogue regime with weapons of mass destruction and a history of using them, the United States and its friends in the Muslim world must continue to be united -- because we are all at risk. We all fervently hope that Iraq will rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. We must all work together to realize that hope, in our own interest and in the interest of the long suffering people of Iraq. (This article was first published in the international Al Hayat on November 23, titled "So that Oil-for food would not be turned into Oil-for Tanks")
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