U.S. in deep morass despite Gulf victory

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Gls in occupied Iraq-enforcing the New World Order?

"When this is all over," George Bush said at the start of the war, "we want to be the healers" in the Gulf region. He then undertook one of the most lethal bombing campaigns in history. The B-52s spared neither homes, schools, nor hospitals. Tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives.

Several months later, the process of "healing" has still not begun. For the Bush administration, the entire region from Kurdistan to Palestine remains an open wound. Despite its overwhelming victory in the war, the United States has not yet consolidated its broader political objectives in the region.

Accordingly, Secretary of State James Baker has been shuttling back and forth between Middle East capitals, attempting to organize an authoritative "peace conference." If successful, the conference would reinforce the role of the United States as the central power working to maintain the status quo in the region. But so far, outside of the Soviet Union, Baker has found little cooperation on his project.

Perhaps even more embarrassing for the administration is the fact that, despite all its efforts, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has not yet been toppled. While Hussein hangs on, the U.S. troops in the region are attempting to disarm his opponents, the Kurdish rebels.

As Americans try to figure out the changing scorecard of "enemies" and "allies, many of them are beginning to wonder what ever happened to the quick, neat "surgical" war they thought they had witnessed on their TV screens.

The precious oil that the United States went to war to "protect" is burning and splashing out over the sands. The multi-billionaires ruling Kuwait, whom the United States vowed to put back into power, have allowed their territory to become an arena for thievery and torture.

Kuwaiti soldiers use military roadblocks to kidnap and rape Palestinian and Asian women. Members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family are implicated in the torture squads that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. Elections in that supposed "democracy" have been put off for another year.

Meanwhile, cholera has taken hold in the cities of Iraq. Children are dying from diarrhea and dehydration at from 10 to 20 times the normal rate. Families must obtain their water supplies from mud puddles and polluted rivers.

Food and medicine is in short supply, owing in large part to the U.S.-imposed blockade. Since farmers could not obtain seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides, this year's crop is expected to be a disaster.

According to human rights observers, hunger and disease may kill many more people in the coming months than died during the fighting. In the south of Iraq alone, according to Dr. Peter Fuchs of the International Red Cross, "There is a major humanitarian catastrophe going on. ... Five million civilians are at risk.' Ordeal of Kurdish refugees been placed on the people of Kurdistanas In recent weeks, the world' (continued on page 14, in “Workers' Autonomous Federation: Vanguard in Democracy Movement”) ee paae 1 Vol. 9, No. 5 Party.

See pp. 16-17 MAY 1991 50 CENTS