Ten reasons to oppose
International Viewpoint #198 • January 21, 1991
GULF CRISIS the war
THE following leaflet first appeared in the December 1990 newsletter of the Committee against a Vietnam in the Middle East, which is based in San Francisco. DOCUMENT
1 WE are on the verge of war,
unless enough of us say no. • We are witnessing the biggest military build-up since the Vietnam War. Nearly 500,000 US troops are poised for war in the Middle East. This is the same troop level that was maintained • The daily cost of the US intervention is $25 million, and that price will sky-rocket should a shooting war break out. $2.5 billion was spent between Aug. 2 and Sept. 2. A war in the Gulf, like Vietnam, will be prolonged and on many • It will costs the lives of untold numbers • It will be no weekend affair like Grena• There are 200 million, mostly poor, Arab people, dispersed in 22 different states. The great majority of them, according to former Carter administration official Zbigniew Brzezinski Aug. 24) are "seething with hostility toward the US" and have sided with Iraq. 3. US intervention is at the expense of our needs at home. • The government's budget deficit for 1990 is expected to top $220 billion. As the military budget skyrockets to pay for the US intervention in the Middle East, funds for housing, education, healthcare of our elderly and other social programs are being slashed to "help balance the budget". • The standard of living for Americans has been steadily declining over the past decade, reaching crisis proportions in many areas of the country. 4. We will be fighting for the profits of big oil. • A top Bush adviser openly told Time magazine (Aug. 20) why the US is readying for war: "Even a dolt understands the 28 principle. We need the oil. It's nice to talk about standing up for freedom, but
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are not exactly democracies." • Gas prices shot up immediately after the Aug. 2 Iraqi move into Kuwait. A price increase of 7.1 cents per gallon on Aug. 6 reaped an immediate windfall profit of $1 billion for the oil companies. If war breaks out, oil speculators expect the price of oil to go as high as
• Four of the 10 largest corporations in the US are oil companies, with a staggering $758.9 billion in combined sales (Los Angeles Times, Aug. profits are among the highest in the 5. US policy disregards the right of determination. • The Western powers arbitrarily created nation states in the Middle East in the aftermath of World War 1 to serve their own interests. Iraq was denied access to the sea by the British Colonial Office, which established the territory of Kuwait as a separate entity under British control. • In 1928, the "Red Line Agreement" divided up the oil wealth of the Arab world among the major Western powers. For close to five decades the US, through the Aramco corp., controlled the main oil • The US and other Western powers have plundered the resources of the region against the will of the Arab people. They have no legal, moral, or political right to intervene in the Middle East. The borders of the region should be decided by the Arab people - not the former colonial powers. 6. The imminence of war is breeding racism against Arabs and other people of colour. • To justify going to war, the government and the media must play upon cultural biases and promote racism. Arab jokes can already be heard on the radio stations. • Racism surfaces in other ways: 40% of Black working age youth ployed. The "economic draft" has sent tens of thousands of Blacks and Latinos to the Saudi Arabian front lines. They will be the first to die if a war breaks out. 7. A war with Iraq will bring back the draft. • Reserve forces are limited. The US could not wage a protracted war in the Middle East without resuming the draft. • Those who will be asked to fight and die — America's youth — should not be sacrificed to protect the super-profits of the oil corporations. 8. We will be at war to keep feudal kings and emirs in power. • 60% of Kuwait's 1.9 million people have no citizenship rights. • In mid-July of this year, the nominal Kuwaiti parliament was dissolved by the emir; but even prior to that only 6% of the people in Kuwait could vote. • 90% of all Kuwaiti investments are controlled by 18 ruling billionaire families. • In Saudi Arabia, slavery was not abolished until 1962. Today, women are not allowed to drive cars, talk to any man (except a close relative) or take a job. 9. US policies reflect a double standard and a deception. • The US violated international law when it invaded Panama and Grenada and armed the Nicaraguan contras. These actions were condemned by a majority of the countries in the United Nations. • The US ignored Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against Iraqi Kurds and his long list of human rights violations when Hussein served US government interests by waging a war against Iran that cost over • Hussein was receiving millions of dollars in armaments from Western nations, including the US, right up to three months before the Iraqi move into Kuwait. 10. We should develop renewable and ecologically sound energy sources and promote conservation. • Our environment is threatened by the transportation (eg Exxon Valdez) of, as well as the burning of, fossil fuels. The resulting climatic changes, according to many experts, could create a "greenhouse effect" endangering our very existence. • Hard-won environmental protection laws (eg restrictions on off-shore drilling) are likely to be gutted in the wake of US intervention in the Gulf. *