BAGHDAD -- When Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz described
the box that Washington has meticulously constructed for Iraq, he put it
this way: "Doomed if you do, doomed if you don't."
It would be difficult to argue the point with Aziz, and I didn't
try. Instead, during a Sept. 14 meeting here in Baghdad, I joined with
others in a small American delegation who argued that the ominous
dynamics of recent weeks might be reversible if -- as a first step --
Iraq agreed to allow unrestricted inspections.
Despite Iraq's breakthrough decision that came two days later to do
just that, I'll be leaving Baghdad tonight with a scarcely mitigated
sense of gloom. While the news from the Iraqi capital has been positive
in recent days, the profuse signs of renewed acquiescence to war among
top Democrats on Capitol Hill are all the more repulsive.
Boxed in, the Iraqi government opted to accept arms inspectors as
its least bad choice. Gauging the odds of averting war, Iraq chose a
long shot -- appreciably better than no chance at all, but bringing its
own risks. Several years ago, Washington used UNSCOM inspectors for
espionage totally unrelated to the U.N. team's authorized mission. This
fall, new squads of inspectors poking around the country could furnish
valuable data to the United States, heightening the effectiveness of a
subsequent military attack.
Aziz, a very analytical man, hardly seemed eager to grasp at
weapons inspections as a way to stave off attack. Instead, he told our
delegation (which included Rep. Nick Rahall, former Sen. James Abourezk
and Conscience International president James Jennings) that a
comprehensive "formula" would be needed for a long-term solution.
Presumably the formula would include a U.S. pledge of
non-aggression and a lifting of sanctions. No such formula is in sight.
Instead, the White House remains determined to inflict a horrendous war.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party's "leadership" in the Senate, pursuing
some sort of craven political calculus, is lining up to put vast
quantities of blood on its hands.
I would like to take Tom Daschle to visit a 7-year-old girl,
suffering from leukemia, who I saw in a Baghdad hospital a few days ago.
He might spare a few senatorial moments to look at the IV connected to
her wrist, the uncontrolled bleeding from her lips, the anguish in the
dark eyes of her mother, seated on a bare mattress. Years of sanctions,
championed by moralizers in Washington, have left Iraq without adequate
chemotherapy drugs.
Now we're hearing about a resolution that -- unless people across
the United States mobilize in opposition -- will sail through the House
and Senate to authorize a massive U.S. military attack on Iraq.
I can hear the raspy and prophetic voice of Sen. Wayne Morse, who
voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, roaring 38 years ago: "I
don't know why we think, just because we're mighty, that we have the
right to try to substitute might for right."
After leaving Tariq Aziz's office, our delegation met with Sadoon
Hammadi, speaker of Iraq's National Assembly. "We are now a country
facing the threat of war," he said. "We have to prepare for that."
Hammadi is an elderly man. While he's now in frail physical health,
his mind and articulation remain acute. If the U.S. invaders come,
Hammadi said, "the Iraqi people will fight." As those words settled in
the air, the gaunt old man paused and then added: "I will fight." And
for a moment I thought that I could see the dimming of light in his
eyes, like embers in a dying fire.
During the current heavy dance of death, the U.S. government leads
with every major step. And the sky over Baghdad seems to foreshadow new
horrors; unfathomable and avoidable.
With an all-out war on Iraq shadowing the near horizon, what are
Americans to do if they want to prevent such carnage from happening in
their names with their tax dollars? For one thing, they -- we -- can
speak up. Now. The fact that the odds are dire should spur us into
creative action, not anesthetize us into further passivity. "And
henceforth," Albert Camus wrote, "the only honorable course will be to
stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful
than munitions."
_________________________
Norman Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public
Accuracy (
www.accuracy.org), which sponsored the U.S. delegation to
Baghdad in mid-September.
