UNDERSTANDING THE U.S.-IRAQ CRISIS:

Alternatives to War

By Phyllis Bennis

A pamphlet of the Institute for Policy Studies, January 2003

Sections:I. The U.S. Rush to War / II. The World's Response, the UN & International Law / III. The Consequences of War: Iraq and Beyond / IV. The History of U.S.-Iraq Relations / V. Alternatives to War / Resource Guide

This Section

What should be the U.S. approach to Iraq?
What should be done about economic sanctions?
What should be U.S. policy regarding disarmament in and around Iraq?
What should a new U.S. policy on oil look like?
What should we do about the "No-Fly" zones?
How can the U.S. better promote human rights internationally?
What should be done with the Iraqi opposition?

37. What should be the U.S. approach to Iraq?

The U.S. should immediately announce that war is not a solution to the U.S.-Iraq crisis, and that it will neither initiate a unilateral war nor use the United Nations as a tool to create a false "multi-lateral" cover for war, and that diplomacy and truly international initiatives will replace war.

38. What should be done about economic sanctions?

The U.S. should call for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions against Iraq, end foreign control of Iraq's oil income, and end the prohibitions against trade and the rehabilitation of Iraq's economy. In the meantime the U.S. should allow Iraq to suspend repayment of 25% of its oil revenues to the compensation fund until such time as UNICEF certifies that Iraqi children are no longer at grave risk from sanctions-driven impoverishment.

39. What should be U.S. policy regarding disarmament in and around Iraq?

The U.S. should support the work of the UN inspectors in Iraq, and respect the independence and authority of the United Nations as decision-maker regarding inspections.

The U.S. should transform military sanctions on Iraq by immediate implementation of Article 14 of the UN ceasefire Resolution 687, which says that disarming Iraq's WMDs should be a step towards the creation of a Middle East-wide zone free of all weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. This of course requires an end to the U.S.-led double standard that ignores the need for international inspection and destruction of Israel's known but unacknowledged nuclear arsenal, and provides a framework for ending all chemical and biological weapons programs in Iran, Israel and elsewhere in the region.

The U.S. should move to end its role as the largest supplier of arms of all kinds to this already arms-glutted region. The U.S. should immediately go public with the documentation of all U.S. companies and government agencies involved in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs in the past, and announce new restrictions that will prohibit all U.S. companies from exporting arms to any country in the Middle East.

The U.S. should announce its intention to follow the model of the UN arms inspections regime in Iraq to welcome international inspections of all U.S. WMD facilities and dual-use programs, and urge the other four permanent members of the Security Council to follow suit.

The U.S. should immediately resume participation in the negotiations it walked out of to strengthen enforcement of the Biological Weapons Treaty.

The U.S. should announce its intention to provide a model for nuclear disarmament by reaffirming its commitment to implementation of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requiring moves towards complete nuclear disarmament by the official nuclear weapons states.

40. What should a new U.S. policy on oil look like?

The U.S. should recognize that the only route to energy independence lies with decreasing our dependence on oil in favor of alternative fuels. The United States represents 4% of the world's people; we consume 25% of the world's oil and other resources. The Persian Gulf region holds 65% of the world's oil; as long as the U.S. remains dependent on ever-increasing supplies of oil, we remain dependent on that region.

41. What should we do about the "No-Fly" zones?

The U.S. should immediately end its bombing of the "no-fly" zones in Iraq, end military enforcement of the zones, and declare an end to the "no-fly" zones.

The U.S. should call on Turkey to respect its own borders and to keep its air force and ground troops out of Iraqi territory.

The U.S. should encourage the continuation of the recent negotiations between Kurdish leaders and the Iraqi regime regarding protection of the Iraqi Kurdish population and other potentially threatened communities in Iraq. The U.S. should also encourage other third parties (such as the European Union, the Arab League, Jordan, Qatar, France) to work through the UN to initiate such discussions with the Iraqi government. Since the EU is already involved in discussions regarding Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority, broadening those talks in such a way as to include protecting the rights of Iraqi as well as Turkish Kurds might be a useful beginning.

42. How can the U.S. better promote human rights for Iraqis?

The U.S. should recognize the limitations on its credibility because of its long-standing support for the Iraqi regime during the periods of the most egregious human rights violations.

The U.S. should support international initiatives (tribunals or other forums) designed to hold individuals and governments (Iraq, U.S., and others) accountable for the violations of all categories of human rights of civilians - political, civil, economic, social and cultural - in Iraq or occupied Kuwait from the mid-1980s until the present to include the periods of most serious violations. The tribunal could investigate violations of the laws of war (the use of chemical weapons, failure to account for missing prisoners of war, etc.); violations of civil and political rights (widespread use of arbitrary arrest, torture, extrajudicial killings, forced expulsions and relocations, etc.), and violations of economic and social rights (denial of food, water, medical care through the imposition of economic sanctions).

The U.S. should initiate internal investigations to determine the accountability of U.S. officials responsible for crafting or implementing policies in Iraq that have violated the human rights of the Iraqi population and should take steps to prevent such policies from being imposed in the future. Such an investigation should cover all violations of the laws of war, including attacks against nonmilitary and retreating Iraqi troops by allied forces during the Gulf War and the ongoing bombing of "no-fly" zones in Iraq. There should also be a U.S. investigation of large-scale violations of economic, social, and cultural rights from the allied bombing and sanctions regime, including the denial of a civilian population's access to sufficient food, water, medicine, and education, as well as the destruction of educational, medical, economic and cultural institutions.

43. What should be done with the Iraqi opposition?

The U.S. should announce an immediate end to support for armed Iraqi opposition groups. Since the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act does not include specific implementation requirements, the White House can and should reverse its current position of support for the act and announce its intention to disregard it.

The U.S. should reassert its commitments to abide by the UN Charter and other international legal prohibitions against efforts to overthrow other countries' governments.

The U.S. should agree to provide funds only to Arab League, European Union, UN, or other multilateral efforts to provide economic and humanitarian aid to civil society organizations and humanitarian institutions inside Iraq; Washington should provide no funds to unilaterally selected recipients or campaigns, including propaganda or political campaigns.

The U.S. should work to protect Kurdish interests through a reconciliation process aimed at establishing a non-discriminatory regional autonomy agreement with the Iraqi Kurds, and guaranteeing that, with the lifting of sanctions, the region's economic well-being is protected.

Next Section: Resource Guide

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