OPINION & EDITORIAL
U.S Government tries to right its wrongs
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by Jason Rasoul
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Over the past month, America has sat anxiously by as our troops have gone to the Middle East to fight a second war in two decades. Our government’s assertion is that the Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, has weapons of mass destruction that must be destroyed, and that they have ties to Al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Currently, this war is being won (as if it was ever in doubt to begin with), and Saddam has been removed from power, if not been killed. With the removal of the last few pockets of resistance comes a new long-term challenge: rebuilding a great nation that the U.S. government is partly responsible for putting in its current situation.
For those who don’t know much about Iraq, a few facts about the U.S. government’s closet history with Iraq will illustrate my point. About 25 years ago, Iraq was in the middle of an oil boom that brought almost every citizen wealth. My family, which lives in Baghdad, had a life not unlike the one we each have every day in America. Baghdad was one of the most modern cities in the world, and life was great, even with Saddam Hussein as the president.
A few years later, the U.S. government helped turn Saddam into a ruthless, power-hungry dictator. After the 1980 hostage situation, war broke out between Iraq and Iran until 1988. The start of this war was of little interest to the United States, which claimed that they had no opinion whatsoever concerning the troubles between the two nations. Around the years 1983-1984, Iran started pushing into Iraq. As a result, the U.S. government provided Saddam with weapons, money and satellite surveillance to help fight the Iranians, fearing Iran’s success.
The image of what appeared to be a U.S. government that was interested in the protection of an invaded country was nothing more than a mirage. The government, including Ronald Reagan, seeing a chance to turn a profit in selling arms for the war, then turned its back on Iraq, selling arms to Iran to keep the war at a stalemate. This was to be known as the infamous Iran-Contra affair in 1986. The war ended in 1988 with neither side claming victory, but cost both nations about 500,000 lives.
After the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein had Iraq in an economic crisis. They spent too much money for the war and the country began suffering. In order to end the economic problems, Saddam, now armed with deadly American weapons, invaded Kuwait to claim the oil fields that were in debate at the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border in order to help stabilize his country.
Before invading, though, he was told by U.S. and U.N. officials that they had no opinion on this debate, either. Saddam, fearing no consequences, invaded. However, the U.S. government changed its tune pretty quickly, fearing power-hungry Saddam would control many oil fields in Kuwait and eventually Saudi Arabia, and Saddam was removed from Kuwait. This was what is known as the first Gulf War.
Instead of removing Saddam from power, the United Nations put sanctions on Iraq and devastated the economy and starved the people. Additionally, they let Saddam keep the weapons, which he used to kill the Kurds and hold supreme power over his citizens. Twelve years later, Saddam Hussein is now out of power primarily because the U.S. government felt that he was, all of a sudden, a threat to the security of Israel, the Middle East and the United States.
Make no mistake about it, Saddam Hussein was and is a ruthless, evil dictator; however, the U.S. government must share some blame concerning Iraq’s current situation. Even as they correct some of the many problems within the country, this conservative administration still seeks to profit from its rebuilding.
As is stands, administration leaders like Dick Cheney hold many, if not all, of the defense contracts to rebuild Iraq, creating a huge conflict of interest. The fact that it is the vice president and his cronies who ultimately will profit from this war, proves that saving the Iraqi people was not on the top of our government’s priority list. In the end, however, Saddam Hussein’s removal has been a success, but 25 years of slowly destroying a country to make money of its misery can only be seen as a diplomatic failure.
Jason Rasoul (jarasoul@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in pharmacy.
