Dear Friends, Below are talking points drawn up by Chuck Quilty regarding current developments in Iraq. It seems to us that the present military threats may constitute a "Wag the Dog" as regards the Pentagon. The Pentagon needs to divert the US public from the fact that in a post cold-war world we have no real enemies posing a significant military threat. Yet the Pentagon wants justification to develop, use and peddle its own weapons of mass destruction.

Sincererly,

Kathy Kelly for Voices in the Wilderness

Weapons of Mass Destruction

1. The U.S. purports to be concerned about suspected weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iraqis. Yet it is the U.S. alone who has used nuclear weapons, who continues to maintain sanctions in place despite the deaths of over1.2 million Iraqi civilians, who spewed 350 tons of depleted uranium across much of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, and it is the U.S. which has now amassed more cruise missles than were used during the war to threaten the Iraqi government into "compliance" while the Iraqi people continue to die from malnutrition and deplorable living conditions. The U.S. also refuses to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons [of mass destruction] in the current situation.

Access to Weapon Sites

2. The U.S. insists that the U.N. inspectors have the "right" to examine any and all sites which UNSCOM suspects may be hiding weapons of mass destruction. These reportedly objective inspections have included the ransacking of a Baghdad convent, digging up grave yards, and burning high school chemistry books! Yet, the U.S. has passed a law (May, 1997) which allows the president to block international inspections of chemical facilities inside the United States.

Moral Bankruptcy

3. Pope John Paul II has "uneqivocally condemned" the sanctions against the Iraqi people saying that "the weak and the innocent cannot pay for mistakes for which they are not responsible." The Iraqi bishops have issued a plea for U.S. christians to work to end the blockade against Iraq to stop the unbearable situation of the Iraqi people. U.S. Bishop Tom Gumbleton and 53 other bishops have found the sanctions to be in violation of the moral teaching of the Catholic Church on the use of sanctions and a violation of the human rights of the Iraqi people. They have also called on the U.S. to refrain from the use of force in the current conflict.

Arrogance of Power

4. While the U.S. "prefers" to act multilaterally, it unilaterally continues to isolate itself from the world community. The Arab League and a majority of the members of The U.N. Security Council have spoken against the use of force and urged diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the dispute. The Sec. Gen. of the U.N. and military planners in the U.S. have expressed serious reservations about resolving the crisis by use of force. Meanwhile, Sec. of State Albright, headed to Europe and the Middle East declaring: "I am not going anywhere to seek support. I am going to explain our position."

Demonization

5. While the U.S. and the media portray Saddam Hussein as a monumental threat to world security, it is the Iraqi people who suffer the impact of the most comprehensive economic sanctions in history. This is classical scapegoating! This has had the effect of relegating the Iraqi people to non-entities. Yet it is the Iraqi people who suffer the consequences. U.S.

Terrorism

6. While U.N. inspectors admit they have accounted for 817/819 Scud missles, Richard Butler states that Iraq has not accounted for 45 missles and that they are loaded with enough biological toxins to wipe out Tel Aviv. Madeleine Albright tells Israel they can respond if Iraq fires missles at them. William Cohen says that the intention of the U.S. is not to cause "collateral damage." Yet, everyone knows that you cannot bomb a city of 4 million people without causing the deaths and injuries of many innocent civilians. More bombing of Iraqi cities is clearly an act of state-sponsored terrorism.

Dubious Goals

7. While the U.S. concedes it will not ensure that all weapons of mass destruction will be destroyed by further bombing, or that they can prevent the manufacturing of such weapons in the future, they nonetheless insist that force is their only option. Iraq, on the otherhand, has repeatedly called for dialogue directly with the U.S.

VITW Position

Voices In the Wilderness will send its 11th Delegation to Iraq on February 9, 1998 in direct violation of U.S. laws and in spite of the threat to bomb Iraq. The delegation of U.S. and British citizens will deliver over $110,000 worth of medicine directly to childrens' hospitals in Iraq, stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq, and, if necessary, witness to the effects of U.S. bombing of Iraqi cities.

VITW continues to oppose all weapons of mass destruction including the economic sanctions against the people of Iraq. We call for the immediate lifting of the sanctions and condemn any use of force against Iraq.

CQ 2-1-98

Peace and Love to all,

Chuck Chuck Quilty

2412 - 8 1/2 Ave.

Rock Island, IL. 61201

Ph: (309) 786-0157

E-mail: cquilty@juno.com _____________________________________________________________________

1. The New York Times reports that a proposal before the Security Council will double the amont of oil Iraq is allowed to sell under the oil for food deal. The new amount would be $5.2 billion every six months, after UN administrative costs, reprations, etc. are taken out.

UN's own agencies have reported that the oil for food deal has led to no sign of improvement in the health and nutritional situation of msot Iraqi's (Unicef report, Nov 26). Now it reports that increasing the oil for food deal will allow Iraqis to increase their caloric intake to 60% of what the average American's is. This is still totally inadequate to meet the current needs of Iraqi civilians, the greater nutritional needs of children, and cannot begin to repair the damage of 7 years of comprehensive sanctions to a generation of Iraqis.

2. In November, nine aid agencies working in baghdad released a statement that the UN deal could meet barely 10% of Iraq's food and medicine requirements.

Our delegations have spoken with doctors in iraqi hospitals who state that they carry 5-10% of the medicine they need. Now we declare that we are so generous as to provide them with the money to purchase 10-20% of the medicine needed to save sick and dying children.

3. Dennis Haliday,the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, stated on January 12 , 1998, that Iraq would need in the neighborhood of $30 billion/year to meet its current requirements for food, medicine, and infrastructure. Even doubling the oil for food deal cannot begin to repair iraq's shattered infrastructure, a medical system which is in near total collapse, and a destroyed economy.

4. The Clinton Administration will insist that its support for doubling the oil for food deal demonstrates that it is separating the suffering of Iraqi civilians from Saddam Hussein, yet they insist in the same breath that the sanctions will remain in place as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power, until Saddam Hussein meets every one of the US' demands. They insist that they must use military force even though they admit this will kill civilians.

5. Even assuming that the oil for food deal goes through and begins in march, it will be several months before the effects trickle down to the civilian population. According to Unicef stats, 4,500 children are dying every month from the sanctions, this nearly a year after the first oil for food deal went into effect. The death of a single child from these sanctions is a terrible crime, and between now and when Iraqis actually feel the impact of increased food rations another 20-30,000 children will probably have died as a direct result of these sanctions.

6. In an interview with John McLaughlin a few weeks ago, one of our delegation members was asked if he thought the suffering of the Irqi people could be considered genocidal. Ask yourselves what we would call the deliberately inflicted deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent children, the destruction of a society's economy, health care system, social infrastructure. We have so thoroughly demonized and dehumanized the people of Iraq that a leading columnist with the NYT can openly call for the killing of civilians, the bombing of installations where civilians might be, and no one flinches. A genocidal complacency on the part of the American people is what this is, a genocidal policy on the part of the American government.

7. International experts on chemical and biological weapons generally agree that they can be manufactured relatively cheaply. They are a weapon of the weak (even though the US maintain them as well). It would be virtually impossible to destroy Iraq's capacity to make these sorts of weapons. To continue to hammer on about finding weapons we don't even know exist is a perfect rationalization for keeping the sanctions in place, keeping Iraq from fully reentering the world oil market at a rapid pace, and a perfect justification for the Pentagon to call for continued massive spending on its own weapons of mass destruction.

8. The US HAS NO ENEMIES. Instead, we have manufactured a series of demons (North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, Iran) out of all proportion to the threats they pose to international peace to justify maintaining war spending at Cold War levels. The US now spends as much on Defense as most of the rest of the world combined, and national security officials have talked openly of nuclear options against iraq. Our militarization of the world, our willingness to employ mass starvation and disease as a tool of foreign policy, these are the real threats to peace.