 |
Iraqis Struggling for Decade After Gulf War
Although 10 years have passed, the formidable scene of the Gulf War, the largest military operation after the World War II, is still vividly remembered by most Iraqis.
The fierce air raids on Iraq and its occupation troops in Kuwait by warplanes of the US-led coalition forces in the early morning January 17, 1991, marked the beginning of the Gulf War.
This was followed by a six-week devastating bombing campaign and a 100-hour ground war that completely evicted the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and liberated the emirate from Iraq's six-month occupation.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who shocked the world by ordering his troops to storm into Kuwait August 2, 1990, was finally compelled to accept all United Nations resolutions, and Iraq has since been struggling under crippling UN economic sanctions.
The 42-day war has left a long-lasting effect on Iraq, whose war machine was enfeebled, economy devastated and people's living standards drastically lowered. But Saddam's grip on power remains as strong as ever.
Saddam Still in Power Although Military Forces Enfeebled Saddam has survived not only military strikes by the Western allies and the sweeping international economic sanctions, but also rebellions and coups at home since the Gulf War.
The UN sanctions have strengthened the Saddam regime instead of weakening it, as the moves made it easier for him to control the flow of money and food, said Nihad Awad, deputy director of the Washington-based Council of American-Islamic Relations, in a televised interview.
The Gulf War dealt a severe blow to the Iraqi army, once dubbed the fourth largest in the world. Now, it is merely an act of defiant futility when the Iraqi anti-aircraft force opened fire at US and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones in the north and south.
US Defense Department has declared that Saddam has been successfully contained and was no longer a threat to its neighbors.
However, Saddam is still defiant and presided on December 31 over the largest military parade in Baghdad since the Gulf War, greeting army units with shots from a rifle he held in one hand.
Formations of fighters, bombers and military helicopters hovered over the sky of central Baghdad, tens of thousands of soldiers
representing Iraq's land, navy and air forces and special units took part in the parade, which lasted for five hours.
Thousands of armored vehicles, cannons, tanks, surface-to-surface and anti-aircraft missiles were also on display in the parade.
By doing so, Saddam was trying to show that Iraq remains militarily strong and is still a force that no one can ignore.
Iraq's Economy RavagedSabah Mahmoud, a politics professor at Baghdad's Al-Mustansirriyah University, used to earn US$1,000 a month and he traveled abroad almost every year. But now his monthly salary is only 30 dollars and he has never been out of Iraq for the past decade.
The UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq, the toughest and longest in history, have tattered Iraq's economy and forced millions of Iraqis to struggle for life.
According to UN figures, Iraq's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen to less than 250 dollars from US$3,100 in 1989.
One in five Iraqi children under the age of five is undernourished and Iraq's welfare system, which was once the envy of the Arab world, is crumbling.
UN prescription for the crippling sanctions has been the oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and allows Iraq to export oil in return for UN-supervised imports of food, medicine and other humanitarian necessities for its 22 million people.
Iraq began implementing a ration system starting in 1990, under which each Iraqi citizen, by paying a symbolic 250 Iraqi dinars (some 14 US cents) every month, can receive small quantities of rice, flour, tea, sugar and edible oil, along with soap, salt, detergents and matches.
But this still can not stop the continuous plunge in the living standards of the Iraqi people, Mahmoud said.
Gulf War Coalition Cracked A decade ago, the use of force against Iraq received no objection from within the UN Security Council, and the sanctions were imposed on the country unanimously. But today, the US and Britain have found themselves increasingly isolated due to their hardline policy against Iraq.
The US and Britain, in disregard of repeated call from Russia, France and China, three other permanent members of the UN
Security Council, have been vehemently opposed to any easing or lifting of the sanctions.
The decade-old sanctions on Iraq have become the most divisive issue facing the Security Council.
In the last few months, aircraft from Russia, France and China, as well as from Gulf coalition countries such as Germany, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, have landed at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad in spite of the opposition and pressure from the US and Britain.
Meanwhile, more and more foreign diplomats are returning to Iraq, more and more embassies have been opened or reopened in Baghdad, with Turkey being the latest to decide to send an ambassador to Iraq.
Turkey upgraded its diplomatic ties with Iraq to the ambassadorial level earlier this month in the hope of improving relations with the sanctions-hit country, which has been gradually walking out of political and economic isolation.
Gloomy Prospects for Iraq's Relations With UN, US While Iraq is optimistic about its future, it has no "great expectations" for the planned dialog with the UN, said Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz at a press conference Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Gulf War.
The decision to hold talks was made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of the ruling Iraqi Revolutionary Council, when they were attending a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Doha, Qatar last November.
Analysts said that different expectations of the UN and Iraq will probably lead the dialog to nowhere. Annan hoped the talks would pave the way for the resumption of arms inspections in Iraq, which were suspended more than two years ago, while Iraq demanded the sanctions be lifted immediately and totally on the grounds that it has rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.
Under UN resolutions, the sanctions can not be lifted until Baghdad is disarmed with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
As to Iraq's future relations with the US, both Sami Mekki Al-Ani, a history professor at Al-Mustansirriyah University, and Sabah Mahmoud agreed that the new US administration will not give up its "aggressive" policy against Iraq, as Dick Cheney, US vice president-elect, and Colin Powell, secretary of state-designate, are all familiar faces to Saddam.
Cheney was defense secretary and Powell, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the Gulf War.
Moreover, Donald Rumsfield, the defense secretary-designate, has once written to US President Bill Clinton and urged him to "remove Saddam Hussein and his regime from power."
All these sound no good news for Iraq, but Iraq's strong relations with Russia and rapidly improving and developing relations with other Arab countries will prevent the US and Britain from staging another major military attack against Iraq, said Mahmoud, who is also a political analyst.
Although there are US allies in the Middle East region, the common Arab interests will make these countries support Iraq if the US and its allies want to flex their muscles against Iraq again,
Mahmoud said.
In This Section
|