What
we need to Know About Iraq
I've
been working with Iraqis since January 2001, when I made my first trip to
Baghdad. Some of these long-time
colleagues and friends are Christians, most are Muslims. I don't know if they're Shi'ia or
Sunni. I've never asked, and they have never offered. So, I don't know if my
friend Mazin in more danger or less in this current crisis…perhaps it's all the
same. He doesn't worry to me about "the others" if indeed they are
the others…maybe they're not.
Then there's Khalid, a young father now living in Jordan who for two
years has been helping critically ill children in need of surgery transit from
Basra through Amman to Europe. And, Thamir, a devout Muslim and the artist who
coordinated projects for Iraqi refugees in Amman, including ones in a Melkite
Catholic church in a neighborhood where many Iraqi Christians lived.
No
one ever asked about religion when they agreed to be of help to other
Iraqis. They rail against the
violence and the corruption of the government, they want the borders in Iraq
closed and long for security so they can resume something like a normal life.
But they don't talk in sectarian terms when they talk about what they've been
through or their fears about what is coming. It's a small
sample, but it makes me wonder why the media is so insistent on this issue; why
the narrative is strictly framed in sectarian terms. I expect this religious
conflict doesn't make sense and even doesn't matter to most people in the US anyway. It's just, in my
opinion, TMI.
I
became an activist on behalf of children in Iraq in 1997, when UNICEF and other reputable
agencies on the ground were reporting that between 5.000 to 7,000 children were
dying every MONTH in Iraq as a result of US supported UN Sanctions. I didn't know anything, really about
Iraq at that point, but I'm an educator and advocate for children. What American could live with this, our
government sustaining a policy that was resulting in the death of so many, many
children? I thought it would be an easy fight, tell people what's happening,
and they'll demand an end to it.
But
it wasn't an easy fight. These
were not "just" children, these were Iraqi children. People heard the figures --not just
from me and other activists but from "authorities" like then
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. When asked about the deaths of 250,000
children on that infamous segment of 60 Minutes in 1998, Albright responded
that the price of keeping sanctions in place, the price of US policies in Iraq,
might indeed be the death of all those children. But, she said, the price was worth it. An entire Sunday
night viewing audience heard this horrifying acknowledgement; I'm sure some
felt badly But neither the public
nor our elected officials reacted with enough moral outrage to change US
policy.
Part
of my activism was standing on a vigil line for one hour every Saturday for
eight years, holding signs and
handing out flyers about the human disaster created by UN sanctions
against Iraq.. I live in what would be described as a liberal college
community. It was my experience that the public--people passing by and talking
or taking our flyer-- couldn't care about Iraqi children because they were too
worried about Saddam Hussein. Some
even asked, well, how bad is 5,000 deaths per month in terms of the population
of Iraq…is it significant?
Everyone knew the most important fact,
the one they were supposed to know, and that fact formed the basis of their
thinking and opinions about the situation in Iraq: Saddam was an evil dictator capable of murdering his own people. In addition, most people believed the government and media hype about the
threat Iraq posed, believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was hell
bent on using them against us if given half a chance. When all was said and
done, fear won over concern for children dying in Iraq, over empathy for their
suffering parents and the doctors who tried to care for them, over sympathy for
the struggling communities who could not protect or provide for their basic needs.
Our
thinking is clouded by fear. On
top of that and even worse, for a
long time I've been thinking that our moral inclination to be outraged and then
moved to act is being overwhelmed
by too much news with, too much purposefully irrelevant information framing and
then dominating a complex issue such as Iraq. Saddam Hussein's evil deeds
aren't necessarily irrelevant, but the story of Iraq as of all countries is
complex. Yes Saddam was evil, but still there were and are meaningful lives
being lived, despite evil dictators. There were many positives to go with the negatives. Education in Iraq was mandatory for
both girls and boys through grade six; education was free through university
and there was free universal, high quality health care. But all of that, social
and economic benefits we can only
dream about in the US, all that along with tens, probably hundreds of thousands and some would say more
than a million lives disappeared, with the evil dictator. The baby thrown out with the bath.
What
could possibly have moved people in 2003 to support a war against Iraq knowing
what devastation the sanctions had brought, and knowing what was at stake for
ordinary men, women and especially children in Iraq? Fear and I suppose oil. What could possibly move people to support another round of
military intervention in Iraq now, in 2014? The misguided notion that "these people" cannot
solve their own problems…just look at the religious strife.
So,
I've been asking: what's important to know about the current crisis unfolding
in Iraq? Asking why do we as
activists or academics -- as humanists-- keep talking about it, framing it in
sectarian terms: Sunni vs. Sh'ia vs. Kurd? Isn't it enough to simply know there is yet another war and
more marauding troops on the doorstep of Iraq?. What does it matter and who
truly knows at this point who is fighting with whom, who is supporting whom and
why? Ordinary people are caught up in wars they don't want and cannot end. They "join up" because they are forced to or perhaps they need the money or to
save their house and family.
Perhaps they are furious about the life they have been dealt. Who knows.
I argue that what we need to know, what
we need to keep in mind so we can act as responsible, moral citizens is only
this: the land, the people and culture, the entire society in Iraq has been
torn asunder. Generations of children and their parents--Sunni, Shi'ia and
Kurds -- have been set back and
will not recover sufficiently to be in a position to be of help in revisioning
or reconstructing their country. The very air they all breathe, the water they all drink; the
very earth they live on and the soil they grow food in is dangerously polluted and will be toxic
for generations to come. Enough!
We
already know enough to act. We know we cannot "save" people by
killing them; we cannot "save" villages in Afghanistan or cities in
Iraq or the country of Syria by destroying them. Turn off your radio and TV. Stop listening to corporate
media pundits explaining (erroneously) why war between Sunni, Shi'ia and Kurd
in Iraq is inevitable, why these frightening Arabs need us to help them control
their out-of-control passions.
Stop listening. Trust
yourself, you already know enough to take action in whatever way is open to
you. Demand that fighting --all
combat and all financial support
and intervention by foreign troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan-- stop. Demand an end to all of it. It's way past time to stop destroying and start rebuilding; it's time for
all of us to demand an end to war.
Then,
we can begin using our vast resources to give back and help rebuild the lives and the countries we've
destroyed.
It
sounds impossible. But the
alternative -- to continue on this path-- is unacceptable. Enough.