The New Humanitarianism

The New Humanitarianism: Basra as a "Military Target"

Iraq's desperate humanitarian situation has suddenly become a retroactive 
justification for the war, even for the attacking of civilian targets. The 
need to get aid into Basra has apparently prompted a British military 
spokesperson to designate it as a "legitimate military target" 
(edition.cnn.com), language reminiscent of Gulf War I, when the 
saturation bombing of Basra was justified on the same basis.

As verifiable civilian deaths caused directly by the bombing mount toward 
300 (www.iraqbodycount.net) in this "war of liberation," the need to 
establish American moral superiority is growing rapidly  although somehow 
the over 500,000 child deaths caused by the sanctions (www.unicef.org) did not 
create such a need. Thus Donald Rumsfeld's convenient rediscovery of the 
Geneva Convention and thus the American media hysteria over al-Jazeera, 
which has the temerity to provide a little balance in the reporting of 
the war.

Thus also a recent press conference by the execrable Andrew Natsios, head 
administrator of USAID, in which he raised the already stunning mendacity 
of the Bush administration to new heights. While beating his chest over the 
massive preparations the United States has made to avert a humanitarian 
tragedy in Iraq (always assuming the Iraqis don't screw things up by 
continuing unaccountably to resist their liberation), he touched on the 
problems of Basra, where only 40% of the people currently have access to 
potable water.

The genesis of said problems, according to him, is "a deliberate decision 
by the regime not to repair the water system or replace old equipment with 
new equipment, so in many cases people are basically drinking untreated 
sewer water in their homes and have been for some years." (lists.state.gov)

A deliberate decision by the regime. We've seen some remarkable lies 
(www.accuracy.org) about Iraq from this administration. There was Dick 
Cheney's statement that Iraq has "reconstituted nuclear weapons" 
(www.washingtonpost.com), thoroughly refuted by Mohammed el-Baradei of 
the IAEA. And Ari Fleischer's that Iraq tried to hide the existence of its 
al-Samoud 2 missiles  actually, they were discovered by inspectors only 
because Iraq reported them in its declaration of December 7. Perhaps worst 
was an attempt to pass off crudely forged (www.washingtonpost.com) 
documents as proof that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger among 
the mistakes made were getting the name of the foreign minister wrong.

But this. "A deliberate decision by the regime." The mind boggles. Ever 
since Iraq's water treatment system was left in shambles by the Gulf War, 
where the deliberate targeting of the entire electrical power grid caused 
water pumping to shut down and sewage to fill the streets of Basra, the 
Iraqi government has scrambled desperately to repair its water system, only 
to come repeatedly face to face with one huge obstacle: the United States 
government.

Joy Gordon's excellent article, "Cool War: Economic Sanctions as a Weapon 
of Mass Destruction" (Harper's, November 2002, text at (www.scn.org), 
documents at length her conclusion that "the United States has consistently 
thwarted Iraq from satisfying its most basic humanitarian needs." Under 
the sanctions regime set up over Iraq after the Gulf War, any country on 
the Security Council could block or indefinitely delay any contract for 
goods submitted by the Iraqi government. The United States has imposed 
far more blocks than all other members put together; as of 2001, it had 
put half a billion dollars worth of water and sanitation contracts on hold. 
The water treatment goods it has blocked at one time or another include 
pipes (roughly 40% of the clean water pumped is lost to leakage), earth-
moving equipment, safety equipment for handling chlorine, and no fewer 
than three sewage treatment plants.

But there can be no doubt that, in the inimitable words of Madeleine 
Albright, "we care more about the Iraqi people."

If you're not convinced yet, consider this. After coming under harsh 
criticism (www.washingtonpost.com) because of the frightful inadequacy 
of its humanitarian preparations, the United States has made some attempt 
to remedy the problem. The original plan was a reprise of the Afghan 
operation dubbed "military propaganda" by Doctors Without Borders, in 
which some tens of thousands of meals would be dropped out of planes 
every day, and, in the miraculous manner common in that part of the world, 
each meal would feed a multitude; now, some shipments of wheat have been 
added to the original plan.

The same Andrew Natsios wrote an indignant rejoinder to the Washington 
Post, claiming full readiness of the United States to "help Iraq." 
(www.washingtonpost.com). Tucked away in the middle of his missive: 
"Saddam Hussein has doubled monthly food rations since October, trying 
to buy the affection of his people. As a result, families have stored food 
at home."

In other words, for all the humanitarian triumphalism of the "coalition," 
for all its great desire to level Basra so that Iraqis can be fed, the 
agency that has taken meaningful steps to avert a catastrophe is the Iraqi 
government. It did so under the severest of constraints; for over a year, 
oil revenue has been depressed due to American and British-imposed 
constraints and Iraq has been unable to pay for all its Oil for Food 
contracts.

Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who has subjected his people to 
horrible suffering. There is little doubt about that. The fact that on at 
least the grounds considered above he stacks up far better than the U.S. 
government, no matter which administration, does not bode well for the 
future of the Iraqi people.

Nor does this brave new humanitarian world being created by the exponents 
of water privatization and structural adjustment bode well for the future 
of anybody else. On Iraq, the New Humanitarianism is clear: we had to 
destroy Iraq (over the past 12 years, not just the last few days) in order 
to save it. Who will we save next?

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Rahul Mahajan is a founding member of the Nowar Collective 
(www.nowarcollective.com) His latest book is "Full Spectrum 
Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond." (www.sevenstories.com). 
His articles are collected at www.rahulmahajan.com.
He can be reached at rahul@tao.ca.