NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5746

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    "Many believe that the war ended with the atom bomb.  Not so."


In his _Post War Teach In_ on the Gulf slaughter Noam Chomsky makes
some interesting revelations. After reviewing the Gulf "War" at the
beginning of a section by that name, he notes that "some commentators
expressed qualms about the savagery of the final slaughter, but a look
at history should have relieved their surprise."

Enclosed is the final paragraph of "The War" section, followed by the
rest of the section which preceded it.

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The same was true of World War II.  At the end, Japan was
defenseless, therefore demolished at will.  Tokyo was removed
from the list of atom bomb targets because it was "practically
rubble" so that an attack would not demonstrate the bomb's power.
Many believe that the war ended with the atom bomb.  Not so.  In
the official US Air Force history, we read that General Arnold
"wanted as big a finale as possible," and, with management skills
that compare to Stormin' Norman's, assembled over 1000 planes to
bomb Japan after Nagasaki, killing thousands of people and
dropping leaflets saying "Your Government has surrendered.  The
war is over!" Truman announced Japan's surrender before the last
planes returned.  Japan was prostrate, so why not?  As the Korean
war ground on, the Air Force could locate no more targets.
Therefore, as an official US Air Force study records, it attacked
North Korean dams, leading to such stirring sights as a "flash
flood [that] scooped clean 27 miles of valley below," while 75%
of the water supply for rice production was wiped out and the
enemy suffered "the destruction of their chief sustenance --
rice." "The Westerner can little conceive the awesome meaning
which the loss of this staple food commodity has for the Asian,"
the study explains: "starvation and slow death,...more feared
than the deadliest plague.  Hence the show of rage, the flare of
violent tempers, and the avowed threats of reprisals when bombs
fell on five irrigation dams." The threats of reprisal were
empty, and there were no political costs, so these war crimes
joined the long list of others compiled with impunity by the
powerful, who never fail to strike impressive poses as they call
for war crimes trials -- for others.@note{For details, see my
@u<American Power and the New Mandarins> (Pantheon, 1969), 210-1;
@u<Towards a New Cold War> (Pantheon, 1982), 112-3.  On Tokyo,
see Barton Bernstein, @u<International Security>, Spring 1991.}

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                =====================================
                A   P o s t - W a r   T e a c h - I n
                =====================================

                 "WHAT WE SAY GOES": THE MIDDLE EAST
                        IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER

                           BY NOAM CHOMSKY

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   -->  [Send the 1-line message GET POST-WAR TEACH-IN ACTIV-L to]
        [[e-mail] for a copy of this file.         ]
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        [listing with brief descriptions of other files available]
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         __________________________________________
        |                                          |
        |  1. "The Surly Master of the World"      |
        |  2. The Lessons at Home                  |
        |  3. The Leader and his Teachings         |
        |  4. The Background to the War            |
        |  5. Deterring Iraqi Democracy            | <--- key
        |  6. Blocking the Diplomatic Track        | <--- sections
        |  7. Deterring US Democracy               |
enclosed:  8. The War                              |
        |  9.  The Political Culture               |
        | 10. The Contours of the New World Order  |
        |                                          |
         __________________________________________
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@subheading<8. The War>

The war followed the script laid out for confrontations with a
"much weaker enemy." A ground war was avoided.  US combat
casualties were on the scale of Grenada, while Iraqi military
deaths are estimated by the US military at 1-200,000, killed from
a safe distance.  The victors bulldozed corpses into mass graves,
in violation of the Geneva Conventions to which they appeal when
some interest is served.  But the laws of war are as relevant as
they were in earlier days, when the @u<New York Times> cheerily
described how helicopter gunships would attack the "dazed and
bleeding people" surrounding B-52 bomb craters in Vietnam and
"put them out of their misery," honoring the law that soldiers
unable to fight "shall in all circumstances be treated
humanely."@note{Walter S. Mossberg and David Rogers, @u<WSJ>,
March 22; Holly Burkhalter, Washington director of Human Rights
Watch, @u<LAT>, March 12; @u<News>, Middle East Watch, March 7,
1991.  Malcolm Browne, @u<NYT>, May 6, 1972; see E.S. Herman and
N. Chomsky, @u<Manufacturing Consent> (Pantheon, 1988), 193, for
longer quote and context.}

In a briefing, General Schwartzkopf observed that during the
Grenada invasion, the Cubans fought harder than expected --
referring to the several dozen paramilitary construction workers
who resisted the assault of 6000 elite US forces after Washington
had ignored Cuba's announcement that they would not fire unless
attacked, and its call for a peaceful resolution.  This time, the
heroic General explained, we would take no chances.  The tactic
was to pulverize the Third World peasant army -- hiding in the
sand, immobile, and defenseless -- after months of disinformation
about its artillery, sophisticated defenses, chemical weapons,
and other fantastic capacities, later conceded to be largely
fakery.  When the enemy was utterly demoralized, US forces cut
off escape, the Air Force slaughtered those attempting to flee
(including Asian workers and Kuwaiti hostages, BBC
reported),@note{BBC-1 TV news, 9 PM, March 5; BBC radio, cited by
Christopher Hitchens, @u<Nation>, April 8.} and troops were sent
in to pick up the pieces -- though elite Iraqi units were allowed
to move on to crush later revolts with savage terror, in accord
with the US aim of reconstructing something rather like the
friendly regime of the pre-August 1990 period, but now with
firmer guarantees of obedience to the master.

The air war had already reduced Iraq to a "pre-industrial age,"
creating "near apocalyptic" conditions, a UN survey reported.
The air attack was aimed at civilian targets, called "military"
for the purpose: water, sewage, and power systems, bridges and
infrastructure generally.  The results, as expected, were the
effective destruction of the health system so that limbs have to
be sawed off without anesthesia among other harrowing scenes in
what remains of hospitals; mounting deaths from disease and lack
of food and water, with huge increase in infant diarrheal
infections and other serious diseases; water down to 5% of normal
supply; food rations at 1000 calories with further crises
impending; and the likelihood of major epidemics from what
amounts to biological warfare.  The @u<Times> reported that the
US opposes any "premature relaxation" of these conditions,
insisting that the civilian population be held hostage in the
expectation that if they suffer enough, they might remove Saddam
Hussein.  This is apart from the tens of thousands of civilians
killed, the destruction of four hospitals, thousands of homes and
other civilian structures by bombing, and other goals readily --
and of course heroically -- achieved when the the "much weaker
enemy" is entirely defenseless.@note{World Health Organization,
@u<WP>, Feb. 26, @u<NYT>, Feb. 26, 1991.  International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), AP, Feb.
28; David Nyhan, @u<BG>, March 3, 1991.  Paul Lewis, @u<NYT>,
March 2; Trevor Rowe, @u<BG>, March 2, 1991.  For a detailed
accounting, see V.K. Ramachandran, @u<Frontline> (India), March
30, 1991.}

Had the diplomatic track that Washington feared been successfully
pursued, Kuwait too would have been spared the war and the Iraqi
terror, which, according to reports, rapidly increased in the
final days.  An environmental catastrophe would also have been
averted.  In the small print, the @u<Times> noted that according
to Pentagon officials, "the burning of Kuwait's oil fields might
have been a defensive action by Iraq, which appeared to be
anticipating imminent attack by allied ground forces." While Iraq
created the largest oil spill, the one that threatened the
desalination plant at Safaniya in Saudi Arabia probably resulted
from US bombing, US military officials said.  A Pentagon official
added that the Iraqi oil spill might have been aimed at the water
sources for US troops, in retaliation for US destruction of
Kuwait's major desalination plant just before.  The prime
responsibility for the Gulf tragedy lies on the shoulders of
Saddam Hussein; but he is not without his partners in crime, nor
are his crimes unique.@note{Andrew Rosenthal, @u<NYT>, Feb. 23;
AP, @u<BG>, Feb. 9; Pamela Constable, @u<BG>, Jan 27, 1991.}

Some commentators expressed qualms about the savagery of the
final slaughter, but a look at history should have relieved their
surprise.  When violence is cost-free, all bars are down.  During
the Indochina war, there were constraints on bombing of Hanoi and
Haiphong, or dikes in North Vietnam, because of fear of a Chinese
or Soviet reaction and the political cost elsewhere.  But in the
southern sectors of North Vietnam, or elsewhere in Indochina, no
one important cared, and the rule was that "anything goes." The
Pentagon Papers reveal extensive planning about the bombing of
the North, because of potential costs to the US; the far more
devastating bombing of the South, begun years earlier and
including major war crimes, is passed over with little
attention.@note{For a detailed review, see my @u<For Reasons of
State> (Pantheon, 1973).}

The same was true of World War II.  At the end, Japan was

[...last paragraphs as quoted at top...]

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