Tanks pulling plows moved alongside trenches, firing into the
Iraqi soldiers inside the trenches as the plows covered them with
great mounds of sand. Thousands were buried, dead, wounded, or
alive.{87}
US forces fired on Iraqi soldiers after the Iraqis had
raised white flags of surrender. The navy commander who gave the
order to fire was not punished.{88}
The bombing destroyed two operational nuclear reactors in
Iraq. It was the first time ever that live reactors had been
bombed, and may well have set a dangerous precedent. Hardly more
than a month had passed since the United Nations, under whose
mandate the United States was supposedly operating, had passed a
resolution reaffirming its "prohibition of military attacks on
nuclear facilities" in the Middle East.{89} Sundry chemical,
including chemical-warfare, facilities and alleged biological-
warfare plants, were also targets of American bombs. General
Schwarzkopf then announced that they had been very careful in
selecting the means of destruction of these as well as the
nuclear facilities, and only "after a lot of advice from a lot of
very, very prominent scientists," and were "99.9 percent" certain
that there was "no contamination".{90} However, European
scientists and environmentalists detected traces of chemical-
weapons agents that the bombings had released; as well as
chemical fallout and toxic vapors, also released by the air
attacks, that were killing scores of civilians.{91}
The American government and media had a lot of fun with an
obvious piece of Iraqi propaganda -- the claim that a bombed
biological warfare facility had actually been a baby food
factory. But it turned out that the government of New Zealand
and various business people from there had had intimate contact
with the factory and categorically confirmed that it had indeed
been a baby food factory.{92}
The United States also made wide use of advanced depleted
uranium (DU) shells, rockets and missiles, leaving tons of
radioactive and toxic rubble in Kuwait and Iraq. The United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, in an April 1991 secret report,
warned that "if DU gets in the food chain or water this will
create potential health problems." The uranium-238 used to make
the weapons can cause cancer and genetic defects if inhaled.
Uranium is also chemically toxic, like lead. Inhalation causes
heavy metal poisoning or kidney or lung damage. Iraqi soldiers,
pinned down in their bunkers during assaults, were almost
certainly poisoned by radioactive dust clouds.{93}
The civilian population suffered in the extreme from the
relentless bombing. Middle East Watch, the human-rights
organization, has documented numerous instances of the bombing of
apartment houses, crowded markets, bridges filled with
pedestrians and civilian vehicles, and a busy central bus
station, usually in broad daylight, without a government building
or military target of any kind in sight, not even an anti-
aircraft gun.{94}
On 12 February, the Pentagon announced that "Virtually
everything militarily ... is either destroyed or combat
ineffective."{95} Yet the next day there was a deliberate
bombardment of a civilian air raid shelter that took the lives of
as many as 1,500 civilians, a great number of them women and
children; this was followed by significant bombardment of various
parts of Iraq on a daily basis for the remaining two weeks of the
war, including what was reported for the 18th in The Guardian of
London as "one of [the coalition's] most ferocious attacks on the
centre of Baghdad."{96} What was the purpose of the bombing
campaign after the 12th?
The United States said it thought that the shelter was for
VIPs, which it had been at one time, and claimed that it was also
being used as a military communications center, but neighborhood
residents insisted that the constant aerial surveillance overhead
had to observe the daily flow of women and children into the
shelter.{97} Western reporters said they could find no signs of
military use.{98}
An American journalist in Jordan who viewed unedited
videotape footage of the disaster, which the American public
never saw, wrote:
They showed scenes of incredible carnage. Nearly all the
bodies were charred into blackness; in some cases the heat
had been so great that entire limbs were burned off. ...
Rescue workers collapsed in grief, dropping corpses; some
rescuers vomited from the stench of the still-smoldering
bodies.{99}
Said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater after the
bombing of the shelter: It was "a military target ... We don't
know why civilians were at this location, but we do know that
Saddam Hussein does not share our value in the sanctity of
life."{100} Said George Bush, when criticized for the bombing
campaign: "I am concerned about the suffering of innocents."{101}
The crippling of the electrical system multiplied
geometrically the daily living horror of the people of Iraq. As
a modern country, Iraq was reliant on electrical power for
essential services such as water purification and distribution,
sewage treatment, the operation of hospitals and medical
laboratories, and agricultural production. Bomb damage,
exacerbated by shortages attributable to the UN/US embargo,
dropped electricity to three or four percent of its pre-war
level; the water supply fell to five percent, oil production was
negligible, the food distribution system was devastated, the
sewage system collapsed, flooding houses with raw sewage, and
gastroenteritis and extreme malnutrition were prevalent.{102}
Two months after the war ended, a public health team from
Harvard University visited health facilities in several Iraqi
cities. Based on their research, the group projected,
conservatively, that "at least 170,000 children under five years
of age will die in the coming year from the delayed effects" of
the destruction of electrical power, fuel and transportation; "a
large increase in deaths among the rest of the population is also
likely. www.killinghope.org
Iraqi soldiers inside the trenches as the plows covered them with
great mounds of sand. Thousands were buried, dead, wounded, or
alive.{87}
US forces fired on Iraqi soldiers after the Iraqis had
raised white flags of surrender. The navy commander who gave the
order to fire was not punished.{88}
The bombing destroyed two operational nuclear reactors in
Iraq. It was the first time ever that live reactors had been
bombed, and may well have set a dangerous precedent. Hardly more
than a month had passed since the United Nations, under whose
mandate the United States was supposedly operating, had passed a
resolution reaffirming its "prohibition of military attacks on
nuclear facilities" in the Middle East.{89} Sundry chemical,
including chemical-warfare, facilities and alleged biological-
warfare plants, were also targets of American bombs. General
Schwarzkopf then announced that they had been very careful in
selecting the means of destruction of these as well as the
nuclear facilities, and only "after a lot of advice from a lot of
very, very prominent scientists," and were "99.9 percent" certain
that there was "no contamination".{90} However, European
scientists and environmentalists detected traces of chemical-
weapons agents that the bombings had released; as well as
chemical fallout and toxic vapors, also released by the air
attacks, that were killing scores of civilians.{91}
The American government and media had a lot of fun with an
obvious piece of Iraqi propaganda -- the claim that a bombed
biological warfare facility had actually been a baby food
factory. But it turned out that the government of New Zealand
and various business people from there had had intimate contact
with the factory and categorically confirmed that it had indeed
been a baby food factory.{92}
The United States also made wide use of advanced depleted
uranium (DU) shells, rockets and missiles, leaving tons of
radioactive and toxic rubble in Kuwait and Iraq. The United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, in an April 1991 secret report,
warned that "if DU gets in the food chain or water this will
create potential health problems." The uranium-238 used to make
the weapons can cause cancer and genetic defects if inhaled.
Uranium is also chemically toxic, like lead. Inhalation causes
heavy metal poisoning or kidney or lung damage. Iraqi soldiers,
pinned down in their bunkers during assaults, were almost
certainly poisoned by radioactive dust clouds.{93}
The civilian population suffered in the extreme from the
relentless bombing. Middle East Watch, the human-rights
organization, has documented numerous instances of the bombing of
apartment houses, crowded markets, bridges filled with
pedestrians and civilian vehicles, and a busy central bus
station, usually in broad daylight, without a government building
or military target of any kind in sight, not even an anti-
aircraft gun.{94}
On 12 February, the Pentagon announced that "Virtually
everything militarily ... is either destroyed or combat
ineffective."{95} Yet the next day there was a deliberate
bombardment of a civilian air raid shelter that took the lives of
as many as 1,500 civilians, a great number of them women and
children; this was followed by significant bombardment of various
parts of Iraq on a daily basis for the remaining two weeks of the
war, including what was reported for the 18th in The Guardian of
London as "one of [the coalition's] most ferocious attacks on the
centre of Baghdad."{96} What was the purpose of the bombing
campaign after the 12th?
The United States said it thought that the shelter was for
VIPs, which it had been at one time, and claimed that it was also
being used as a military communications center, but neighborhood
residents insisted that the constant aerial surveillance overhead
had to observe the daily flow of women and children into the
shelter.{97} Western reporters said they could find no signs of
military use.{98}
An American journalist in Jordan who viewed unedited
videotape footage of the disaster, which the American public
never saw, wrote:
They showed scenes of incredible carnage. Nearly all the
bodies were charred into blackness; in some cases the heat
had been so great that entire limbs were burned off. ...
Rescue workers collapsed in grief, dropping corpses; some
rescuers vomited from the stench of the still-smoldering
bodies.{99}
Said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater after the
bombing of the shelter: It was "a military target ... We don't
know why civilians were at this location, but we do know that
Saddam Hussein does not share our value in the sanctity of
life."{100} Said George Bush, when criticized for the bombing
campaign: "I am concerned about the suffering of innocents."{101}
The crippling of the electrical system multiplied
geometrically the daily living horror of the people of Iraq. As
a modern country, Iraq was reliant on electrical power for
essential services such as water purification and distribution,
sewage treatment, the operation of hospitals and medical
laboratories, and agricultural production. Bomb damage,
exacerbated by shortages attributable to the UN/US embargo,
dropped electricity to three or four percent of its pre-war
level; the water supply fell to five percent, oil production was
negligible, the food distribution system was devastated, the
sewage system collapsed, flooding houses with raw sewage, and
gastroenteritis and extreme malnutrition were prevalent.{102}
Two months after the war ended, a public health team from
Harvard University visited health facilities in several Iraqi
cities. Based on their research, the group projected,
conservatively, that "at least 170,000 children under five years
of age will die in the coming year from the delayed effects" of
the destruction of electrical power, fuel and transportation; "a
large increase in deaths among the rest of the population is also
likely. www.killinghope.org