For Release: Thursday December 17, 1998
For Further Information Call:
Phyllis Bennis: (202)-234-9382, ext. 206 or (202)-667-1650
Clovis Maksoud: (202)-885-1612 or (202)-363-4866
Roger Normand: (212)-634-3424 or (718)-875-7892
Joe Stork: (202)-371-6592 or (202)-291-0846
Steven Zunes: (415)-422-6981 or (831)-425-2975

Stop U.S. Bombing of Iraq:
It's More than Bad Timing: It's Illegal & Militarily
Ineffectual, Foreign Policy Experts Say

Leading Middle East experts with the Foreign Policy In Focus project are calling for an immediate halt to the U.S. bombing of Iraq. "This is simply foreign policy by catharsis," says Steven Zunes, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. "It is a 'feel good' measure against an obstinate dictator whom everybody hates; it may be politically popular but has little strategic value."

• The bombing is illegal: No member states at the United Nations can take military action to enforce a UN Security Council resolution without explicit authorization from the Security Council. The Clinton administration's claim that "prior" UN resolutions authorize this U.S.-British bilateral action is false. The U.S.-British attack on Iraq undermines the potential for successful negotations by Secretary General Kofi Annan, it is strongly opposed by the Security Council's other permanent members (France, China and Russia), and it completely shatters the fragile international coalition the U.S. has tried to rebuild since the 1991 Gulf War.
• Bombing raids cannot eliminate either Saddam Hussein or Iraq's weapons of mass destruction: Saddam and his inner circle will remain safe in their bunkers while civilians and unwilling conscripts are certain, as in the past, to become the primary casualties. The smartest bombs in the U.S. arsenal cannot accurately target whatever remains of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons - even UN inspectors say they don't know where they are located. Although it has received little public attention in the U.S., international inspectors have succeeded in dismantling Iraq's nuclear program and that Saddam's government has been in full compliance. Ironically, the U.S. bombing will make it impossible to ever resume on the ground international weapons inspections.
• Who are we defending? No Middle East country has called on the U.S. to protect them by bombing Iraq. Due to the 1991 war and seven years of a rigorous inspection regime which dismantled much of its arsenal, Iraq's military strength today is just a fraction of what it was in the 1980s - when Washington supported Saddam's regime, including licensing U.S. sales of biological weapons stocks.
• The bombing will scuttle other peace initiatives and create an anti-American backlash: Fallout from the bombing will be widespread: the Russian Duma (parliament) is now unlikely to move forward in implementing the Start II nuclear weapons treaty, the deteriorating Middle East peace process - which Clinton's shuttle diplomacy has tried to keep on track - will face new crises. Within Iraq, anti-American hatred -- rather than anti-Saddam opposition -- is reaching a fever pitch.
• The U.S. should return decision-making to the UN. The U.S. must abandon its unilateral efforts to topple Saddam Hussein. Military sanctions should be tightened by targeting supplier countries and companies. Economic sanctions, which are killing an estimated 5000 children a month, should be lifted. "Ultimately," says Phyllis Bennis, a Middle East and United Nations expert with the Institute for Policy Studies, "the UN needs to fully implement its resolution on Iraq which, among other points, calls for establishing a Nuclear Weapons Free and Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone throughout the Middle East."