No war for oil

CPUSA Statement

This article was reprinted from the February 14, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

Despite international opposition, the Clinton administration has assembled 300 warplanes in the Persian Gulf for an aerial attack on Iraq.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen have visited the area attempting to drum up support for the attack. Syria, Egypt, the Arab League, France, China and Russia have all spoken out against war and in favor of a diplomatic solution. Saudi Arabian leaders made clear they would not permit air strikes against Iraq from their territory.

In Washington, the Republican extremists have called on President Clinton to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force even though they know it would take a ground invasion by U.S. troops with the loss of many thousands of lives. These are the same reactionary Republicans, led by Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who block U.S. payment of $1.5 billion in dues to the U.N.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has flouted the U.N. resolutions he pledged to abide by and obstructed the work of the U.N. inspectors. His reactionary dictatorship has inflicted immense suffering on the Iraqi people. Thousands of Iraqis have been executed or imprisoned. Especially targeted have been the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and Iraqi workers who have been victims of mass executions.

The ICP released a statement Feb. 2 which charged that the current crisis is the result of the "[Iraqi] regime's insistence on preventing the inspections of its presidential palaces and its threat to stop dealing with U.N. commissions and also U.S. insistence on threatening to use the military option in order to force the regime to comply with U.N. resolutions."

The Iraqi Party adds, "We reaffirm our stand which calls for a peaceful solution to the current crisis and a positive response to Arab and international appeals for peace. The Iraqi regime must stop its obstinacy and comply with the U.N. resolutions which it had accepted unconditionally ..."

The statement goes on to appeal for world-wide pressure to prevent "U.S. imperialism and its allies from using force against our country and people."

The ICP statement calls for lifting the U.S.-enforced economic blockade which has caused the death of an estimated million Iraqis. It calls upon the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow the dictatorship.

We express our full agreement with this ICP statement. The U.S. position on Iraq is hypocritical. There is ample proof that President George Bush saved Saddam Hussein in 1991 by halting the U.S.-led "Desert Storm" offensive. It allowed Saddam Hussein's palace guard to annihilate a mass, popular uprising of Iraqi democratic forces seeking to overthrow him. Democracy has never been the agenda of the Pentagon or State Department. Control of Persian Gulf oil - and Iraqi oil - is their overriding priority. Oil company greed is at the root of U.S. maneuvers in the Persian Gulf.

The moment calls for a worldwide drive to abolish all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The Iraqi regime must comply with the U.N. resolutions on dismantling these weapons facilities which Saddam Hussein signed. And we demand that the U.S. government also take steps to dismantle its immense stockpiles of these deadly weapons.

At the same time, the Communist Party USA demands that U.S. preparations for a bombing attack on Iraq be halted. The blockade which has inflicted immense suffering on the Iraqi people must be lifted. We urge a continued effort to achieve a diplomatic solution.

We express our full solidarity with the struggles of the Iraqi people to overturn the dictatorship and to establish a democratic republic which includes justice for the Kurdish people.

There is still time to avert a bombing attack on Iraq that will kill thousands of innocent people. We urge rallies and demonstrations, letters and other messages to President Clinton and Congress: No war on Iraq! Lift the blockade. Abolish all chemical, biological and nuclear weapons!