Tunbridge Wells Action For Peace – Leaflet1

STOPTHE WAR COALITION FACTSHEET                 Added 16-06-03 changed; 17/06/11, 14/09/09

TUNBRIDGE WELLS ACTION FOR PEACE

Historical Perpective on Iraq and ‘Regime Change’ by the American Empire

since 1945

 

1. Media Disinformation

The reporting of the war in Iraq has been extremely inaccurate and propagandist, often reminiscent of the infamous Nazi Magazine ‘Signal’ the world’s 1st full colour news magazine. For instance the toppling of the Saddam statue in Central Baghdad was a staged ‘media event’ by the US Marines involving no more than 150 people, all of them members of Ahmed Chalabi’s [Washington's favoured candidate] Free Iraq Militia flown into the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on April 6th. Ordinary Iraqis were kept away because the Plaza was sealed off by the US Marines. The Statue was actually pulled down by a USMC APC; and yet this was all made to look like a massive event involving 100,000′s of people like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The News reports have been creating the impression that there have hardly been any significant US or UK casualties. This is because although only 120 Americans and 31 British were reported killed

outright, the ratio of wounded to dead has in fact been more than 20 to 1, ie. 2500 Americans and 620 British. The Iraqis fought a guerrilla war in groups averaging less than 100 men using Russian AK assault rifles, RPGs and sniper rifles. These all wound rather than kill because a wounded man ties up far more resources than a fatal casualty. In this, the 2nd Gulf War as in 1991, DU [depleted uranium] shells and anti-chemical warfare tablets and injections are likely to cause Gulf War syndome again amongst our forces.

Also Saddam Hussein and the other Iraqi leaders have disappeared and only some have given themselves up or been captured. Tariq Aziz and others may well deliberately provide false information in order to confuse US Intelligence; yet others will be able organise a guerrilla war indefinitely. The Washington Post has revealed that the US is planning to build 4 Bases with 40,000 troops to help their client puppet regime stay in power – at Baghdad Airport, at Nasiriyah, in the Western Desert near Syria and in the Kurdish North.

The Media seem to have been surprised by the scale of a demonstration against the US occupation on April 18th in which more than 500,000 took part, both Sunnis and Shias. Two days earlier US Marines killed at least 13 people in Mosul and injured hundreds when they open fire on demonstrators. Therefore the occupation must be ended quickly and there must be no more attacks on neighbouring countries.

It is suggested that:-

1. US and UK Forces withdraw completely from Iraq and are replaced by a strong UN Force involving troops from Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey, Africa, South America and SE Asia.

2. Law and Order is restored immediately by reconstituting local Iraqi Forces to stop looting and destruction of Government Buildings, Hospitals , and Archaeological sites. The National Museum in Baghdad has been virtually destroyed by looters with many objects ‘stolen to order’ by greedy US Collectors. The Civilisation of Iraq is the oldest in the World dating back to 4000 BC but now many published archaeological treasures from the Ancient Mesopotamian Civilisations are missing. Also unknown is the fate of six Neanderthal skeletons excavated by American Paleoanthropologists in the 1960′s [the theft of fossils is now widespread in the US].

3. The US Administration is now threatening to attack Syria, an ally of Russia and France, on the grounds that Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders may be hiding there. However they may well have moved on Russia or elsewhere. Are Bush and Blair willing to risk destroying the world in a nuclear war by attacking Russia because of their obsession with one man? This is of course just to please Israel because its economy is collapsing because of Palestinian suicide and other attacks – despite $30 Billion in US Aid.

4. Also threatened is Iraq’s old enemy Iran. This is also an ally of Russia and like Syria has Scud missiles supplied by Russia and North Korea . It also has several Russian built nuclear reactors with which to build a ‘last ditch ‘ nuclear deterrent. This compares with Israel’s 200 or so nuclear warheads, as well as Jericho2 Missiles with a 1000 mile range.

5. North Korea has been an enemy of the US since the Korean War of 1950-1953 but is backed by its powerful neighbours Russia and China. It produces and exports Scud Missiles and may be developing a missile with a 1500 mile range as well as nuclear weapons using Russian built reactors. South Korea’s ‘sunshine policy ‘ of reconciliation with the North has been halted by the US. South Korea also has never really been a democracy starting with massacres of thousands of refuges during the Korean War, South Korean participation in the Vietnam War, and successive Military Dictatorships in the 1960′s, ‘70′s and ’80′s culminating in the massacre of 200 student protesters in the Southern City of Kuangjung in 1980.

6. Cuba under Fidal Castro has been an enemy of the US since the Revolution of 1959. An attempt at ‘Regime Change’ there failed disastrously when the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in 1961. The following year the world came to brink of Nuclear War with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Castro had only requested short range missiles to prevent a US invasion. However the Russian Soviet leader Niketa Krushchov introduced long range weapons able to hit every major US City. Finally the Russians agreed to withdraw those missiles in exchange for the removal of US Jupiter missiles based in Turkey. Castro has continued to support revolutionary groups around the World and all CIA attempts to assassinate him have failed. He remains the longest serving world leader. Russia still maintains about 1500 advisors on the island.

7. Another US target is Hugo Chavas of Venezuela. A former Colonel in command of the Venezuelan Army’s Parachute Regiment he may seem an unlikely revolutionary. However in 2000 he was elected President and declared himself the champion of the poor. Even worse for Washington he lobbied other OPEC Countries to raise the price of oil and start to trade it in Euros instead of US dollars. He started talking to Saddam Hussein , Colonel Gaddaffi and the Iranians visiting all three countries. He declared himself to be Castro’s best friend in Latin America and is rumoured to be supporting the Marxist FARC and the ELN revolutionaries in neighbouring Columbia. He has survived a coup attempt by naval officers which failed because the Army remained loyal and staged a counter coup three days later. The CIA also started a General Strike which halted oil exports for two months. This also failed to depose him and only boosted oil prices.

8. Libya’s Colonel Gaddaffi is another obvious oil target despite having handed over the two Libyans held to have been responsible for the Pan Am 747 disaster over Lockabie in 1988 to a Scottish Court convened in Holland [one was convicted and the other acquitted]. Attempts to kill Gaddaffi by MI6 were revealed by former MI5 agent David Shayler. The Libyans also price their oil in Euros as well as US Dollars.

 

9. Sudan also has some oil and is also on the US Administration’s hit list. In 1998 the country’s only pharmaceutical plant was destroyed by US cruise missiles because it was said to be producing chemical weapons and in retaliation for the Al Quada bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. This resulted in at least 1 million deaths from tropical diseases because the country had no antibiotics and became to be seen as US terrorism.

 

10. The US has even made threatening noises to Pakistan although they are ostensibly an ally of America. The Kashmiri Liberation Front is linked to Al Quada and is trained by the Pakistani Military. However any real attack is extremely unlikely given the fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, missiles with a range of 1500 miles and F15/F16 fighters. Further any such action could risk nuclear war with India.

Despite the end of the Cold War in 1989 the US still maintains 10 bases in the UK – compared to 40 during the Cold War – under the terms of the ‘Visiting Forces Act’ of 1952. All the bases should have been removed after 1989. The infamous B52′s operate from Fairford in Gloucestershire. They were planned to drop mini-nuclear bombs on Iraq in violation of the non-proliferation treaty, as well as ‘carpet bombing’ with seventy 1000lb bombs close to Iraqi cities. This was probably stopped by a massive campaign of demonstrations in Spain and against sites such as Fairford. Globally the US maintains bases in 130 countries out of 180 sovereign states in the UN. A global campaign exists to get rid of these facilities organised by Reclaim The Base, CND and Greenpeace. After relations have been restored with France and Germany NATO must eventually be abolished and replaced by a successor body which excludes the US. A replacement body has been proposed by France and Germany , EDO European Defence Organisation, thus ending European participation in all US run wars. This is affordable as the combined GDP of the Eurozone countries is equal to that of the US.

These actions would help to avoid a ‘Second Cold War’ with a new Sino-Russian superpower. A strong Europe would insist on an early US withdrawal from Iraq and force Israel to allow an independent Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. Europe must insist on the revival of the non-proliferation treaty, with a Common EU / Canadian position to put pressure on the US.

Finally it is important to realise what this war was really about -oil, yes, but more precisely maintaining the Oil$ which had been under threat from the alternative of the Euro as the international oil trading currency. The US economy is hugely in deficit and dependent upon the support of the Oil$ to sustain it. The Euro threat has the potential to cause a collapse of the US as the World’s leading trading nation. In a word the US economy is built upon a pack of cards. Add to this the fact that world oil stocks are running out. The US Geological Survey says that they will start to collapse by 2020 . However some even more pessimistic German and British geologists say 2014 with North Sea stocks collapsing after 2010. Even extra oil exploited in Iraq will only last another 3-4 years . This would plunge the world economy into a recession as severe as 1929-1939. Thus Iraq may only be the first of the ‘oil wars’ of the 21st.century.

However maximum global pressure must be placed on the US Government to ratify the Kyoto treaty on Global Warming and the excessive use of fossil fuels. That may ultimately trigger another ‘Ice Age’ in the Northern Hemisphere by causing the Gulf Stream to shift South to Spain. This process will continue to happen even as world oil stocks diminish.

 

 

 

2. US ‘Regime Changes ‘ since 1945

 

2.1 Latin America

The US has been interfering in South America since the Mexican War of 1846-1848. However since 1945 it has regarded the whole continent as its ‘own back yard’.

1. CIA organised military coups in Guatemala and Paraguay in 1954. The Guatemala coup was fought by the young revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and successive brutal military juntas followed. These culminated in the genocidal regime of General Rios Monte in the 1980′s when at least 150,000 people were killed in the Civil War with Marxist guerrillas. In Paraguay General Alfredo Stroessner’s regime stayed in power until 1989 organising a massive trade in illegal arms. As Stroessner was half Bavarian he was especially sympathetic to Nazi war criminals like Joseph Mengele and probably Martin Bormann.

 

2. Most famous of the CIA organised coups was the 1973 coup in Chile directed by George Bush Snr and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The democratically elected Marxist President Savaldor Allende was overthrown and murdered in a bloody take-over led by General Augusto Pinochet. There then followed the terror of ‘Bloody Pinochet’ in which 20,000 people were killed or ‘disappeared’, 200,000 tortured and 300,000 placed in concentration camps or expelled from the country. Pinochet finally stepped down in 1989 but remained ‘Commander in Chief ‘ of the Military having given himself immunity from prosecution. He was subsequently arrested by a Spanish Judge using an international warrant in London and remained under ‘house arrest’ here for 15 months until the House of Lords finally released him in 2000 after the intervention of Jack Straw as Home Secretary.

 

3. The Argentine Coup of 1976 was the worst in a long line of US backed coups. This resulted in the ‘Dirty War’ in which 35,000 people ‘disappeared’. Misleading ‘nods’ from the UK Foriegn Office gave the Junta reason to invade the Falklands. Following the defeat of the Junta in the Falklands War in 1982, the regime collapsed in 1986 and some of the men responsible for the terror were eventually court-martialled.

4. The US also backed the Dictatorship of General Romero in El Salvador and in the Civil War that followed between the Army and the Leftist Guerrillas at least 100,000 people were killed between 1977-1991. Right-wing ‘Death Squads’ lead by Major Roberto D’Aubison murdered many thousands.

5. There was also the CIA run ‘ Contra War ‘ against the Leftist ‘Sandinista ‘ revolutionaries in Nicaragua between 1979-1989 in which 150,000 people died. Money was siphoned off from illegal arms sales to Iran by Rear-Admiral Poindexter and Marine Lieut-Col Oliver North. The CIA used gold plundered by the Japanese during WW2 to fund this ‘illegal’ war in Nicaragua without the US Congress knowing what was going on until the ‘Iran-gate’ scandal broke in 1986.

 

2.2 Africa

The US seems to have little understanding of the complexities of Continental Africa or of human evolution, often seeing it as little more than a Cold War ‘battleground’ with Communism.

1. The worst case was undoubtedly the Congo. Following decolonisation by Belgium in 1961 the country rapidly fell into chaos. In 1966 the Popular Left -Wing Politician Louwabe was poisoned by CIA agents and replaced by the Army Leader General Mobutu. In the Civil War that followed about 6,000 white mercenaries were hired. Mobutu’s regime became the most brutal in Africa and the country was systematically plundered with at least 3-4 million people killed. His hand in the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi where 1.2 million Tutsies were killed proved to be his downfall and he was overthrown and forced to flee in 1997. However the Civil War that followed resulted in at least a further 2.5 million deaths.

2. In 1969 the CIA engineered the downfall President Nkrome of Ghana . He had been the first African leader to gain independence from Britain in 1959. There followed a series of corrupt and brutal military dictatorships in 1970′s and 80′s interrupted only by a bizarre counter-coup by a junior airforce officer Flt-lieutenant Jerry Rawlings born of a Scots father and Ghanaian mother.

Democracy of a sort was restored in 1990′s but the World Bank and the IMF have refused to cancel the country’s $10 Billion debt.

3. In 1974 the Ciartano Dictatorship in Portugal was overthrown in an Army revolt. Its African colonies Angola and Mozambique gained independence under Marxist Nationalist Regimes. This alarmed Washington who got Apartheid South Africa to invade Angola in 1975. The Angolans appealed to Moscow and Havana for help, and Castro responded by sending 40,000 troops to Angola and 10,000 to Mozambique. The South Africans were forced to withdraw from Angola; but continued to support UNITA rebels in Angola and RENAMO in Mozambique with CIA backing. The CIA also helped South-Africa build up a massive arms industry ARMSCORP to circumvent the 1977 UN arms embargo;- culminating in the building of at least 20 nuclear bombs using Uranium from the Rossing Mine in South-African controlled Namibia. The Civil Wars in Angola ended in 1992 with at least one million deaths in Angola and 500,000 in Mozambique. Angola is still littered with at least 20 million land mines which kill or maim dozens of people every day.

 

 

South-East Asia

1. Indo-China. The Second Vietnam War 1962-1975 was the worst US Defeat. Massive American involvement began in 1961 with South-Vietnamese General Diem seized power with the help of the CIA and US Army advisors. At least 3 million Vietnamese were killed. US losses were 58,000 killed 2500 missing, 350,000 wounded, 200,000 affected by ‘Agent Orange’ poisoning and about 300,000 affected by drug abuse and 100,000 suicides by sufferers from post-traumatic stress syndrome [more than were killed in action]. Neighbouring Laos became ‘the most bombed country in the world’ as it was bombed by B52′s, because it contained the famous ‘Ho Chi Minh’ trail supplying the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. By 1969 there were more than 600,000 US troops in Vietnam. Most these had pulled out by 1973, and in 1975 the puppet regime in Saigon finally collapsed with the US Embassy being evacuated by the US Marines before being set on fire. In 1972 the US also invaded neighbouring Cambodia, after they withdrew in 1975 the monstrous Communist Pol Pot was favoured by Washington because he was anti Vietnamese. In the worst Genocide since Hitler and Stalin at least 3 million people were killed in death camps. When the Vietnamese invaded in 1979, Washington exploded in hypocritical rage and continued to back Pol Pot in a Terrorist Campaign until 1994. In the same year US President Bill Clinton decided to end sanctions against Vietnam.

2. Indonesia. In 1967 General Sukano was overthrown by his second in command Major General Suharto. In the US backed repression that followed at least 1 million people were killed so as to purge the country of ‘communists’ and make Indonesia a ‘Free Trade Zone’ according the World Bank and IMF. In 1975 the Indonesians invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor where 300,000 people died out of a population of 1 million. At least 150,000 have died in Ache Western Sumatra in the war with separatists. The brutal relationship of Multinationals is shown in West Papua were at least 200,000 New Guineans have been killed. The Rio-Tinto Mine on Grasberg Mountain is the largest Copper and Gold Mine in world and is destroying a 14,000 ft (4000M) mountain and is threatening the Glacial habitat of neighbouring Peak Jaya. Suharto was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1997 but massive human rights abuses and rain forest destruction continue.

 

South-Asia

The US has always tended to favour Pakistan over India, because India was non-aligned and allied to the USSR during the Cold War. They have backed three military leaders starting with Air-Marshall Ayub-Khan in 1961. Just before the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 Washington backed the brutal genocide of Lieut-General Tika-Khan in East Pakistan – soon to be renamed Bangladesh – when some 500,000 to 1,000,000 were killed. Washington were alarmed that its ally might fall and sent aircraft carriers with nuclear armed aircraft to threaten India. In 1977 the US support the coup by General Zia al Haq who deposed and they hanged PM Bhutto after a rigged murder trial. Support was massively increased when Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979-1989. Arms were funnelled into Afghanistan via Pakistani Intelligence. More than 2 million Afghans and 30,000 Russian soldiers died. The US also supported the take-over by General Pevaz Musharaf in 2000. After the September 11th 2001 attacks by Islamic Fundamentalist guerrillas on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon the US got over flight rights to invade Afghanistan. By December they had captured Kabul and Kandahar and although only 12 US Special Forces/ US Marines or British SAS were killed in the fighting, more than 300 were wounded, including the RSM of 22nd SAS. Despite bombing by B52′s the guerrillas of Osama Bin Ladin and Mulha Omar survived in cave systems that often run more than a mile into mountains. Today Bin Ladin remains at large protected by elements of the Pakistani Military who use the Islamic Fundamentalist Kashmiri Liberation Front to fight the Indian Army. This nearly lead to nuclear war between India and Pakistan after terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament in December 2001. Tensions died down in September 2002 but shelling continues in Kashmir. India has more than 100 Nuclear warheads and Pakistan more than 50; each side has missiles with a range of 1500 miles and a nuclear war between the two states would kill 30 million.

The Northern Alliance regime is fighting an unending civil war with Al Qada, the Taliban and local warlords, the puppet leader Hamid Khasi has survived numerous assassination attempts whilst two vice-presidents have been assassinated. Meanwhile the US backed government has massively increased heroin production – maintaining the country’s position as number 1 producer and thus making a mockery of the so-called ‘War on Drugs’.

 

Middle-East

1. In Iran in 1954 the US and Britain backed a take-over by the Shah M.Reza Pavalavi to overthrow the Nationalist PM Mossadeq, who had nationalised the oil industry. In 1960′s and 1970′s the Shah’s regime was massively aided by the US and Britain as a ‘Bulwark against Communism because it bordered on to the USSR. The US supplied F5 Corsairs and F4 Phantom jets and the UK 800 Chieftan tanks and Leander Class frigates. The monarchy finally collapsed in 1978-79 after a massive uprising lead by Islamic Fundamentalists. The US embassy in Tehran was stormed by revolutionaries and 50 US Diplomats held for many months until Ronald Reagan had been sworn in as US President. President Carter had ordered the US Special Forces to try to rescue the hostages, but the Hercules Transport aircraft taking the soldiers and their helicopters were seen by the passengers on 2 buses travelling through the desert. Forced to take more than 100 civilians hostage to avoid them raising the alarm US Army Colonel Beckwith ordered the mission to be abandoned when 2 helicopters broke down. Farce then turned into tragedy when 2 helicopters collided as they were about to be loaded killing 8 men. They then left leaving their dead behind the bodies being displayed by the Iranians before being handed over to the Red Cross. Now that Iran has been said to be part of ‘Axis of Evil ‘ it may become the target of a war of revenge.

2. Turkey is the only Islamic State that is also a member of NATO. During the Cold War it was part of NATO’s south flank bordering on the USSR. and so a blind eye was turned to its many military coups and widespread human rights abuses. Torture and imprisonment without trial have been widespread and in 1980′s and 1990′s at least 100,000 Kurds were killed by the Turkish Army and Gendarmes fighting Communist PPK Rebels, with the Kurdish language being banned. In 1974 they invaded Cyprus are still occupying the North of the Island today, as part of their state of war with Greece another NATO Member. In February 2003 the Turkish Parliament refused to allow US troops to invade Iraq through Turkey and moved Turkish troops to the Iraqi border to fight the Kurds.

 

 

The Way Ahead

As we have seen from this brief overview ‘Regime Change’ has been standard Washington policy since the American Empire came into its own after 1945. It has organised several massive invasions many ‘proxy’ wars and dozens of coups plus many assassination attempts.

People in the ‘Democratic’ west are completely disillusioned with their political leaders and the power structures that support them. This was shown by the scale of the anti-war protests, and particularly so by the London Peace March on February 15th 2003 when up 2 million people attended the largest demonstration in British history. Two later marches still attracted more than 200,000 even after the war had begun, which still larger than the Grosvenor Square march against the Vietnam War in 1968.

Media bias in favour of the establishment is nothing new as shown by commentators like Naom Chomsky, Michael Moore and John Pilger [in his book the 'New Rulers of World ']. Pilger shows the political, corporate, military and media elites are similar to the royal, aristocratic and clerical elites in the past, particularly before the ‘Enlightenment’ of the 18th Century. For these elites ‘democracy ‘ is an ‘inconvenience’ to be ‘spun’ and manipulated as they see fit. For instance they use phrases like ‘consensual dissent’ and talk about ‘anti-war extremists’. They are no doubt using MI5 and Special Branch agents to undermine the anti-war movement. In order to counter the ‘corporate media’ alternative material needs to be disseminated. Also a boycott of many conventional media channels should be organised on a global basis. Finally military service has been shown to be very unpopular, as witnessed by the growth of ‘Military Schools in the Black Ghettoes of the US, and recruitment from children’s homes and most depressed inner city estates for the British Army. In the US the sons of the political elite and the moneyed and professional classes aren’t serving in the military. The numbers actually involved in the military here and is the US has declined steadily since the World War II. Thus the British Army now numbers less than 150,000 as against nearly 5 million at the end of World.War II