By restricting its scope to the period of occupation, this report covers only a fraction of the damage that has been inflicted on Iraqi society by U.S. policy in recent decades. The list of American crimes against the people of Iraq is, unfortunately, lengthy and well documented:
- The U.S. assisted Saddam Hussein’s ruthless rise to power, covered up his crimes against the Iraqi people, and provided billions in economic and military support for his war against Iran, including materiel for weapons of mass destruction.
- In the first Gulf War, the U.S. used overwhelming force to kill well over 100,000 soldiers and civilians—bombing the country back to the “pre-industrial age” while leaving Saddam Hussein and the Baath regime firmly in control.
- Thirteen years of U.S.-led sanctions crippled the economy, wiped out the middle class and private sector, impoverished the majority of the population, and killed through hunger and disease up to one million children under the age of five.
- The unlawful invasion and occupation of Iraq—in defiance of international law and global public opinion—achieved “regime change” but at great cost to the lives, property, heritage, independence, pride, and national and human rights of the Iraqi people.
For years, advocacy groups in the U.S. speaking out against these crimes were like voices in the wilderness, unrecognized by those in power and marginalized even by some mainstream human rights and humanitarian groups. The recent emergence of a grassroots peace and justice movement opposing the lies and depredations of Bush Administration policy has succeeded in elevating first the invasion, and now the occupation of Iraq to the center of a vigorous national debate.
The task of this movement is to mobilize maximum public pressure on policy-makers at all levels to end the occupation and demand law-based solutions respecting Iraqi self-determination and human rights. The Bush Administration is therefore the primary target for protest, but it would be a major mistake to ignore the current bipartisan consensus in Washington around sending more troops to maintain the occupation of Iraq. To achieve the goal of ending the occupation, it will be necessary to educate the American public that both Republican and Democratic administrations have long pursued unprincipled and destructive policies towards Iraq, and that the struggle for justice must continue regardless of who sits in the White House.