The Sunday Tribune

WMD: Iraqi bluff, American excuse
Rajendra Nath

Iraq War—2003: Rise of the New Unilateralism
by IDSA Team. IDSA. Pages 206.

The End of Saddam Hussein: History Through the Eyes of the Victims
by Prem Shankar Jha. Rupa. Rs 395. Pages 222.

Both the books under review deal with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. They are both critical of US actions in Iraq. The book, Iraq War—2003: Rise of New Unilateralism, has been produced by Director K. Sauthanam and a team of eight other scholars from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, New Delhi. The writers have different backgrounds like politics, economics, technologies and the three services.

The book covers the period up to March 17, 2003, when an ultimatum was given to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. However, a postscript chapter to cover the war events up to March 28, 2003, has also been added. The book states at the outset that criticism of US President George W. Bush does not imply endorsement of Saddam Hussein or his policies. The book aims to provide developing world perspective for readers regarding the war so that they can draw their own conclusions. It analyses in detail the possible US politico-military objectives in the Iraq war. Iraq’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programme threatened not only international peace but also US national security, particularly after 9/11 terrorist attacks. The USA links Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons along with nuclear weapons, which can be dangerous for the USA and its allies in the West Asian region. Reshaping West Asia, starting with Iraq, is a priority matter post-9/11 for lesser Islamic militancy and more representative politics in the region.

Energy security of the USA and the world centres on the Western Asian oil production and reserves. There are one trillion barrels of proven oil reserves globally and West Asia accounts for 2/3rd of these resources, states the book. Since the USA consumes about 25 per cent of the world oil produce, it is not surprising that oil forms an important determinant in the US security policy. Incidentally, Iraq produces 10 per cent of the world oil output. The UK considers alliance with the USA to maintain an independent identity within Europe, especially vis-à-vis Franco-German influence and for commercial gains in the post-war reconstruction in Iraq. France, Germany and Russia did not side with the USA due to politico-economic reasons.

Brigadier Devinder Singh has given detailed and useful information about the US and Iraqi forces. The book deals with the actual Iraq war in a very brief manner in postscript. It is obvious that the USA has not so far given its plans and account of war in any book/military paper.

In The End of Saddam Hussein: History Through the Eyes of the Victims, the author, a well-known columnist, has dealt with the Iraq war. The book’s aim is to place on record the way in which the USA and the UK literally destroyed comparatively speaking a modern state in the Middle East. Saddam was blamed for developing WMDs. When Iraq was defeated, Saddam disappeared from the scene but no weapons of mass destruction were found. Later, the US and the British media shifted the rational for the invasion to other subjects like human rights. Actually, the Western media played a key role in demonising Saddam for the war.

The book deals with history of Iraq. The present boundaries of Iraq were decided by the British and the French after the 1914-18 war. Saddam Hussein worked with US intelligence agencies for many years who supported him financially and later helped him become head of the Baath party when the then leader of the Baath party, Kassim, was got killed by the CIA. The mass killings of the communists of Iraq were presided over by Saddam with the support of the CIA.

Later, the USA not only encouraged Iraq to attack Iran but supported it financially as well as militarily during the long war. In fact, Saddam was supported by the USA till he attacked Kuwait. This annoyed the USA and later resulted in the 1990 US-Iraq war.

Since then, the Muslim countries have been unhappy with the US policy in the Middle East. The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later occupation of Iraq by its forces has further annoyed them, while Germany, France and Russia are also unhappy.

The author blames the US media, a powerful force, to build anti-Iraqi feelings in the USA which resulted in the US invasion of 1990 and later of 2003. Perhaps there were other important reasons like control over oil resources.

It cannot be ruled out that Saddam perhaps tried to bluff the USA and other countries that it was developing WMDs, which misfired. The USA used it as an excuse to attack. The book gives relevant information leading to the Iraq war but does not cover the war at all. The author feels that the media coverage of any future operations will, to a large extent, shape public perception of the national security environment. Incidentally, journalists covering the Iraq war had to submit their stories to the US Army authorities for clearance.

According to the author, the present US doctrine aims at identifying potential threats not only to the US territory but also to American interests anywhere in the world, and the US would seek to head these off through early actions. It is worth a serious thought by all countries, particularly by developing countries.