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No-Fly Zones, Sanctions and Saddam Hussein

© lawhawk

The current cat and mouse game between the US and Iraq over the no-fly zones, where Iraqi jets and SAM sites track US and British jets goading them into a shooting match, has grown out of a policy laid down in 1991 by President George Bush following the Persian Gulf War. Kurdish rebels were being attacked by Hussein's Republican Guard forces in the North and the US sought to support their uprising by preventing the Iraqis from using aircraft against the Kurds.

This policy has only served to prolong the conflict between the Iraqis, Kurds and the US forces. Kurdish groups see the culmination of their fighting in the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in the North, something that both Iraq and Turkey (who also has a sizeable Kurdish population) don't want. Both countries have repressed Kurdish forces and fought Kurdish rebel groups on and off for the last 8 years.

The Southern no-fly zone is in response to Iraqi forces attacking Shi'ite minorities in the marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates River basins. Many of these Shi'ite minorities are sympathetic to Iran and have remained a constant thorn in Hussein's side to the point that Hussein has used chemical weapons against them on several occasions to eliminate this situation completely.

Iraq claims both zones are illegal as a matter of international law and that they are acting within their rights to self determination and sovereignty. They claim that they are being provoked by, as Foreign Minister Aziz has stated, "a US-British-Zionist" aggression against their country. Iraq takes no responsibility for their own actions - for their flagrant use of chemical weapons against innocent civilian populations, for preventing humanitarian aid from being dispensed and most importantly from allowing UN inspectors from completely doing their jobs in finding weapons of mass destruction and the building programs.

It is the lack of cooperation over the release of information on the building program that has allowed the situation with Iraq to deteriorate. Iraq has failed to honestly comply with the terms of the Persian Gulf War cease-fire agreements along with the UN Resolution 687. In fact, Iraq has taken steps within their Parliament to declare that Kuwait is a part of Iraq (shadows of 1990-1991 all over again). The Iraqis have delayed and purposely sought to conceal the weapons programs even though their full exposure and elimination would have allowed Iraq to reenter the world community many years ago.