Saddam Hussein’s Genocidal Campaign against the Kurds

Recently, I have spent considerable time reading about the horrible crimes committed by Saddam Hussein against his own people. As I study accounts of the years of terror under Saddam’s dictatorship, I am horrified and saddened.

Saddam’s reign was terrible. Many people suffered from his evil acts, but the Kurds, a distinct people with their own language and culture who live in northern Iraq, were particularly brutalized. My thoughts and prayers go out to these people. They have lost so much, but despite all the tears and sadness, they remain hopeful for their future.

Regardless, the reminders of Saddam’s reign of terror linger. Many Kurds still suffer disease and complications from the poisonous bombshells dropped on their villages and cities during a sixteen-month terror campaign in 1987 and 1988. In 1998, Dr. Christine Gosden, who visited some Kurdish regions of Iraq that had been bombed by Saddam’s thugs ten years before, explained:

“I was particularly concerned about the effects on the women and children. Most of the previous reported exposures to chemical weapons and mustard gas had involved men involved in military service; chemical weapons had never been used on this scale on a civilian population before. I was worried about possible effects on congenital malformations, fertility and cancers, not just in women and children but in the whole population. I also feared that there might be other major long-term effects, such as blindness and neurological damage, for which there is no known treatment.

What I found was far worse than anything I had suspected, devastating problems occurring 10 years after the attack. These chemicals seriously affected people's eyes and respiratory and neurological systems. Many became blind. Skin disorders which involve severe scarring are frequent, and many progress to skin cancer.”[1]

The world will forever remember Saddam’s attempt at genocide, because he failed, and those Kurds who survived are stepping forward one by one to speak of his crimes. Scholars of the region compile these accounts for all to know and to remember. Olga Maithland writes:

“By mid 1987 chemical attacks had become a daily reality. Mustard gas first remained the predominant chemical weapon. Later more toxic gas nerve gases were used. Wave upon wave of planes dropped their deadly poisonous gases killing people instantly without leaving any apparent injuries.

Escaping death became more difficult. The conventional methods of protection were no longer useful as the gases became odorless and lighter than mustard gas, seeped through the wet breathing turbans damaging the respiratory system of the victim. People were seen gasping and struggling for breath and helplessly lying on the ground jerking with convulsions. . . . For those hit by the cyanide vapor death was instantaneous. The gruesome sight of bodies with discolored skin, eyes open and staring where they have disappeared into their socket, a greyish slime oozing from their mouths and fingers grotesquely twisted as if in pain. Death seemingly caught them unawares in the midst of household chores. Some had the strength to make it to the doorways of their homes only to collapse there or a few feet beyond. Here a mother seems to clasp her children in a last embrace, there an old man shields an infant. Victims within five hundred meters of a cyanide shell had no chance.”[2]

Experts on the Middle East estimate that Saddam used chemical weapons on the people of Kurdistan Iraq over forty times,[3] but we may never know the full extent of all the crimes, which included torture and murder in addition to chemical terror. In David McDowell’s book, A Modern History of the Kurds, McDowell explains:

“We shall never know the exact number of those who perished . . . but they probably accounted for 150,000 – 200,000 lives. . . . [At one prison camp for Kurds] registration and segregation took place with a brutality reminiscent of Nazi death camps. Teenage and adult males were lined up rank after rank, and stripped of everything but their clothes, and interrogated. Beatings were routine. . . . After two or three days at the [prison camp,] all these males were loaded onto closed trucks. They were not seen again.”[4]

Beyond torture and murder, Saddam and his goons also caused at least 1.5 million Kurds to be forcibly re-settled.[5] By the end of his offensive against the Kurds, about 45,000 square kilometers of the 75,000 square kilometers of Kurdistan Iraq had been cleared of Kurds.[6][7]

As I study these accounts of terror and torture, I know our actions in Iraq are just. The War on Terror is a war against evil, plain and simple.

When the television talking heads who supported U.S. military action in Bosnia and Somalia during President Clinton’s term criticize the Iraq War, when Hollywood stars walk around on the celebrity stage mocking our commander-in-chief, when elites make movies that distort truth and fact, I urge you to see this unfortunate partisan propaganda for what it is.

I can only hope that we Americans will find a way to again draw together in unity and fight this war on all fronts and in all places, outlasting the terrorists with the firm resolve that only a free people can muster. May the chorus of millions of voices united in the love of liberty drown out the doomsayers, cynics and political partisans. May America never rest until the evil of terror is forever crushed and the torch of freedom alights in every land.

[1]. Christine Gosden, Why I Went, What I Saw, The Washington Post (March 11, 1998).

[2]. Olga Maithland, The Full Horror of Saddam’s Savagery: A Daylight Massacre Without Warning (web site for the Kurdistan regional government, www.kurdistan.ws/olga1.html)

[4]. David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds 359 (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. 2004).

[7]. Additional testimony about the suffering of the Kurds is available on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus web-site. One piece that is particularly thought-provoking is the testimony of Bayanne Surdashi entitled The Human Rights Situation in Northern Iraq: The Kurdish Minority and Its Future (Nov. 22, 2002)(available at http://www.house.gov/lantos/caucus/TestimonySurdashi112002.htm). __________________________________________

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President Bush’s Courage to Promote Tort Reform Encourages New Momentum for Real Reform

1. The House has passed a bill that would reform Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require sanctions against lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits. Click here for more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/politics/15cong.html?ex=1096269516&ei=1&en=0a70c45a31cb5ad2

2. An American Legion Post is lobbying to reform the federal statute that allows the ACLU and similar groups to obtain attorney’s fees from cash-strapped school districts and municipalities in religion lawsuits. Click here to read the Post’s resolution: http://post428.topcities.com/resolution.htm.

For more information about how the ACLU is using the fee statute in a way that was never intended, please read: "How your taxpayer dollars support the secularist agenda of the ACLU," by Steven T. Voigt, available at http://renewamerica.us/columns/voigt/040717.

Legal Scholar Offers Insight about Constitutional Law and Judicial Interpretation

David New explains “How We Lost The Power to Govern Ourselves” in his well-reasoned article posted on the Faith and Action web-site. Click here to read New’s insightful article about our activist judiciary: http://faithandaction.org/DavidNewJulyAugust04.htm.

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When indigenous peoples who speak their own language with a separate culture and lifestyle are driven from their land, attacked with smallpox and other horrible weapons, and suffer from the tyrany of a brutal government, something has to be done.

I sure hope native Americans can't spot double standards?

May the chorus of millions of voices united in the love of liberty drown out the doomsayers, cynics and political partisans.

Blackdog, I'm not sure it makes sense to make that comparison. I'd say what happened to Native Americans is pretty terrible too. Just like what happened to millions of Christian Armenians at the hands of the Turks is terrible too. Just like the atrocities in Sudan is terrible. The fact is the US is trying to fix one of these atrocities, and that is a good thing. Right100

As I study these accounts of terror and torture, I know our actions in Iraq are just.

Unfortunately, we let Saddam play us in our hopes of neutralizing Iran. Our actions in deposing Saddam are just not only because Saddam was evil, but because we needed to undo some of the mistakes we made during that desperate period at the end of the Cold War.

Oh I don't disagree with your comment, I just find that Americans have a selective sense of right and wrong. Much of the rest of the world including other nations of English speaking peoples who have a command of world history find our frequent public positions on such matters to be hypocritical. As do I. It doesn't mean however that we should not try to do right today. I just make sure I look in the mirror first. Every time I hear of gassing Kurds or slaughtering a certain group/s of people somewhere, I make sure I remember Waco and Sonny Bono sobbing at the sight of the actions of his own government who is so quick to point at others. It does not mean there should be no pointing, but we need to point to ourselves every day as well. The end product will benefit everyone.

Message from Iraq

The proud warriors of Baker Company wanted to do something to pay tribute To our fallen comrades. So since we are part of the only Marine Infantry Battalion left in Iraq the one way that we could think of doing that is By taking a picture of Baker Company saying the way we feel. It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen. I was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to let the world know that "WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN" and are proud to serve our country." Semper Fi 1stSgt Dave Jobe

http://www.republicansabroad-spain.org/newsevents/Irak.html

Well said. You made my point for me better than I did.

If American schools don't start doing a better job teaching history we are doomed to spend eternity making one step forward and one step backward.

agreed that reflection and humble confidence is always the best route. we need to remember the past as we move forward

i understand your point about iran. when we are successful in iraq, or even in part of iraq, it will re-make the middle east and give all of the people there who silently fear the terror a new hope. change does not happen overnight, but it is a start. Right100

when we are successful in iraq, or even in part of iraq, it will re-make the middle east and give all of the people there who silently fear the terror a new hope.

I agree, r100. But I do think we're once again in danger of pursuing a Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia type artificial "out of bounds" war with Syran and Iran, however.

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