Understandable, but the problem is the real suspects are actually another whole government. The people who play the actual part are (as JFK's supposed assassin claimed) patsies.
So, what do you do in that case?
Stop bombing Iraq. That simple. Did you ask yourself WHY there was an attempted assassination of Bush Sr.? He reaped what he sowed.
1991:
January - Iraq offers to withdraw. [2]
On the 9th January James Baker meets Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. Bush tells Baker to offer no negotiation or compromise. [2]
Bush announces that Iraq has rejected a diplomatic solution. [2]
Both the US Senate and the House of representatives vote to back the use of force. [2]
On the 16th January Bush orders bombing to begin. [2]
Congressman Henry Gonzalez moves to impeach Bush on five counts:
“Bush has conspired to engage the US in a massive war against Iraq [.....] Bush has committed the US without congressional consent and contrary to the UN Charter to an act of war [.....] Bush has conspired to commit crimes against peace in violation of the charters of the UN, Nuremberg and the US constitution.”
On the 17th January at 7:00pm EST bombardment of Iraq begins. Within the first hours of the war 85% of all electrical power generation in Iraq is destroyed. Within two days not a single baby incubator is functioning in Iraq. [2]
On the 23rd January Colin Powell, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, announces attacks on Iraqi nuclear facilities, without any regard for the UN General Assembly vote or the Geneva Convention. [2]
US officers admit that the destruction of the civilian infrastructure is deliberate policy, not "collateral" or unintended. [67] They bomb schools, universities, hospitals and more. [86]
They intentionally destroy the Iraqi's water supplies during the Gulf War and through sanctions, leading to many civilian deaths. [153]
US forces bury thousands of Iraqi soldiers in their trenches, dead, wounded and alive. They fire on Iraqi's waving white flags of surrender. The allies use depleted Uranium munitions leaving contamination known to cause cancers, genetic defects and other conditions. Many civilian targets are hit, usually in broad daylight and with no military or government targets nearby. [38] [59] [64] [72]
February - After the Pentagon declared, on the 12th February, that “Virtually everything militarily ... is either destroyed or combat ineffective” the bombing continues daily for the next two weeks. In one instance 1,500 civilians are killed when a civilian air raid shelter is bombed. [59]
Fleeing refugees are also bombed and machine-gunned by low flying aircraft. Finally the remains of the Iraqi army retreats from Kuwait. They are hungry, wounded, sick, exhausted, disoriented and demoralized. They are no threat and would surely have readily surrendered, but US forces slaughter them all and the numerous civilians fleeing along the same road, with bombs, rockets, cluster bombs and gun fire. It is, as GI's describe it gleefully at the time, “a turkey shoot”...“shooting fish in a barrel”. For five days the Iraqis had been asking for a ceasefire. [59]
March - US military obstructs Shia'a uprising and allows Saddam to crush it, killing 30 000. Refugees are burned alive. US planes fly overhead. [2] [40] [59] [64] [67]
A Kurdish revolt is also encouraged by the US and again the US fails to support it and allows the Iraqi government to crush it. [59] [67]
The World Health Organisation estimates that Baghdad's water supply is operating at 5% of pre-war level. People are forced to drink from heavily polluted rivers. [2]
The Save The Children Fund report that hospitals are operating at 20% of their pre-war level, and that public access is severely reduced by lack of fuel and destroyed roads and bridges. [2]
April - Britain and US establish ‘no fly zones’ in northern and southern Iraq. They begin covert, permanent war of bombing in the zones. [1]
The deliberate devastation of the country's infrastructure leads to much more suffering and death. A public health team from Harvard University, visiting several Iraqi cities two months after the end of the war, concludes that “at least 170,000 children under five years of age will die in the coming year from the delayed effects” of the destruction of electrical power, fuel and transportation; “a large increase in deaths among the rest of the population is also likely. The immediate cause of death in most cases will be water-borne infectious disease in combination with severe malnutrition.” One team member testifies before Congress that “ Two world renowned child psychologists stated that the children in Iraq were ‘the most traumatized children of war ever described’.” [2] [59]
A UN inspection team declares that the allied bombardment had had a “near apocalyptic impact” reducing the country to a “pre-industrial age nation” which “had been until January a rather highly urbanized and mechanized society.” [59]
May - Despite reports from UNICEF and the WHO confirming cases of extreme nutritional disorders of marasmus and kwashiorkor, and their warnings of a potential disaster in Iraq, new UK Prime Minister John Major declares that Britain will veto any UN attempt to weaken sanctions “…for so long as Saddam Hussein remains in power.” [2]
June - The World Food Programme journal reports that the vast bulk of the population are suffering from the sewage, sanitation and water purification failure, and that even the requirement of feeding a baby is becoming ‘…a luxury that poor people simply cannot afford.” UNICEF also reports ‘…an alarming and rising incidence of severe and moderate malnutrition among the population of children under 5.’ [2]
UNICEF concludes that ‘Continuation of the trade embargo and of UN mandated sanctions against Iraq for any significant length of time will place the health and the very lives of hundreds and thousands of children's lives at risk.’ [2]
July - The deadline for weapons disclosure is reached. Iraqi compliance remains patchy, but the US backs off from attacking due to lack of international support. [2]
September - A Medical Aid for Iraq team travels through the country delivering medical supplies and assessing health. Their findings more than confirm the Megan Passey's Harvard Medical Team's findings in May, and in fact the situation is much worse. They report pharmacies turning away 90-98% of all people due to lack of drugs, power failures during the middle of operations, dire shortage of equipment and spare parts, hypodermic needles used repeatedly. They report a ten fold increases in typhoid and hepatitis, and twenty fold increase of cholera. Their report concludes ‘The state of medical care is desperate and, unless conditions substantially change, will continue to deteriorate in every region at every provider level’ [2]
October - In light of the apparent failure of Iraqi weapons disclosure, SCR 715 (reinforcing SCR 707) is passed. It allows UN inspectors to go anywhere, see anything, interview anyone, remove or photograph anything, intercept shipping, road vehicles and aircraft, install surveillance and long term monitoring equipment, check any permitted imports and exports, at any time they wish. Additionally all ‘dual-use’ machinery, and chemicals without any military uses, are banned from entering the country. This ensures that Iraq will be prevented from having any industrial base. [2]
November - The UN reports that the period August 1990 to August 1991 had seen a four fold rise in mortality for children under 5, and a three fold rise in children over 5, as compared to the 1989/1990 equivalent. [2]
December - By the end of the year there have been 1,056,956 cases of malnutrition in children under 5, and according to Iraqi / UNICEF figures, the cumulative death toll for children under 12 has reached 118,406. [2]
1992:
February - Ramsey Clark's independent commission of inquiry into the conduct of the war holds its final meeting and passes judgement. After thirty hearings in 16 countries, 19 charges of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity are levelled at George Bush and key members of his administration, and at General Norman Swhwarzkopf and key members of his military staff. The tribunal jury, made up of 22 international lawyers and former politicians, finds them guilty on all 19 counts. [2]
The findings are front page news in the Middle East and Asia. Not a single word is reported by mainstream Western press or television broadcasters. [2]
A Congressional enquiry discovers that President George Bush Senior and his top advisors had ordered a cover up to conceal their secret support for Saddam Hussein prior to his invasion of Kuwait. Illegal arms shipments had been made to him via third countries, such as South Africa and Chile, and the Commerce Departments records altered or deleted. The British government had also been performing such sales. [67]
April - A consignment of water purification chemicals is blocked by the US. [2]
May - Medical Aid For Iraq again travel through the country delivering medicine and making assessments. They conclude the situation is still worsening. [2]
September - UN inspector Maurizio Zifferero, Deputy Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declares that Iraq is now in compliance with the UN requirement that it end all nuclear weapon programmes. He stresses that given his confidence in UN inspection teams and not taking Iraq's word at face value: ‘There is no longer any nuclear activity in Iraq. They have no facilities where they can carry out this activity.’ [2]
October - A 50 strong UN team arrives in Iraq to determine whether any ballistic missiles are still concealed. The maintenance of sanctions policy begins to move away from the nuclear emphasis to aspects of Iraq's missile capabilities. [2]
Iraq and the UN sign a humanitarian accord that paves the way for $200 million's worth of supplies, but half of this is to be diverted solely to the Northern Kurdish region. [2]
December - Beth Osborne Daponte, a US Census Bureau staff member estimates that average Iraqi life expectancy at birth has been reduced from the pre-war figure of 68 years to a post war figure of 47 years. She also estimates that thirty times as many civilians have died since the war than during. In response to the political embarrassment of her findings, the Census Bureau tries to remove her from her post. She is saved by the intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union who threaten legal action. Daponte comments: “I find it extremely disturbing that the US Census Bureau tried to suppress and delay the release of information.” [2]
By the end of the year, according to Iraqi / UNICEF figures, the cumulative death toll for children under 12 has reached 241,869. [2]
1993:
January - Early in the year Iraq denies landing permission for an inspection team flying into the country. 200 Iraqi personnel cross the newly demarcated border into Kuwait and seize armaments and surface-to-surface missiles. On January 13th the US and UK respond by sending 114 aircraft on bombing raids on targets in Iraq. [2]
February - UNICEF commission Dr. Eric Hoskins to compile a new situation analysis for Iraq. His wide ranging and ultimately embarrassing report is shelved, and one UNICEF official declares he has reached conclusions ‘…not based entirely on fact…’ His findings were later completely confirmed by the FAO and WFP Special Alert Report published in July. [2]
Hoskins concluded: ‘Three years of sanctions have created circumstances in Iraq where the majority of the civilian population are now living in poverty. The greatest threat to the health and well-being of the Iraqi people remains the difficult economic conditions created by internationally mandated sanctions and by the infrastructural damage wrought in the 1991 military conflict.’ [2]
He went on to say: ‘One fundamental contradiction remains: that politically motivated sanctions (which by definition are imposed to create hardship) can not be implemented in a manner which spares the vulnerable.’ [2]
Medical Aid For Iraq undertake another mission to the country, and their conclusions are that the situation is now desperate. They find comatose diabetic children arriving at hospital and simply left to die due to lack of insulin. Asthmatics dying for want of inhalers, incubators out of order, premature births and low birth weight babies rising rapidly, no protein food, no antiseptics, no intravenous fluids, constant re-use of needles and syringes. In Samawa Children's Hospital, the hospital director Dr. Saad al-Tibowi had given his own blood three times in one week. Worst of all the UNICEF feeding programme is collapsing. [2]
A substantial proportion of UN inspectors report that they are satisfied that Iraq no longer poses a military threat to its neighbours. The inspection regime is ‘…now giving way to a lower key programme of long term monitoring.’ [2]
June - Clinton authorises the firing of 23 Tomahawk Cruise missiles at Baghdad in response to the alleged assassination attempt on George Bush. Britain provides political support. The US concedes that some have hit residential areas and caused civilian casualties. A Kuwaiti judge later dismissed the assassination charges against Iraq due to lack of evidence. [1] [2]
July - The Iraqi authorities reverse their earlier decision and grant permission for surveillance cameras to be installed at the missile sites. Ekeus notes that Iraq is now ready to accept ‘…on-going monitoring and verification as contained in SCR 715…’ Iraq insists that the embargo now be lifted in light of their full compliance. Ekeus responds he can not recommend an easing of sanctions until Baghdad is prepared to give a full and detailed disclosure of its weapons capabilities and suppliers. [2]
The World Food Programme, a division of the UN FAO, reports that only the Iraqi government ration system has prevented ‘…massive starvation’. [2]
A consignment of cotton for medical swabs and gauze is blocked by Britain. [2]
August - Ekeus states that lifting sanctions is still not on the agenda as Iraq has failed to declare the names of his suppliers of chemical weapons and missiles. After eight days of talks, Ekeus secures the required list, but will not recommend lifting sanctions until ‘…long term…’ monitoring of Iraqi arms development is accomplished. He does not give a time frame regarding how long this ‘…long term…’ will be. [2]
October - Hans Blix, director general of the IAEA reports: “In all essential aspects the nuclear weapons programme is mapped and has been neutralised through the war or thereafter.’ [2]
Medical Aid For Iraq return from yet another mission. They confirm all previous findings and additionally note that aplastic anaemia is increasing, kwashiorkor and rickets are now ‘…common…’, gastro-enteritis is ‘…rife…’, mortality rates from septicaemia and meningitis are ‘…very much on the increase…’, and they record ‘…unprecedented increases…’ in leukaemia, cancers, amoebic dysentery and infectious hepatitis. [2]
December - According to Iraq / UNICEF figures, the cumulative sanctions related death toll for children under twelve is 369,892. [2]
