Kuwait Diary

Kuwait Diary -- April 3rd, 2003

Day 15 of the 2nd Gulf war
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In a daring midnight raid, US special forces, including Navy Seals and Army Rangers with help from the US Marines, rescued a female US Army soldier from an Iraqi hospital after she was captured in an ambush 10 days ago. The rescued soldier was identified as Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, from Palestine, West Virginia and was with a maintenance convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23rd. She was rescued from a hospital in the embattled southern city of Nasiriya, where US-led forces have faced stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters. She was said to be doing well and on her way to Germany, but CNN reported that Lynch had suffered multiple gunshot wounds at some point during her ordeal in Iraq that made it hard to move her. Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and fighters. Five of the captives, but not Lynch, had earlier been shown on Iraqi television as well as the bloodied bodies of up to eight men.

The family of the rescued soldier as also President Bush were overjoyed. "America doesn't leave its heroes behind. It never has, it never will," a military spokesman said in a special briefing called to make the announcement. Officials would not discuss the fate of the other captives, but CNN reported that Lynch's rescue team also brought out the bodies of up to 11 people believed to be US soldiers.

As far as my understanding of the Koran goes, Jihad or a holy war, is intended to kill internal demons of the human soul and to protect the collective faithful. It has been abused time and again by terrorists, clerics spewing hatred from their pulpits and assorted dictators and have put many deeply religious Muslims in an apologetic mode. Yesterday Saddam Hussein launched a religious salvo in absentia when he called for a jihad on the US-led "aggressors" waging war on Iraq, according to a statement read out on TV by his information minister Mr Saeed Al Sahhaf.

"Fight them everywhere, as you fight them today. Don't give them a chance to take a breath until they withdraw and retreat from Islamic land. And they will be cursed today and forever." Mr. Al Sahhaf, continued to read from the statement, which was delivered in Arabic and translated into English, "The aggression that the aggressors are carrying out against the stronghold of faith is an aggression on the religion, the wealth, the honor and the soul and an aggression on the land of Islam. Therefore jihad is a duty and whoever dies will be rewarded by heaven, and God will be satisfied with their sacrifice. Take your chance. This is what God requested from you."

Here was a clear example of the power of religion, nationalism and patriotism being used to goad believers into war. And God will be used to kill and followers will believe. And, the killing will go on.

Still on the subject of war and religion, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has barred US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair from ever entering the shrine. Christianity's holiest shrine branded the two "war criminals". US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have also been denied the privilege of visiting the sacred place. The move was made in protest against "the aggressive war these leaders have waged against Iraq", according to the chief priest of the church, Father Panaritus. He said this at a protest demonstration against the war organised by orthodox Christians outside the church. "They are war criminals and murderers of children. Therefore, the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access into the holy shrine forever," the priest said.

The American campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is in tatters after the hideous massacre at a military checkpoint of ten Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, by the US Army. The only first hand report from a correspondent embedded with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division described horrific scenes on Monday of US Bradleys using 25 mm cannon fire to pulverize a Toyota van that was coming toward a checkpoint without stopping. Cut to pieces by the firing were five children who appeared below the age of five. American soldiers involved in the massacred belonged to the Division’s “Bravo Company.” According to Washington Post reporter William Branigin, who is embedded with the division, the order to fire was given by a Capt. Ronny Johnson after he spotted the unidentified four-wheel-drive vehicle “come barrelling toward an intersection held by US troops. From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat,” Branigan said.
“Fire a warning shot,” Johnson ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. “Stop messing around!” Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken.
Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice,“Stop him, Red 1, stop him!”
That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon’s Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all. Johnson then yelled “Cease fire!” and as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, “You just (expletive) killed a family because you didn’t fire a warning shot soon enough!” But the platoon leader maintained that he had fired two warning shots despite which the vehicle had failed to stop. The explanation was by and large accepted by US officials, who later apologized for the incident but maintained that the soldiers were edgy following the suicide bombing a couple of days earlier.
“All the other vehicles stopped and turned around when they saw us,” Capt. Johnson explained later. “But this one kept on coming.” One soldier was quoted say saying “It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I hope I never see it again.” He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. “She didn’t want to get out of the car.” Officials were less repentant, coldly putting it down to circumstances and suggesting that such civilian casualties were inevitable in a war.

So, what really is the cost of this war? The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the cost of the ongoing Iraq war at up to $nine billion per month, on top of an initial outlay of up to $13 billion for the deployment of troops to the Persian Gulf region.

In a letter to the House and Senate budget committees, CBO provided Congress with cost estimates for an armed conflict with Iraq, based on recent similar US military operations including those in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and the 1991 Gulf War.

Following is the summary of Iraq War Cost Estimates:
Initial deployment of troops: $9 billion to $13 billion.
Conducting the war: $6 billion to $9 billion per month.
Returning forces to US: $5 billion to $7 billion.
Temporary occupation of Iraq: $1 billion to $4 billion per month.

In arriving at their estimates, the CBO has acknowledged that exact costs would depend on several 'unknown factors' such as: the actual force size deployed, the duration of the conflict, strategy employed, number of casualties, military equipment lost and the need for reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure.

And, in profit and loss statement of accounts, where will the revenues come from? Why, from the oil that will be ‘returned’ to the Iraqi people, oil revenues that will pay for the reconstruction contracts. As we have already seen, Halliburton, Dick Cheney’s former company, has already won the first of these contracts.

Here are some not so obvious, intangible costs of war. Have you wondered what the clouds of black smoke over Baghdad must be doing to the lungs of Iraqis already shattered by constant US bombardment? The UN Environment Programme now states the obvious: This smoke contains dangerous chemicals immediately harmful to people, particularly children and those suffering from respiratory problems. So, as Washington's 'Operation Iraqi freedom' rains bombs on Iraqis, UNEP is monitoring the major indicators of environmental trouble so far: The black smoke from oil-filled trenches and bomb-ignited fires in Baghdad, so visible on TV screens, and the increase in plankton productivity in the Shatt Al Arab estuary and surrounding waters, portending death for fish. Others have raised concerns about the health and ecological impact of depleted uranium munitions being used by the US and Britain against Iraq.
Oil fires in southern Iraq are on a much smaller scale than 1991, with just two or three oil wells still burning. Satellite images show smoke plumes from the Rumailah oil fields near Basra have weakened over the past several days. But these continue to threaten inhabited areas with smog. Smoke from oil fires contains a range of contaminants such as sulphur, mercury, dioxins and furans. These linger on.

Plankton productivity is a less obvious outcome. This may be due to the larger quantities of nutrients draining into the Gulf as raw sewage from Basra, through canals and the waterways associated with the Shatt Al Arab. Wastewater and garbage from the large number of ships in the area is also likely to contribute to the phytoplankton blooms. In the past, increased plankton productivity in shallow waters such as the Kuwait Bay has led to fish deaths on a big scale. Funding for environment-related activities has been included in the UN's recent $ 2.2 billion appeal for emergency assistance to Iraq and neighbouring countries over the coming six months.

I took a walk into Kuwait City' s fancy airconditioned fish market, adjacent to the same shopping complex that had been hit by a silkworm missile two days ago. The enormous variety of fish that we normally get, is no longer available. Much of the fish comes from the waters of the Shatt Al Arab waterway. There is a worried look on the face of the Bangladeshi and Egyptian fishmongers. They are looking forward to the days when the fish will start arriving once again.