December 17, 1998: MLPD condemns US-Aggression against the Iraq-people!

The central committee of the MLPD condemns the bloody aggression of the US- and British Forces against Iraq. The approval of this aggression by the Bonn Government of SPD and Buendnis-Gruenen must be regarded as political scandal. The members of MLPD and its Youth association REBELL call for a mobilization of all peace loving people throughout the Federation of Germany to combined protest actions.
In the night from 16th to 17th December 1998 US-warships, together with US- and British bombers fired 200 cruising missiles upon the Iraq, especially the capital Baghdad and its surrounding. Since then several new waves of air strikes were launched in an operation which according to the US-defense ministry Pentagon is timed to last for four days with an "open" end. Without pre-warning and against the expressed wish of the UN - the UN-Security-Council was in session at the time discussing this theme - the United States and Great Britain went into action. The consequences for the civil population are downrated or concealed by the media which are used as part of the psychological warfare, especially the CNN TV channel. Yet USA has officially calculated for such planed action against Iraq the possible death of up to ten thousand people.
The reason for this is not at all the obstructions of these UN-inspections of the alleged arms-production during more than seven years. Only a few days ago the UNSCOM delegation explained during a visit in Moscow that during the last few weeks there had been problems with the Iraq officials in exactly three of five hundred inspection cases. Just the same the Australian chairman of UNSCOM Butler asked his delegation to leave the Iraq the day before the air strike. This was the pretence for US-president Clinton to give green light for the attack. The real causes for this are the heightened rivalry and competition of the various imperialist powers in view of a worldwide economic crisis. A collective international crisis management chaired by the UN as during the Gulf war in 1991 had to fail under such conditions.
In the Middle East it is especially a question of who dominates the oil reserves of the world. The USA are the largest energy consumers of the world, yet their own oil reserves are almost exhausted. In the Iran and Iraq are the largest and easily accessible oil deposits no longer accessible by the USA and Great Britain. Russia, China and France on the other hand have made contracts for the hauling of more than 20 Billion Barrels oil which will be halted as long as war and embargo against Iraq lasts. The USA undertake all efforts to keep the embargo up in order to secure its dominance over the Iraq and the whole region, even to the point of any possible war action. Whosoever justifies this policy as an "humanitarian act" pursues imperialist insincerity. This embargo has already caused death of thousands of people in the Iraq during the last fe