Letters

Author(s): Afsaneh Najmabadi, Jerry Lembcke and Lorna Gayle Almaini

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 LETTERS

Said's War on The Intellectuals This allowedthe US administration to assume creatureof the moment."It is the case that
the moral high ground,and put the antiwar RepublicofFear and its authorcame to public
Edward Said's interviewwithBarbara Harlow movementin the tragicpositionofbeingsilent attentionafterAugust2nd.The book,however,
[Middle East Report, No. 171, July-August once the US-led war had stoppedand Hussein was completedin 1986 and publishedin 1989,
1991] is an attemptto "dislodge"an arrayof had begun to savagelyrepressthe uprisingof two years before"the moment."Why use its
opponents,rangingfrom"scholar-combatants" Iraqi people?who themselveshad littledoubt later prominenceto dismiss its scholarship?
and "instantexperts"to "native informants." where to place the responsibilityforthe war Perhaps because such dismissals serve Said's
An importantfocusoftheinterviewis thewar's and its catastrophicdestructionof their own project of dislodgingArab intellectualswho
repercussionson "the intellectualand cultural country. WhenArabIraqis in the southand the offerinterpretations of the Arab worlddiffer?
topography oftheArabworld."One suchreper? Kurds in the north were beggingthe allied ent fromhis own.
cussionis the debatebetweenEdward Said and armies to move into Iraq and protect them Said's charge,thatthebooksoftheseauthors
Samiral-Khalil.This debate,in myview,is not against the Republican Guards, what could a "are generallyunsympathetic to the Arabsand
about who has a more accurate reading of US antiwarvoice that had remainedat best advance the thesis that the feudsand the vio?
reality.It concernswhatpoliticalconsequences hesitant,if not silent,on the responsibilityof lence in the Middle East are due to, relatively
flowfromeach position and how we choose the Iraqi governmentsay? How could it sup? speaking,prehistoriccauses, inscribedin the
betweenthem. port the furthermarch of those very armies verygenes of these people," (p. 16) is nothing
Said's chargesare mainly directedagainst requestedby manyIraqis, Arab and Kurd,into but outrageous.Ajami's book is about Arab
oppositionalintellectualswhom he accuses of Iraq? Had the antiwar movementsupported political thought since 1967; al-Khalil's is
failureto deal withtheMiddleEast and to "feel the demandby Iraqis forUS intervention, that about the constructionof the Ba'thist state in
responsiblefor the behavior of the United presencewouldhave acquireda different mean? post-1968Iraq. Both are concernedwith con?
States internationally,"in contrastto "a pow? ing: Instead of servingonly US interests,it temporarypoliticalchangesin the Arab world
erfuland vocal groupin the universitiesthat would have become,at least in part,of Iraqis' and Iraq. Has Said becomeso mucha "creature
challenged the administration" during the making:an interventionto serve their cause of the moment" that the 20th centuryhas
Vietnamwar.(p. 15) This is a remarkablecase ratherthan the new worldorderimaginedby becomeprehistory to him? These books can be
of forgetfulness.It took yearsof slow workin the US administration. construedas hostileto Arabs onlyif,forSaid,
very hostile circumstancesbefore the first Said holdsthe post-modernism ofAmerican hostilityto the Ba'th or to particularideologies
antiwarteach-insand ralliesofthe 1960s could intellectualsresponsiblefortheirhavinginter? and statesin the Arabworldmeanshostilityto
claim a significant audience. nalized the US imperialrole. If post-modern? Arabs.Nowheredoes theiranalysiscome close
By contrast,evenbeforetheveryrapidbuild? ism deservescriticismforits role in the anti? to attributinganythingto Arab genes,nor do
up of US troops on Iraqi borderstook place, war movement,it is because it may have theycall Arab identityand historyfraudulent.
there was a vocal antiwar movementon US fostereda reluctance on the part of many To accuse these books and theirauthorsof
campuses. From the firstdays of the crisis, antiwaractiviststo criticizethe Iraqi regime anti-Arab racism may be useful for Said's
beforethe American-ledwar had started,most forthe fear of being labeled "internalizersof dislodgement project,but it does littleto clarify
critical intellectualson universitycampuses imperialrule." Said's castigationsact to create the debates now engulfingArab intellectuals
threwthemselvesinto an antiwar movement an atmosphereofintellectualfear,fearofbeing and is itselfa formof racism,forit assumes a
that focusedon opposingUS intervention. In? accused ofimperialistictendencies,ifyou hap? unifiedand undifferentiated Arab.It is,in fact,
deed, it was this singularfocusthat was prob? pen to criticizea Third Worldmurdererthat the diversityof the Arab voices that has an?
lematic:The antiwarmovementattemptedto the US governmentalso happens to call a geredSaid. WhereasAjami and al-Khalil focus
replaya Vietnamscenario?Bring the Troops murderer?forthe moment.It silencescritical on the politicaland culturalcrisisof the Arab
Home Now?as if therewas clearlyonly one thinking, and producesa bipolarworldoftrans? world fromthe inside, Said argues that such
aggressor:the US government. In manymeet? parentlygoodand bad sides.To the extentthat self-criticism"exonerates the United States
ings,therewas a silence about Saddam Hus? one can see some credibleconnectionbetween and itspolicymakers,and ofcourseIsrael,from
sein's policyand politics,a reluctanceto con? thepresumeddominanceofpost-modernism in any role in this appalling mess we're living
demn Iraq's invasion and occupation of Americanintellectuallifeand thepoliticalposi? throughtoday."(p. 16) One can imagine that
Kuwait,as ifsuchcondemnationscouldonlybe tionstakenduringthis criticalperiod,it would the Kurds and the Arabs of southernIraq may
read as approval of US military build-up. be that the post-modernemphasis on multi? thinkthat Said, by holdingIsrael and the US
(There were at least two other wars, both plicityof identities,culturesand subjectposi? responsibleforthe appallinghelltheyare living
launchedby Saddam Hussein's regime,firston tions made many reluctantto take a political through,is exoneratingthe Ba'thist regime,as
August2 againstKuwait,and then againstthe stand against a governmentofthe Other! indeedhe has come close to^oing withregards
popularuprisingsagainsthis regime.The usage In Said's world,instead of engagedintellec? to the Halabja massacrein The London Review
of "war" onlyto referto the January17thwar tuals (meaningintellectualswho agreewithhis ofBooks (March 7,1991):
acts as a mechanism of forgetfulness about politics), we had instant experts (journalists
theseotherwars.Eric Hooglund'sarticle,"The such as Thomas Friedman whose journalism The claim that Iraq gassed its own citi?
Other Face of War," [July-August 1991] was Said does not like), scholar-combatants(such zens has oftenbeen repeated.At best,
one of few in Middle East Report that gave as Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami, whose this is uncertain.There is at least one
prominentcoverage to the sufferingsfrom politics Said disdains) and the native infor? War Collegereport,done whileIraq was
these other wars, although adding up the mant (Samir al-Khalil, whose concern for a US ally,whichclaimsthatthe gassings
counts into single accumulative figures? Iraqis distractsfromSaid's concern for Pal? of the Kurds in Halabja was done by
"100,000deaths,fivemilliondisplacedpersons, estinians). Friedman is dismissedsimplyand Iran. (p. 7)
and over $200 billionin propertydamage" (p. plainlyas a journalist.Friedmanis not a uni?
3)?tends to obliteratethe distinctresponsibil? versityteacher. Not being anchored "in the For Said, Israel and the US are the
ities of the different
wars.) processofintellectualworkor in institutionsof unproblematicauthors of the region's prob?
In those antiwarcoalitionsthat took an ex? intellectualproduction,"he is not worthSaid's lems. If Ajami thinksthese are "self-inflicted
plicitpositionagainsttheinvasionand occupa? seriousconsideration.Are onlyivyleague uni? wounds,"or if al-Khalil makes a case that the
tion of Kuwait,thatpositionwas of littlecon? versitiesand universityprofessorsengagedin Ba'thist regimeis a productof the contempo?
sequence in daily practices. In the period intellectualproduction? If so, is not Fouad raryhistoryofIraq itself,forwhichIraqis need
leading up to the January15th deadline,the Ajami as embedded in these institutionsas to take responsibility,
Said cannotacceptthese
failureof various peace initiativesand plans EdwardSaid himself?Here Said raisesa differ? as alternativeperspectiveson Arabpoliticsand
were invariableand solelyblamed on US gov? ent charge:Ajami "is a mediocrescholar."(p. history.Drawing on a popular tradition of
ernment intransigence, rather than on 16) Al-Khalil,neithera journalistnora profes? conspiratorialism,he needs to findout "who is
Saddam's refusalto withdrawfromKuwait. sor, is dismissed as a "media celebrity,""a See Letters, page 42

Middle East Report ? November-December1991

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logical codes of representation. These images, she argues, have women's emancipation. Since the colonial attack on the veil
been mobilized as symbols in nationalist struggles against was a deliberate challenge to indigenous male authority, the
colonial powers in the region. In Atatiirk's Turkey, Reza fight was in fact over who was to control women.
Shah's Iran or Nasir's Egypt, photographs of women unveiled, Copiously illustrated with black-and-white photographs
in Western dress, apparently participating in public life, could from a range of archives and private collections, and beauti?
be held up as emblems of the progressive nature of the state. fully produced, Images of Women provides an impressively
Yet these propagandist images often obscured a lack of real wide-ranging and accessibly written thematic social history of
change in the vast majority of women's lives, within family or women in the Middle East. While it imparts a vital under?
gender relations. standing of how to read and interrogate the photographs it
An alternative nationalist position saw women as crucial presents, its cogent thesis goes beyond the treatment of
repositories of indigenous cultural tradition. In Algeria, where photography. What emerges is a far-reaching critique of
the French authorities forcibly discouraged the use of the veil, prevailing codes of representation of women and their social
its retention became a nationalist tenet, with women serving status in the Middle East, and of the power relations that lie
as emblems of nationhood. Yet the dispute was not one over behind these images. ?

Letters, frompage 2

this personreallyspeakingfor.As theysay in Said thinksis evidentin the similarpleas by in killingand counter-killing.
Arabic,minwarrah?'who'sbehindit?'" (p. 16) Iraqis in the southand the Kurds in the north. Said in this interviewhas done nothingto
It is in factthis kind of conspiratorialview of Does Said findthe pleas to the same US forces facilitatethe conditionsforcreatinga dialogue.
politics and allocation of responsibilitiesto by Palestinians, now suffering fromKuwaiti He has aimedto fixone side as thegoodand the
outside forces that both authors challenge. vengeance,astonishingand void of realism? otheras the bad, and close offthe changesfora
Said's failureto appreciatethat these alterna? The debate betweenSaid and al-Khalil goes debateby "dislodging"thosehe disagreeswith.
tive perspectivesmay be as sympatheticto back to August 1990. In an article that ap? One final point. When he criticizes "the
Arabs as his own comes out mostevidentlyin peared in The Sunday Independent (August representationsof the conflictin the West,"
his patronizingremarksabout al-Khalil: 12,1990), Said had connectedthe crisisto "the Said equates personalizationof the crisis and
culturalabyss that exists between the Arabs demonization of Saddam with "eliminating
What struckme as extraordinarily sad, and the West."In response,al-Khalil suggested Iraq as a nation,a people,a culture,a history."
not to say desolate,was his [al-Khalil's] thatthe Gulfcrisisabove all "revealsthe deep- (p. 15) However,this can also be read as an
appeal to the United States, whichhad seated crisis inside Arab cultureitself (The indicationof the remarkablereluctance/diffi?
just devastatedhis countrymilitarily, to Independent,August25,1990). Said, insteadof cultyofthe US government on the vergeofwar
enter furtherinto Iraq and unseat welcoming this diversityof opinion among to produce "an enemy." Clearly "the Arab"
Saddam Hussein.For himtheonlyissue Arab intellectuals,is threatenedby it: "There's could not be cast as "the enemy,"for two
is the one that he as an Iraqi, genuinely a seismic shiftin the intellectualand cultural reasons: 1) the anti-Vietnamwar, the civil
in pain, feels.That seems to me to be topographyof the Arab world,which is very rights,and the women'smovementshave pro?
part of the miseryof this whole story. hardto assess but whichcan't be good." (p. 16) duceda climatewhichbetterappreciatesdiver?
He is intelligent, fluent,but unable to The reasonforhis concernis that in "an Arab sityand resistsstereotypes; and 2) because the
attachhimselfto anythingbut an issue world divided between victors and van? US had been invitedto interveneby a number
of the moment,with no realismin his quished,""[t]he Palestiniansare losers."If the of Arab governmentsin the area. Nor could
crisis has placed the Palestinians in a losing "the Iraqi" be cast as "the enemy,"since the
perspective.He's suddenly discovered administration'sdiscoursegave prominenceto
he's gotto do something,and whatdoes position,surelythis has somethingto do with
the Palestinian support for Saddam?a sup? the unpopularityand illegitimacyof Saddam's
he do? He appeals to the United States,
whichhas just destroyedhis country, to port that Said regretsat one point in the rule,and even called forthe overthrowof his
interviewbut later minimizes by suggesting regime.The personalizationof the war had a
come and rescuehim!It's astonishing. that "[t]he reallypopularpositionin the Arab profoundly negativeconsequence.If therewere
... Al-Khalil appeals to the very world... is a rejectionof what Saddam stands no categoricalenemy,it became imperativeto
same people who are responsiblefora for,and the disastrousresultswhichhe brought denythatanyonebut Saddam Hussein and the
largepart of the presenttragedyof his to his own countryand people,and a rejection RepublicanGuardsweretargetedor suffered in
country. They collaborated with of the Americanmilitarysolution."(p. 18) this war.Bombingtargetsweredescribedas if
Saddam and now they'reproppinghim Havingmalignedeveryonehe disagreeswith, they were buildingsempty of people. There
up afterdestroyingthe infrastructure. Said piouslyproclaims,"What we reallyneedis were no named casualties, no human body
(p.18) a criticallanguageand a full-scalecriticalcul? counts,only "collateral"damage. The human
ture,not name-callingor the rhetoricalequiva? tragediesproduced by pulverizingthe infra?
Despite Said's consternation, therelevantissue lentofpoliticalmurder."(p. 18) Do Ajami and structureofthe countryand the impactofthat
pain or
is not al-Khalil's activism,his fluency, al-Khalil's books not assess and critiquepower destructionon the people of Iraq wereobliter?
intelligence.Rather, whereas al-Khalil, like in the Arab world?How can a criticallanguage ated.
mostIraqis,Arab or Kurd,holdsSaddam Hus? and newdiscoursesbe constructed whena criti? Yet the difficulty of producing"an enemy"
sein and his regimeresponsibleforthe cruelties cal Arab intellectualsuch as Said engages in also workedagainst mass anti-Arab,or even
perpetratedin his country,Said thinks he "the rhetoricalequivalentof politicalmurder" anti-Iraqi,racismin theUS. WhilemanyIraqis
should point his fingerat the US. When al- of those who dare critiqueArab cultureand and Arabsweretargetsofracistattacksin this
Khalil made his plea forthe US forcesto take politics? period, nonetheless,it was remarkablethat
responsibility forthe disastroussituationtheir The stakes in this debate are high. On the schools would inviteparentsof studentsfrom
war had createdand help the Iraqi intifadato one side,Said and manyPalestiniansand their Arab backgroundsto come to class and talk
oustSaddam Hussein and to set up provisional supportersthinktheiropponentsexonerateIs? about theirperspectiveson thewar.My daugh?
governmental structuresin postwarIraq [New rael and the US. On the other,al-Khalil and ter?who like manychildrenof hergeneration
YorkTimes,March 27, 1991],the suppression otherIraqi oppositionistsare appalled by what has connectionsto several countriesand cul?
of the uprisingsin the south and the northof they see as the silence of theircriticson the tures?when asked where she was from,felt
thatcountryhad just begun.If thatappeal had crueltiesperpetratedby Saddam Hussein's re? impelled,forthe firsttime in her life,to say
a chance in a million to have averted the gime.In the Arab world,these deep suspicions that she was fromIraq and feltsafe sayingso.
crueltieswe have witnessedsince,it was worth and divisionsfindtheirtollin theuntoldsuffer? The rupturebetween Hussein and anything
making.That it was not so void of"realism"as ingofKuwaitis,Palestinians,Iraqis and Kurds, else Iraqi opened up a space forbeingan Iraqi

42 Middle East Report ? November-December1991

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withoutbeing "an enemy."This atmosphere ical and onlyoccasionallyinformative polemics etc.?as to make one wonder whetheralong
was in strikingcontrastto the vicious anti- against Saddam, he seems quite incapable of withan inabilityto reason clearlyshe has any
Iranianracismofthetimeofthe hostagecrisis. argument,scholarship,or rationalexchange.I commonsense at all.
The possibilityof such an alternativeexperi? do in factwelcomediversityofopinion,whenit Edward
? Copyright W.Said,1991
ence is somethingto be remembered and cher? is opinionand discourse,and not abuse or self-
ished,not ignoredand erased. promotingopportunismcarriedout exclusively
AfsanehNajmabadi in the US, as opposed to the Arab world.
Cambridge,MA Ajami's even less usefulviewsare knownto all
and deserveno further discussionhere. Chemical Attacks and the Kurds
But there is something else at work in
Edward Said Responds Najmabadi,especiallysince she suggeststhat I In Middle East -Report [#171,July/August
have a particularlyrichhistorywithSamir al- 1991] Eric Hooglund writes matter-of-factly
AfsanehNajmabadi's wackyand ratherobtuse Khalil. A fewwordsthat will allay this rather that "Saddam Hussein ordered[the northern
politicalviews,whichare thereto dressup her sillyillusionmightbe ofinterest.In late 1969 or Iraqi town of Halabja] bombed with chemical
defenseof Fouad Ajami and Samir al-Khalil, 1970 I became acquainted with a youngIraqi weaponsin March 1988 duringthe finalstages
deserveonlya fewlinesofresponse.She seems militantactive in Palestinian politics.Aftera of the Iran-Iraq War." An estimated 5,000
unable to distinguishbetweenthe criticismI few monthshe seemed to disappear fromthe Kurds died in that attack, he says, and this
was advancingof these intellectuals,and?a scene, althoughI gatherhe remainedat MIT explainswhyKurds flednorthernIraq follow?
verydifferent thing?instillingfearand trying fora whilethereafter. In February1990 I was ingthe collapseofthe Kurdishrebellionin the
to stampthemout,somethingI neverwould(or sent an unsolicitedmanuscriptby one "Samir springof 1991.
could) do. Both of her preferredintellectual al-Khalil" forpublicationin a seriesofcultural An April 28, 1991, storyin the New York
heroesincidentally, have no shortageofoutlets: studiesthatI editat HarvardUniversityPress. Times says US governmentanalysts believe
Ajami is the residentanti-ArabArab of the Its authorinformedme he was using a pseud? that both Iran and Iraq used "chemicalarms"
New Republic, US News and WorldReport, onym,that he was the author of Republic of in the fightforterritoryaround Halabja but
and CBS. Samiral-Khalilwas an obscureLon? Fear, that in the submittedbook he was pro? thattherewas no attemptby eitherside to kill
don-basedIraqi architectwho shot to promi? posinga politico-cultural analysisof"the Mon? Kurds and that, in any case, therewere hun?
nence because The RepublicofFear suddenly ument."Frankly,I thoughtit was ill-suitedto dreds,notthousands,of"civilians"killedin the
became relevantto the US governmentand myseries,and nota distinguished piece ofwork fighting. The storygoes on to cite a 1990 US
media propaganda campaign to demonize (althoughmanyof its reviewersnow celebrate Army War College reportthat disputed the
Saddam. He too has been taken up by the its brilliance,for often transparentpolitical contentionthat Iraq was responsibleforthe
establishment. Republicis by no means a con? reasons). Samir al-Khalil made no allusion to Halabja killings.The War College Report,ac?
tributionto scholarshipnor, to its author's our earlieracquaintance. cordingto the Times, said it was "the Iranian
credit,does he pretendit is. Neverthelessmy All ofa suddenin late August19901 was the bombardmentthat had actually killed the
point was that knowledgeabout the Middle object of a nasty and unprovokedattack in Kurds."
East is in factpolitical,and the divisionsbe? London's The Independentby the verysame In earlyMarch, six weeks beforethe Times
tweenintellectualsin this fieldare principally Samir al-Khalil. In a long and maundering story,the Mexico CityEnglish-languageNews
relatedto differencesin politics,notin abstract piece of self-pityand rant (his all-too-charac? reportedthe same story.The News story,how?
theory. teristic tone) he attacked me for ever,added that the War College'sconclusions
Yet Najmabadi never mentionsthe role in deconstructionism, formy theoryof Oriental? werebased on the factthatIraq did notpossess
thebuildupto thewarofpro-Israeliinterestsin ism, and most preposterouslyof all, for my the kind of chemicalagent responsibleforthe
the US. This is a major omission,as is her alleged supportof Saddam. Virtuallynothing deaths in Halabja, whileIran did.
failureto understandthatthe US did not fight he said about me had any truth to it, but In "The Intellectualsand the War" (Middle
mainlyto liberateKuwait or Iraq but to serve quixotically perhaps I responded anyway, East Report,#171,July/August 1991), Edward
its ownimperialdesigns.Most US intellectuals drawing attention to his errors and to his Said observes that the demonization of
are eitherignorantabout Iraq or hostileto the pseudonymousscurrility which,I said, was the Saddam Hussein was part of the US govern?
Araband Islamicworlds(and sometimesboth); mark of a coward (he had of courseprotested ment'sraciststrategyof "eliminatingIraq as a
hencethestriking shortcomings ofthe anti-war that a nornde plume was necessaryto protect nation, a people, a culture,a history"in the
movementwhich in the main certainlydid his familyin Iraq). It tookme all ofa handfulof minds of Americansand the government'sal?
condemnSaddam (as did I, unequivocally)but minuteson the phone fromNew Yorkto Lon? lies. That accomplished,the bombing could
failedto make a case forthe Iraqi people, as don to discoverthatSamiral-Khalilwas in fact commencewithlittleopposition.Was the story
opposed to Saddam. That people still suffer the ex-studentfrom MIT, a revelationthat ofthe 1988 gassingofthe Kurds manufactured
because of Saddam and the US. Anyonewho doubtlesscould have been made by the Iraqi as part ofthis strategy?
believesthatthe US was evercapable of help? authoritieswitheven less trouble.So muchfor At about the time the enclosed Times story
ing the Kurds to achieve self-determination, the drama of "Samir al-Khalil" a.k.a. Kanaan appeared,the Times also began addingqualifi?
promotingdemocracy,or installinga liberal Makiya, who remainsneverthelessan item in ers such as "alleged" and "as claimed by the
regimein Baghdad is eithera foolor a knave. what has come to be known as "second Kurds" to its referencesto the gassingof the
The US recordis thereforall to scrutinize,and thoughts,"i.e. political recantation and self Kurds. I wouldlike to knowwhat Middle East
I challengeNajmabadi to show me one pro- reinvention.As to whetherso clearlypeculiara Report's certaintyis based upon and I would
democracystrugglein the Middle East encour? personalityis interestedin (or suitable for) like to have Middle East Report'sperspective
agedbytheUS. A lookat its shamelesssubsidi? dialogue,or whetherhe is about otherthings,I on the War College Report referredto by the
zation of Israel's horrendous occupation shall leave forMiddle East Report'sreadersto Times. If the 1988 gassingof the Kurds (and
policies would be enough to dispel any such determine. the fearthat it mighthappen again) does not
illusions.In everythingI said or wrote since In that strange conjunctureof half-truth, explain theirrapid departurefromIraq, then
August 1990 my point was to denounce the demagoguery and pureand cruelfantasywhich what does?
occupation of Kuwait, but also to connect is the US-Iraqi relationshipnow,Fouad Ajami, JerryLembcke
events with their contexts and not, as in Samir al-Khalil and Afsaneh Najmabadi are Worcester, Massachusetts
Najmabadi's case, to separatethemfromeach not criticalintellectualsat all. They are career?
other.The rest of her political argumentis ists who do not hesitate to echo each other
puerile,particularlythe notions that no one whileeithertrashingor falsifying the wordsof
condemnedSaddam, and thatI hold a conspir? people they feelhave offendedthem. In addi? Eric Hooglund Responds
atorial view of events. Coming froma fan of tion,theirworkon the Arabworldis filledwith
Samir al-Khalilthe latterview is galling. easy, and easily marketable,cliches; as schol? I have seen the reportby Stephen Pelletiere,
I come finallyto her personal accusations, ars, therefore, theyare hardlyin the forefront Douglas Johnsonand Leif Rosenberger[Iraqi
the essence of which is: that I want to herd of methodology, archival research,or insight. Powerand US Securityin theMiddle East, US
people under "good" and "bad" rubricsand Najmabadi's notion that there was no anti- Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA,
that in doing so I oppose dialogue,especially Arabracismin the US fliesso completelyin the 1990]. None of its authors were in Halabja,
withpeoplelike Samir al-Khalil.What is there face of the reality?what with the FBI cam? althoughscoresofinternational journalistsand
to dialoguewithhimabout?Aside fromhyster- paign, the horriblecaricaturesin the media, officialrepresentativesof internationalorga-

MiddleEast Report ? November-December1991 43

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 nizationsdid enterthe townwithin24 hoursof featuredthe case fora Washington"set-up"of If a convincingcase could be made that
the chemical attack. Their well-documented Iraq is that we have not foundthe case to be Washingtonhad set up Baghdad, it wouldstill
accountsare the sourceswhich verifythat at veryconvincing.There weredifferences in the be necessaryto account forthe Iraqi regime's
least 5,000 people died of chemicalpoisoning. Bush administrationoverpolicytowardsIraq, decision to invade,pillage and torturein Ku?
The three identifiedchemicals were subse? butuntiltheeve ofIraq's invasion,the momen? wait, activities which I don't believe Mr.
quentlyfoundbyUN investigators in Iraq after tumstilllay withthose who saw Saddam Hus? Clark's tribunalis planning to take up. Nor
the Gulfwar.The Pelletierereportwas written sein as a key US ally in preservingthe status does the "set-up"notionexplainwhyBaghdad
to advance a specificpolitical agenda, i.e., to quo in the Persian Gulf. There were persons as muchas Washingtonrefusedto countenance
reinforcea de facto alliance betweenthe US like Undersecretary ofDefensePaul Wolfowitz third-party effortsat a negotiatedwithdrawal
and Iraq whichtheReagan administration pro? who appear to have differedwiththis agenda, linkedto Palestine issues. The politicalthrust
moted.SupportersofthetilttowardsIraq were and theireffortsto shiftWashingtontowardsa of the "set-up" explanation is to effacethe
reluctantto acceptevidencethatIraq was using more confrontationalposture with Iraq ac? responsibilityofthe Iraqi regime,and its parti?
chemicalweaponsagainstIranianforcesduring countforat least some ofthe inconsistenciesin sans, forthe catastropheof this war and its
the Iran-Iraq war. The US, forpolitical rea? the administration'sapproach. aftermath.
sons, refusedto condemn Iraq and took the
position that both sides were using chemical
weapons,eventhoughtherewas neverevidence
that Iran possessed any.When evidencecame
in 1988 that Iraq had used chemicalweapons
againstits own Kurdishpopulationin Halabja,
the State Department and the intelligence THE CRISIS ? THE WAR ? THE AFTERMATH
communitywere divided over the response.
The split among analysts and officialspre?
vented the publication of an officialreport. Classroom or study group resources
Some of the pro-Iraq factioneventuallysuc? at a 40%
ceeded in gettingtheirreportpublishedby the discount!
US ArmyWar College.Regardlessofthe merit
ofthisreport,everyKurdbelievesthatSaddam Get all 5 Gulf War issues of MIDDLE EAST REPORT,
Hussein was responsibleforHalabja. And the the Gulf Crisis Resource
plus Packet,
strengthof thatbeliefis what compelledmore
than a million Kurds to flee toward Iran to for just $20 ($25 overseas).
escape Saddam Hussein.
Includes:
On The Edge of War, November 1990
Set Up? No Place to Hide, January 1991
Iraq
I am writingto express my disappointment Crossing the Line, March 1991
withyourcoverageofthe GulfCrisis.Granted,
Power, Poverty, and Petrodollars, May 1991
youdid comeout againstthe war,and you have
publishedsomeverygoodarticleson the devas? The Day After, July 1991
tatingeffectsofthewarin the MiddleEast, but Crisis in the Gulf Resource Packet
what I don't understandis yourlack of cover?
age of any of the evidencewhichmakes a very (Background on Iraq, Kuwait and the US in
goodcase fortheset-upofIraq (and Kuwait) by the Gulf) September 1990
the Bush administration.Afterall, even Time
reportedsomeverysuspiciouseventsas earlyas
October1,1990. $20.00 US and Canada
Many of your readersmust be of Arab de? $25.00 Overseas
scent, and would surely appreciate knowing
that someone of Ramsey Clark's stature is (Checks drawn against a US bank, or
bringingInternationalWar Crimes charges International Postal Money Orders. No Eurochecks please.)
againstGeorgeBush, on thebasis ofa set-upof Mastercard and Visa accepted.
Iraq (and Kuwait) by the US administration. I
heardClarkspeak in Torontoin mid-May,and
was notaltogethersurprisedto see no coverage Payment must accompany order.
of this momentousevent in the mainstream (First class or airmail postage included!)
media. However,I am dismayedat findingno
mentionof it in yourmagazine. Send to: MERIP, 1500 Mass. Ave. NW, *119, Washington, DC 20005
I am at a loss in understandingthis lack of
extremely importantinformation. Are you un?
informed?Are you being muzzled by the US
administration?Do you not want people to
have this information?
I hope I am notinsultingyourintelligenceby
assumingthat you are not familiarwith this
information, all of whichhas been reportedin Feminist Teacher seeks contributions dealing with "Feminist
Time, The Village Voice, Harper's and the Education and War/' Topics include the sexual, racial and cultural
TorontoStar. However,if I have insultedyour
intelligence,then I have overestimatedyour implications of the Gulf War; -war and feminist ethics; women in
integrity. war; descriptions of pedagogical efforts to address the war in the
Lorna GayleAlmaini
classroom; personal teaching experiences from different stages
Toronto,Canada
of the war. For further information, please contact Feminist Teacher,
442 Ballantine Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405.
Joe Stork Responds
The chiefreason that this magazine has not

44 Middle East Report ? November-December1991

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