Desert Slaughter: The Imperialist War Against Iraq (Statements of the Workers League, 1991)

The 1991 Persian Gulf War heralded the beginning of a new imperialist re-division of the world, with US capitalism attempting to use military power to offset its declining position in the world economy vis-à-vis its major rivals.

Desert Slaughter exposes secret White House operations to draw Saddam Hussein into an invasion of neighboring Kuwait, and thus provide the long-awaited pretext for US military intervention in this oil-rich region. Figures such as George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz were involved in the 1991 invasion of Iraq.

Sordid maneuvers in the United Nations by the US and other major powers, including the Soviet Union and China, resulted in UN sponsorship for the horrendous carnage. US forces carried out atrocities, such as the deliberate bombing of a civilian air-raid shelter at al-Amariya and the wanton slaughter of fleeing Iraqi troops on the Highway of Death.

The US sought not just to defeat the Iraqi military, but to destroy Iraqi society, until that time one of the most advanced in the Middle East. Huge numbers of bombs decimated industry, roads and rail, TV and radio stations, medical supplies, and 92% of the electrical power supply.

The volume provides a damning indictment of the role of the labor parties and the trade unions in promoting the war.

Also included is a detailed history of colonial oppression in Iraq and the Middle East and an analysis of why the Arab national leadership has been unable to mount any consistent struggle against it.

This contemporaneous analysis of the 1991 Persian Gulf War is essential reading for a historical understanding of the driving forces behind the 2003 US invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq.

See also

• • The diplomacy of imperialism: Iraq and US foreign policy
• • For workers power and a socialist Iran
• • Denials of US interference in Iran not credible