From: nyxfer%panix.com@UMCVMB.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: NEWS:Pentagon's 200,000-death mistake
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@UMCVMB.missouri.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:57:56 GMT



 Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit


                THE 200,000-DEATH PENTAGON MISTAKE

                       By John Catalinotto

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited.)

The Pentagon has finally released its evaluation of the Gulf war.
It's a document that both brags about U.S. high-tech competence
and complains that faulty intelligence led U.S. planes to
repeatedly bomb the same targets, causing "excessive" casualties.

In a special appendix, the report makes an unconvincing attempt to
deny the U.S. committed war crimes. This denial is curious, since
the U.S. government and the mercenary media here have suppressed
any discussion of U.S. war crimes.

The Commission of Inquiry for an International War Crimes Tribunal
has investigated U.S. crimes since the end of the Gulf war. On
Feb. 29 in New York the final hearing of the tribunal in New York
found Bush and his lieutenants guilty of 19 counts of war crimes,
crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Twenty-two
panelists from five continents heard the case and pronounced the
guilty verdict before an audience of 1,500.

Commission of Inquiry staffers say that in part, the Pentagon
report is an attempt to deflect the impact of the tribunal's
strong case against the U.S.  government. The report also
evaluates Pentagon military strategy and the weapons used during
the war.

The report admits to the massive destruction of Iraq that the War
Crimes Tribunal had already demonstrated. This destruction
included wrecking Iraq's electric power and sewage system and its
water supply, and disrupting its food production.

The Pentagon blames this massive destruction of the Iraqi
infrastructure on faulty allied intelligence and a shortage of
precision weapons. Planes repeatedly and mistakenly bombed targets
that had already been put out of commission, according to the
report. Also, non-precision bombs did more damage than was
"necessary."

In other words, the Pentagon admits it destroyed civilian targets
but claims the destruction was an accident.

Direct denial of war crimes

An appendix to the report tries to answer directly the war crimes
charges raised "by some in the post-conflict environment."
According to the April 11 New York Newsday, in this appendix the
Pentagon says a "gap" in the "laws governing warfare made it
legally permissible for U.S. tanks to bury thousands of Iraqi
troops in their trenches and for U.S. warplanes to bomb the enemy
retreating along the so-called Highway of Death."

Workers World spoke with Tony Murphy, a researcher for the
International War Crimes Tribunal's Commission of Inquiry, about
the Pentagon report. "It's a cover-up," said Murphy, "and a weak
one at that, with the Pentagon picking on legal fine points to
justify mass slaughter. But it shows that our work has had an
impact. Though the report never mentions us by name, the Pentagon
felt compelled to reply to the charges we raised.

"In the report, the Pentagon continues its policy of refusing to
estimate Iraqi casualties. That's because the figures are so
high," said Murphy. "We have seen valid estimates that go as high
as 300,000 Iraqi casualties during the war, a large number of them
civilian.

"The administration claims it is innocent of murdering Iraqis
because it acted in ignorance," Murphy continued. "Yet right now
Washington, through the UN, is imposing an embargo against Iraq.
This embargo has caused another hundred thousand deaths since the
end of the fighting war, and kills hundreds of Iraqis daily.

"And the report raises a new danger," Murphy concluded. "It
mentions more than once that Saddam Hussein is still in power in
Iraq and that the U.S. would like to get rid of him. This means
the U.S. war against Iraq can be restarted."



                               ***

This article originally appeared in Workers World newspaper. A
10-week trial subscription is available for $2. A year's
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send to 46 W. 21 St., New York, NY 10010.Phone (212) 255-0352. You
may contact Workers World editors on NY Transfer or PeaceNet at
"workers."

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