BOULDER TO BAGHDAD
10 Year Anniversary of the Gulf War and One Local Man's Amazing Journey

Jan. 13, 2001. As the 747 approaches Baghdad, I tighten my seat belt and reflect upon the last time I flew into this city. It was almost exactly ten years ago to the hour.

In 1991 I was with a group of 30 Americans who were joining The Gulf Peace Team, an international peace group, gathering to protest the impending war. We met up with the eighty other members of the Peace Team, from fifteen countries, on the Iraqi side of the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The tent camp we arrived at was used as a staging area for Iraqi citizens to travel to Mecca and Medina during their pilgrimage. We had asked both Iraq and Saudi Arabia to allow us to set up peace camps on their territories. Iraq responded in the affirmative while Saudi Arabia never even acknowledged our request.

Dan Winters in front of an Iraqi child's drawing of a dove with missiles.

My reason for going was to protest what I felt was an escalation of a progressive drumbeat to war. Iraq had been given until January 15 to remove their troops from Kuwait - or else. I wanted to be in Iraq for the ultimatum date in order to stand in solidarity with those who had no say in what was going to happen.

"Clutching the earth, we watched, fascinated and terrified as bombs or missiles rained down on Baghdad. It was the start of the Gulf War."

From the Saudi / Iraq border thirteen of us left for Baghdad on January 16 in preparation for our return to Amman, Jordan. Upon arrival in Baghdad we were housed at a small complex of frame bungalows, for foreign visitors, on the banks on the Tigris River. Our flight was to leave the city on the morning of the 17th.

At 2:30 AM, without a declaration of war and without any warning to the people, the rattle of anti-aircraft fire awakened us. I leapt from my bed and rushed to the window. Blood red tracers ripped the sky. We ran outside and lay under a tree by the riverbank. Clutching the earth, we watched, fascinated and terrified as bombs or missiles rained down on Baghdad. It was the start of the Gulf War.

Seven days later we were able share the rental of a bus with a group of Indian families who were also leaving. It took us 36 hours to travel the 300 miles to Amman. I arrived in Washington, DC on the day prior to the Super
Bowl. As the most recent returnee from Iraq, I was invited to speak to what was considered to be the largest winter gathering of anti-war protesters.

It was now ten years later and I was anxious to get on the ground. Our group was comprised of forty-five individuals from across the United States and three foreign countries. We had joined the Iraqi Sanctions Challenge sponsored by the International Action Center (IAC) head- quartered in New York, directed by Ramsey Clark and Sara Flounders. Ramsey had been the US Attorney General under former president Johnson and was on the plane with us.

The objective of the trip is two-fold:

• First, we are bringing medicine to the people of Iraq.

• Second, we are doing civil disobedience by violating sanctions against the people of Iraq and thereby helping to raise world consciousness of the effects of the sanctions.

It is against the UN mandate and against US law to bring even one aspirin into Iraq without official permission of the State Department. We refused to ask for permission. Our feeling was that we did not intend to cooperate with such an immoral and criminal sanctions regime.

Dan Winters at mural of former President George Bush, at the entranceway of the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad.

We land and descend directly from the plane to the tarmac. It is now evening and a bit chilly - perhaps 45 degrees. We are greeted by numerous officials and by the print and electronic media (including CNN).

One reason is that Ramsey Clark is very well know and this is his ninth trip to Iraq since February 1991. He has been an activist and a protester of US human rights violations for many years - he has spoken out against United States policies on Panama, Iraq, Indonesia, East Timor, Kosovo, Palestine and elsewhere. He is also the lead attorney for American Lori Berenson who has been in prison for five years in Peru.

Another reason for the crowd is that this is the first group of Americans to fly into Baghdad since perhaps my arrival ten years earlier. In fact, the US has maintained that such flights are illegal. Since October about 50 foreign flights have come to Baghdad in open violation of the US. Ramsey is immediately surrounded by reporters and explains the purpose of our trip.

We are taken to the Al Rasheed hotel, which is a world class hotel. This is the same hotel where CNN's Peter Arnett was able to broadcast during the 1991 bombings. It was also where our group was taken on the first day of the war in '91 and from which we left a week later.

Most groups would prefer smaller and less opulent accommodations; however, Iraqi authorities almost always put up foreign guests at the Al Rasheed. A few in our group wonder if this might be due to the government wanting to keep an eye on us; however, when we are not being taken to schools or hospitals we are free to leave the hotel on our own.

The main entrance of the hotel has a picture of George Bush Sr., embedded in tiles on the floor. The placement of the picture requires entering guests to step on his face - which, I might add, many did with relish. (see picture)

As we enter the outer lobby we see a display which contains the picture of a young woman in her late twenties. The caption reads that a stray missile that struck the building during a bombing raid in February 1993 murdered her. Pictures of the destruction and parts of the missile are also on display - this is the face of collateral damage.

A few in our group wonder if this might be due to the government wanting to keep an eye on us; however, when we are not being taken to schools or hospitals we are free to leave the hotel on our own.

We check into our shared rooms (2 per room) and go downstairs to eat. It is about 8:00 PM and the dining room is full. We can select whatever we want from a very nice buffet. We have a choice of fish or meat or varied vegetables (cooked and raw) fruit and a beverage. We usually eat three meals per day at the buffet. One of our group leaders suggests that we might wish to go a "bit light" on eating so as to make it easier on our hosts.

The cost for one night for the room and meals is more than the average Iraqi makes in one year (yes, one year). If we were not with the group the cost would be about $200-$300 per night.

The cost for the trip - Boulder to NY to Iraq to Jordan to Palestine and back to Boulder, which included hotels and meals in Iraq and Jordan but not in Palestine, was approximately $2,500. $1,800 went to the IAC for the New York, Iraq and Jordan portions of the trip with some of the money going to pay for some of the $300,000 worth of medicines we brought. My sponsors at the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace (CCMEP) and The Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center (RMP&JC) generously contributed about half the funds needed.

I am tired and go to bed soon after we finish eating. The next day we meet with the Minister of Trade - he comes to the hotel. Ramsey Clark, Jim Jennings (Jim is heading a group of about 20 activists with Conscience International) and the minister share the podium. The minister goes into detail about how sanctions have hurt the people of Iraq.

In the last few months, he says, he has greeted a number of trade delegations and that Baghdad had a trade exposition in the recent past. Thanking us warmly for coming, the Trade Minister says that every visitor, every delegation is warmly appreciated and each does its part in bringing sanctions to an end.

Our next visit is to a grade school. We board a bus that will take us to our meetings around Baghdad over the next several days. We arrive at the school while the children are in their classrooms. There is no heat in the buildings even though there is a real nip in the air - all the children wear their coats. There does not seem to be any books for the children to read only a few pages of paper. The youngsters look up at us with a wonder in their eyes - as if they are trying to divine the planet we come from.

After all, are we not the Americans who have made life so difficult for them? In one classroom I am struck by a painting made by one of the children. It is a peace dove sitting on two rockets. It is not a polished work but it carries a very poignant message about the state of mind these young children have. (see picture)

One of our group asks if there is a message we can take back to the people of the United States? The teacher looks at the person questioning her and responds in Arabic, "the United States is responsible for the devastation being visited on the people, how can she be expected to send any message to those responsible?" When the translation is finished the teacher begins to weep and soon the entire classroom is in tears. Our heads seem to grow heavy and with heads bent we leave the room.

Outside the bell rings for recess and now perhaps 200-300 children surround us. I bring out my yo-yo and entertain some to them with the old tricks I learned in the Bronx when I was about their age. There is no rancor that I can detect in either the children or the teachers. We take some group photos and get on the bus for our next stop.

We arrive at the Al-Ameriya Shelter. On February 13, 1991 the shelter was full of civilians when two missiles struck it within seconds of each other. The United States then, and to this day, insisted that the shelter was an Iraqi military command and control structure and that any civilian deaths were the fault of Saddam Hussein for using civilians as shields in a military complex.

The international press and members of The Gulf Peace Team were at the site within hours and no one ever found an evidence of the shelter being used as a military facility.

The first missile penetrated the concrete roof and the second was directed in the hole made by the initial missile so as to detonate inside. The heat generated by the second explosion was in the hundreds of degrees centigrade. The heat and the blast "painted" the image of some bodies on the floors and walls - similar to what happened in Hiroshima. Several hundred perished - more "collateral damage."

Dan is available to speak to student groups (middle school - university) and other interested groups. He can be contacted at dancwinters@yahoo.com or (303) 444-8405

We visit one of the Universities in Baghdad - we are told it is the oldest university in the Middle East. We have a thirty minute visit with the President and than go outside to meet with the students in the courtyard. One of the colleges is the "English College" and so we are met by a good number of students who have varied English skills

Most of the students are willing to try out their English; however, perhaps one-third are very shy and speak to us via a translator. They are young people and seem to behave the way young people do in the United States.

What can I do to lift the sanctions?  

1) Contact Colorado Senators  

2) Contact Colorado Representatives

1) Both Senator Campbell & Allard support the sanctions.  

     Ben Nighthorse-Campbell: 303-843-4100; 202-224-5852.  

     Wayne Allard: 303-220-7414; 202 224-5941

You do NOT need to be an expert on the subject.

Ask to speak to the foreign policy specialist in the office (DC is a bit better than the local office, but both are fine) You will probably be directed to an answering machine, you may be asked why you wish to speak to the person.

YOUR RESPONSE - State your name and address. Ask that the Senator support the lifting of ECONOMIC sanctions against the people of Iraq. Say that the United Nations reports that over 500,000 children have died due to sanctions since the end of the war in 1991 and that water and health conditions are terrible.

2) Rep. Conyers of Michigan is sponsoring bill HR 742, the H.E.L.P. Act, which attempts to ease the US sanctions against Iraq by allowing humanitarian trade between the US and Iraq. Right now it's illegal to buy or sell anything with Iraq (unless approved by the US &UN).

DeGette and Udall are both good candidates for co-sponsoring this legislation. Call them both and ask that they sign onto this bill.

Diana DeGette: 303-844-4988; 202-225-4431
Mark Udall: 303-457-4500; 202-225-2161

They have varied interests, but many do not seem to have a real goal in life - we get the impression that the sanctions have left them in a sort of limbo. When asked what they think about the sanctions and Americans - the universal response is that they like the American people but detest the government.

On one of our daily trips we visit a large hospital. We meet with staff and with patients. Unfortunately, we are greeted exactly as we expected. The greeting does not come from the people - it comes from the generally poor physical structure, the lack of medicine and the lack of any equipment looking somewhat up to date. One doctor tells us that often times the only pain relief is a simple aspirin - even for patients with very painful fractures or terminal cancer. Our visit is what we expected but it is still very difficult to understand how the US administration can rationalize the sanctions in the face of such suffering.

On the morning of the 16th, after one of the very good breakfast buffets, we are told that we will assemble at midnight to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the start of the war.

____________________________________________________________________________

In the next issue Dan will write of:  l the commemoration of the start of the war   l some thoughts from Ramsey Clark l  visit to Basra and a report on the very high radiation levels at the scene of some of the tank battles of the war l  visit to Babylon.

Three Key Myths to Dispel:

* The US policy for continued sanctions usually rests on 3 myths - The myths have remained the same from the Clinton to the Bush administrations.

Myth #1: "Until Saddam Hussein is no longer in power we can not lift sanctions." The reality: This was NOT part of the UN mandate adopted after Iraq Invaded Kuwait; therefore, his remaining in power can not be a legitimate reason for continuing sanctions (Iraq was required to leave Kuwait and destroy or account for all weapons of mass destruction).

Myth #2: "The 1996 Food for Oil Program gives Saddam enough money to pay for all the food and medicine he needs for his people - he just spends the money on himself and for weapons." The reality: The money derived from the sale of oil goes into a bank account in New York, which is TOTALLY CONTROLLED by the UN. Iraq must then submit contracts to the UN 661 sanctions committee for review of what can be spent. The last two administrators (Dennis Halliday and Hons Von Sponeck) of the food for oil program have resigned in protest, each noting the program does not come close to supplying even the minimum basic needs of the people. "We are destroying an entire society. It is as simple and as terrifying as that," says Halliday.

Myth #3: "Saddam continues to hide weapons which should have been destroyed and is even trying to rebuild some weapons". The reality: Scott Ritter, the primary weapons inspector on the ground from 1991 - 1998, has stated that Iraq has qualitatively complied with the UN requirement to disarm and has no nuclear, chemical or biological capability. The UN conducted over 8,000 inspections. Also, when you hear or read Administration claims that Iraq is starting up chemical, biological or other weapons - ask yourself - how come those reports NEVER say who is selling Iraq the prohibited material and where it is coming from?

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