DE-ECOCIDE

In all the debate before Operation Iraqi Freedom, it always kind of boggled my mind that pretty much every single self-conscious 'environmentalist' I talked to opposed the war, despite Saddam Hussein's record as the worst eco-criminal in history. I mean, I guess in theory I wouldn't expect a 'mere' matter of the environment to factor into your opinion on a 'security' issue, but I got the feeling that this wasn't even something that was widely discussed or even widely known amongst green types, which itself so < rant>fucking typical of an 'environmental' 'movement' that has allowed itself to be brought so thoroughly under the sway of refugee Marxists and anti-globalization activists and other groups on the political left that pimp the environment for their own agendas.< /rant> [I mean, I know that some enviros were obviously aware of this and opposed the war anyway b/c they were afraid that a similar eco-disaster would be the result this time around, but come on, that was never gonna happen on D-Cheney's watch!] Uh, anyway as I was saying, some context -

Most spectacularly, in the months during run-up to the 1991 Gulf War and during the war itself, Saddam dumped an estimated 3,000 barrels of oil a day into the Persian Gulf, and created the largest landlocked oil spill in history by torching Kuwait's oil wells, which ended up dumping way more - an estimated total of 460 million gallons of crude were deliberately released into the environment for little if any military gain, easily the largest oil spill in history (the Exxon Valdez spilt 10 million gallons) -

Environmentalists say the Gulf War's legacy is the greatest environmental disaster in history.

"What we have in the Gulf region is a legacy of a petroleum Chernobyl," said Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, referencing the Soviet Union's nuclear disaster.

"It destroyed the Persian Gulf region along the Saudi (Arabian) shores, the mangrove swamps, the fisheries. It ruined the deserts. It spread its poison smoke plumes throughout a massive region," Blackwelder said.

While there has been some environmental recovery, the disaster's effects are still felt throughout the region.

Fishermen say their catches can be off as much as 80 percent during some seasons.

Some migratory bird populations have not recovered, environmentalists say.

And scientists are still studying the impact on human health, particularly the effect of breathing oily smoke over the long term.

While Saddam's 1991 ecocide alone is staggering, it may pale in comparison to his sustained campaign against the Marsh Arabs, or Ma'dan, who had lived in the Mesopotamian marshlands continuously for 5,000 years (like, as Babylonians and Sumerians &c), and their home - the former marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, thought by many to be the Biblical Eden, 90% destroyed - in retaliation for their limited uprising during the 1991 Gulf War.

Thanks to the generosity of Japan, we may yet be able to save this region and the livelihoods that it used to sustain:

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations will help Iraq restore its southern marshlands - devastated during Saddam Hussein's rule - with an $11 million grant from Japan, the U.N. Environment Program said.

The project aims to help restore the fragile environment and provide clean water and sanitation for the 85,000 people now thought to be living in the area some scholars believe is the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

Saddam built barriers and levees to drain the once-abundant waters in the area in retaliation for what he saw as support by the Marsh Arabs for an uprising against him after the 1991 Gulf War.

As the marshes dried up, most of the area's 450,000 inhabitants were forced to flee, leaving only some 40,000 on the eve of the March 2003 U.S.-led war to oust Saddam.

After the war, residents began returning and breaking down the barriers, allowing water to again flow freely in a region where people had lived on small islands and moved around on thin wooden boats for over 2,000 years.

Satellite images show that about a fifth of the marshes were reflooded as of last April, the U.N. Environment Program said in a statement.

The new project will initially target around a dozen settlements, providing small-scale water treatment systems, some of which may be solar-powered, the agency said.

Saddam's crimes against the Marsh Arabs were documented by Human Rights Watch in this report published shortly before the war, and this catalog of misery is almost certainly far from complete. Still, on this day of hope, let's look back at some of the acts perpetrated by Saddam in the Fertile Crescent over the last decade of his rule:

* Murder of thousands of unarmed civilians following the abortive March 1991 uprising, through summary execution and the indiscriminate bombardment and shelling of residential areas in towns and villages in the vicinity of Basra, al-Nasiriyya, al-`Amara and across the marshes region;

* Forcible population transfer-coercive expulsion of part of the Marsh Arab population from their native villages to settlements on dry land on the outskirts of the marshes and along major highways to facilitate government control over them;

* Enforcing an economic blockade on areas in which "subversives" were operating, to be implemented through the withdrawal of food supply agencies, imposing a ban on the sale of fish, taking "the severest measures" against those who smuggle food to "deserters, outlaws and hostile groups," and prohibiting all commercial traffic to the areas in question. This blockade was later "tightened", which entailed a total ban on the transport into the marshes of foodstuffs, refined oil products, and medicines. Army patrols were reported to be searching travelers into the region, and any food judged to be in excess of a family's needs was either seized or destroyed. Food smugglers who were caught were often harshly dealt with, including by summary execution;

* Widespread and deliberate destruction of homes and property through bulldozing or burning. This was carried out systematically following the shelling or bombardment of targeted villages, both to prevent the inhabitants from returning and to deprive them of their assets. Similarly, crops and other vegetation were also set on fire, and livestock deliberately were killed;

* The indiscriminate laying of land and water mines. The use of unmarked mines was reported in early 1992 but continued after the imposition of the "air-exclusion zone." Most water mines were laid in the al-Hammar and al-`Amara marshes, concealed in and around river entrances leading to the marshes, apparently with the aim of deliberately killing or maiming those entering or leaving these areas. Until the drainage works rendered it impossible to use boats as the principal means of transport in the marshes, water mines were also laid in the shallow waters used by the local population. They were reportedly responsible for scores of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the deaths of large numbers of water buffalo and cattle on which much of the local economy depended. Land mines were used principally in areas cleared for drainage, including in and around destroyed villages, to deter the inhabitants from returning. They were also laid along embankments, apparently to protect them from attack by armed opposition forces;

* Extensive 'land reclaimation' projects (a cover for the total destruction of the Marsh Arabs' way of life; the 'reclaimed' land was generally left unused) devastated the local economy, reflected in a significant decrease in fish supplies, and a decline in agricultural production and animal husbandry.56 The drying out of the reed beds deprived local inhabitants of the principal raw material used in the construction of boats, shelters, and various household items, and led to the disappearance of the local cane handicrafts industry. Boats could no longer be used as the principal mode of transport in large stretches of marshland. The remaining pockets of water became stagnant, and supplies of drinking water also significantly declined. The special rapporteur observed that he found "extremely little evidence" of successful land reclamation, while finding "indisputable evidence of widespread destruction and human suffering which have resulted in massive displacement, an influx of destitute refugees to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the loss of a way of life for the Marsh Arab people.