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Saddam Hussein's Genocide Against The Kurds

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The reasons for Saddam Hussein’s genocide against the Kurds in the Iraq-Iran region was disgusting. He wanted to wipeout an entire ethnicity due to feeling threatened by them and the plunder for their land rich of natural resources. The land the Kurds preoccupied were rich with oil, valuable minerals, and had fertile land. Their land was also near the Tigris River. Another reason was that Hussein implemented his plan of “Arabization”, which the Kurds weren’t considered as true Arabs. The Kurds also sided with Iran since they wanted to be autonomous, this was considered a suicide move by them since Iraq was at war with Iran at the time. Hussein felt threatened by the move. This gave Iraq the opportunity “to eradicate the vast majority of the …show more content…
He was known for his inhuman decisions and actions towards the Kurds. Al-Majid’s fondness of using chemical weapons earned him the name “Chemical Ali”. The genocide was known as the Anfal campaign, and consisted of the use of chemical weapons, concentration camps, and mass slaughter. The men were usually taken away from their families in crowded, unsanitary vans and driven off to the desert. There, they dug their own graves and were lined up to be shot in front of them. The women, children, and elderly were usually taken to concentration camps where they were starved and beat. Al-Majid also gassed entire villages with no remorse. The chemicals killed and gravely hurt thousands, and he denied the use of …show more content…
government officials and politicians barred the most responsibility for allowing this genocide to persist due to personal interests. Under the Reagan and Bush administration, the U.S. was too involved in and dependent of Iraq. According to Powers, Iraq consisted of “25 percent of the overall U.S. rice output” (208). U.S. government officials and politicians put profit ahead of the lives of innocent people. The U.S. was also very dependent on Iraq’s oil, we were their number one importer of oil. One of the major reasons for supporting Iraq was for the fear that they may lose to Iran, who would be in control of their oil. The U.S. even established the Food for Oil Program (1997-2003) in order to trade U.S. grain and crops for Iraq’s petroleum. U.S. government officials and politicians denied the use of chemical weapons of Iraq and the entire genocide as a whole in order to protect the self-interests of profit and oil.
The U.S. media would be second to blame. Although not as powerful as the government, the media held a majority of blame as well. Many news networks and papers denied the use of chemical weapons by Iraq due to the “lack of proof”(Powers 219). The media even dismissed this as a genocide as a whole and used the excuse of war. According to Safire. “Hussein ‘may yet pass Pol Pot in megamurders”(Powers 218) yet the media is

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