Ever since, the U.S. government has used its military and economic muscle to punish the Iraqi people. The embargo continues to deprive millions of toilers in Iraq of food, potable water, medicines, seed and agricultural supplies, and other vital necessities. It has already caused the deaths of over half a million Iraqi children.

Working people the world over should demand that the U.S.- engineered sanctions be lifted immediately, the "no-fly" zones imposed by Washington over large parts of Iraq be ended, and the U.S. and other "arms inspectors" get out of the country now - along with their U-2 spy flights. The so-called weapons investigating teams, sent with the fig leaf of the United Nations but clearly maneuvered by the White House, are used for constant provocations on the ground to justify punitive measures against Baghdad.

The U.S. government is engineering these provocations as it has failed to muster international support for new sanctions on Iraq. Paris and Moscow refused to go along with Washington when it attempted to impose additional punitive measures on Iraq at the United Nations last month. This is another indication that the U.S. rulers will never be able to regroup the coalition they cobbled together during the 1990 - 91 war. Competition among the main imperialist powers has become more the order of the day since the war in the Arab-Persian gulf.

In its decline, however, the U.S. empire has sunk its tentacles in virtually every powder keg in the world, threatening to drag humanity once again toward fascism and war in its drive to defend the profits of U.S. capitalists. Washington's assault on Iraq in 1991 sounded the opening guns of World War III. The recent threats against Baghdad could ignite another conflagration, which is against the interests of working people around the globe.

Now is the time to organize forums, meetings, and public rallies demanding:

U.S. and other imperialist powers out of Iraq!

Lift the embargo now!  
 
 
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