By Bill Kurtz
Catholic Herald

Local activist defies sanctions to bring aid to Iraqi people

SUPERIOR -- Mike Miles spent 10 days earlier this year in Iraq, where evidence of 1991's Gulf War abounds. But Miles is at least as worried about the prospects for more war in the Middle Eastern country.

"We were feeling very strongly that in the aftermath of Sept. 11, Iraq is off the back burner," Miles declared, referring to widespread speculation that President George W. Bush will seek to have the United States depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"They're back in the crosshairs," Miles said of Iraq. "Everybody knows it's coming. They're not panicking, they know all they can do is live their lives and go about their business."

Miles, co-founder of the Anathoth Catholic Worker Community in Luck, Wis., was making his third trip to Iraq in defiance of United Nations economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War. The trips have been organized by Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago-based group opposed to the sanctions. U. S. citizens bringing supplies to Iraq could face up to 12 years in prison and/or $1.25 million in fines.

"The purpose was to violate sanctions by bringing medicine, toys to children in hospitals and school supplies," Miles said in an interview. He was in Iraq in early January, prior to Bush's description of Iraq as part of an "axis of evil."

Miles believes that any new war with Iraq "is not going to be as easy as (U. S. efforts in) Afghanistan. There's nobody on the ground ready to step in, like (Afghanistan's) Northern Alliance. Anybody who could do anything about replacing (Saddam) has left."

An invasion of Iraq "is a huge gamble," Miles contended. "If the United States tries to occupy Baghdad with American troops, no one's going to stand for it. It would throw the Middle East into chaos." He also noted that the U. S. would be on its own, "the European community is totally opposed to what we're talking about."

While in Iraq, Miles said he was welcomed warmly "They are able to separate individual American people from the actions of our government," he said. "They hate our government, but they don't hate Americans at all. The welcomes we got from people you'd think would hate us, speaks volumes."

More than a decade after the war, Miles said much damage remains, especially outside the capital city of Baghdad. Basra, the second-largest city, is much closer to Kuwait and was hit hard in the Gulf War and Iraq's previous war with Iran. "The power is out 18 hours a day," Miles reported, "and kids were playing in lakes and ponds of raw sewage," since the city's sewage treatment plant has never been repaired.

Before the Gulf War, Miles said, "Iraq had the best health care in the Middle East, the best education, and it was free." But the economy has collapsed. Before the war, one Iraqi dinar was worth $3 in U. S. currency, now a 250-dinar note is worth 12 cents.

"You see shoes in shoe stores, Persian rugs, the occasional Mercedes and BMW," Miles said. "But no one can buy anything, and most cars, like taxicabs, are late '80s models with 400,000 miles."

Saddam Hussein is notorious for his total control of Iraq, but Miles said he found a variety of sentiment towards the dictator. "Some people are glad he's standing up to the West, some people can't believe the direction he's taken their country and the wars he's gotten them into," Miles said. "I think the majority are like people anywhere, they can't see how what the government does affects them."

A highlight of Miles' trip was a visit with firefighters. "They dealt with the same kind of things as firefighters in New York, on a bigger scale," Miles pointed out. "For 42 days, their whole city was under attack."

Miles believes sanctions have fueled anti-American sentiment among Muslims elsewhere. "The cries of the Iraqi people are not falling on deaf ears," he said. "It's making people hate us." But he said Iraq has not been known for the kind of radical Islamic doctrines preached in such countries as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

"Militant Islam is an aberration of what Islam is all about," Miles said. "It's like the 'Christian Identity' stuff you find out in Idaho." He prefers to remember warm hospitality, even from families who had had sons killed by U.S. bombing raids. "I think that's the true face of Islam," he declared.

Miles urged U.S. policy-makers to take a different approach to Iraq, and cited the experience of Germany after it lost two wars. After World War I, Miles said, the Versailles Treaty imposed "sanctions so punishing they put the German people in the same situation as Iraq today. It gave rise to the Third Reich, and World War II."

By contrast, after World War II Germany got Marshall Plan aid "to draw them back in" to friendly relations with the outside world, Miles argued. "Even at this point, the Iraqi people don't hate America. We need to draw them back in."

Christians should lead the effort to revise policy towards Iraq, Miles added. "We've got to be willing to take extraordinary risks for peace," he declared. "The way to gain eternal life is to love God above all else, and love our enemies in a sacrificial way."

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2002