Bush vs. Iraq: How the war on terror became a war on Iraqi human rights

George W. Bush's reelection victory must not be misinterpreted as popular approval of his administration's policies that have led to gross human rights violations in pursuing the "war on terror." Now more than ever, citizens of the US and citizens of the world must challenge these policies and work hard to repair the damage done and prevent the trend from continuing.

No group has suffered more from Bush's "war on terror" than the people of Iraq. Despite calls by Amnesty International that coalition forces refrain from the use of indiscriminate attacks that may put civilians at disproportionate risk, countless civilians have been killed or injured during the US-led war on Iraq - a war that clearly violated the provisions of the United Nations Charter and which was based on mistaken assumptions that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and/or provided support to al Qaeda.

Some Iraqis have been victims of cluster bombs, others have been killed in disputed circumstances. Unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs pose an ongoing threat to civilians - particularly children, who sometimes mistake the brightly colored bomblets for toys. Article 51 (4) Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions prohibits the use of indiscriminate weapons, i.e., weapons that cannot distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and soldiers and military objects.

Indiscriminate weapons include nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, cluster bombs, land mines, and weapons using depleted uranium. No landmine, for instance, can distinguish between the boot of a soldier and the footfall of a child. However, the ongoing violence in Iraq continues to put civilians at risk. Do President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld realize that this "collateral damage" leaves behind families, careers, hopes, and dreams?