“I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries…can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against intervention and aggression.”
On September 30, 2026 the United States military will, supposedly, completely withdraw from the nation of Iraq, bringing to an end a twenty-three year military occupation of the country. The occupation’s origins were in the 1991 US military attack on Iraq – Operation Desert Storm – followed by 12 years of devastating UN-endorsed sanctions that devastated the country. In 2003, the US launched the savage “shock and awe” bombing attacks on Iraq, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. By that time, Iraq was primed for conquest and occupation.
The US wars on and occupation of Iraq were the opening salvo of the new doctrine of US imperial policy to control West Asia, a new policy that emerged with the fall of the Soviet Union leaving the U.S. as the global hegemon. It led to decades of US bombing, invasion, and occupation, killing millions of people in the region. But few anticipated what the next twenty-three years would bring: the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the sustained multi-pronged attack on Libya and Syria, leading to the fall of both countries, and the growth of zionist power with US military, economic, and political backing.
Fidel Castro saw it all coming. In August 1990, soon after Iraq, under Sadam Hussein, invaded Kuwait, comrade Castro called on the Arab nations of the region to come together to solve their own problems to prevent US foreign military intervention. Seeing the US “preparations for a direct military intervention” in Iraq, Castro wrote a letter to Arab leaders warning them that, if the US got its way and attacked, it would lead to “an adverse situation for the independence of many Arab states, to an economic catastrophe, and to a holocaust affecting a large portion of their peoples.”
Castro’s words and warning proved prophetic. The US and its European lackeys began their bombing of Iraq January 16, 1991. The rest, as they say, is history. In the years since that bombing, we have seen that the US has not been deterred by the consequences of military intervention if “Arabs and Muslims are divided among themselves and bleeding each other dry.” Castro also predicted that this war “would cause widespread destruction in the infrastructure and economies of the Arab countries. They would be turned into the battleground for a war that would not be waged in Europe or the United States, but rather in the Arab-Persian Gulf.”
While the US has been stopped in its overzealous overreach in Iran, the region still smolders from 23 years of war and the imperial divide-and-conquer tactics. The US military force is leaving Iraq today, but the region remains in flames and many of the leadership of Arab states refuse to take Castro’s heed that the “present situation demands rapid and effective actions by the most prestigious and outstanding leaders of the Arab world.”
We reprint Castro’s prescient letter below, in the hopes that his words were not spoken in vain.
We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies
Fidel Castro
August 7, 1990
The following message was sent to Arab heads of state.
Your Excellency:
I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned about the events that are now threatening the Arab world and humanity. I firmly believe that at this crucial time it is still possible for the leaders of the Arab nation to prevent the conflict that broke out between Iraq and Kuwait from leading to an adverse situation for the independence of many Arab states, to an economic catastrophe, and to a holocaust affecting a large portion of their peoples. Such is the threat, as we see it, caused by the growing and accelerated preparations for a direct military intervention by the United States and its allies. No less alarming is the evidence pointing to steps aimed at the creation, for the same interventionist purpose, of a multinational force whose composition reveals a new relationship of forces on a world scale against the interests of the Arab peoples.
In its current capacity as a nonpermanent member of the Security Council, Cuba did not hesitate to cast its vote in favor of Resolution 660, adopted by the Council August 2. Not without pain and bitterness did we take that necessary and just step in line with our principled policy concerning the inadmissibility of resorting to force and military superiority to solve differences among countries, more so when what is involved here is a fratricidal confrontation between Third World peoples. With both Iraq and Kuwait we maintain bonds of respect and friendship, nurtured by the solidarity of Cuba with the Arab nation and the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli aggression and colonial expansion. Additionally, our historical cooperation in several fields with a number of Arab countries is well known.
These principles, as you no doubt understand, are very dear to Cuba, which is permanently threatened with aggression. At the same time, it is our conviction that if there is one thing we should do now, it is to refrain from adding fuel to the fire of war. And it is this conviction that determined our recent abstention in the case of a new Security Council draft resolution sponsored and zealously promoted by the United States [Resolution 661]. They want to impose, among other measures, a total economic embargo on Iraq—a step that in our opinion lessens the possibility of finding a peaceful solution. The United States and its closest allies are congratulating themselves on this new resolution, which creates ideal conditions for an escalation of the conflict and for the probable use of the most powerful war machinery on the planet. The unmistakable aim is to entrench their domination in the region.
To punish Iraq for its regrettable and unacceptable action in Kuwait is just a pretext for the United States. They are looking for an opening to invoke Article 42 of the UN Charter to legitimize armed intervention in the name of the international community. This is the disaster we now face. And there is no one it can be more offensive to than the leaders of the Arab nation. For it is the same Security Council, acting unanimously with the exception of Yemen and Cuba, that by virtue of the U.S, veto proved incapable of condemning, much less establishing sanctions against, Israel for its forty-year occupation of Palestine and other Arab states. Thanks also to this anachronistic, unfair, and undemocratic veto privilege and its immoral use by the United States, it has not been possible for the Security Council to condemn Israeli genocide against the heroic intifada, or the actions of the Zionist army that have caused the deaths of members of the UN forces themselves in Lebanon.
It would be naive and, above all, extremely dangerous to give even a minimum of credibility to the motivations the United States claims for playing a leading role in the crisis. With its customary experience in manipulating things, the varied and repeated use of pressure, the military capacity for rapid deployment, and its proven vocation for political opportunism, the U.S. mass media, diplomatic corps, and Pentagon have joined with their Western counterparts to take advantage of the just indignation that Iraq’s action against Kuwait instilled in the international community. They are questioning, disqualifying, and blocking any alternative for a negotiated political solution that is not subordinated to their geopolitical interests, and are wasting no time in deriving as much advantage as they can from the current situation.
What won’t the United States be capable of doing in a vital region such as this one unless they are stopped in time? On other occasions they showed no scruples and slapped the face of the international community by converting a tiny state like Grenada and a country they had already practically occupied like Panama, into a shooting range for their most sophisticated Weapons.
How can anyone fail to see the danger of the United States launching an adventure of this nature when it was capable of planning and launching an air raid against the home of the Libyan president after assuming, without its current backing, the role of international executioner? Can any other conclusions be drawn in view of the landing of U.S. marines in Liberia just a few hours ago?
I am writing to you and to other Arab heads of state at this time in the name of the responsibility we all share as members of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries and of the Third World. In Cuba we have confronted mortal dangers, including the threat of nuclear extermination in October 1962. We are quite well qualified to observe, anticipate, and calmly assess the most dramatic of circumstances. Neither fear nor alarmism is involved here.
It so happens, in this case, that the threat extends to all Third World peoples without exception, and to the most sensitive aspects of our economies, our security, and our independence.
The forces of regression and plunder will not be deterred by the consequences of a military intervention if, as the United States hopes, Arabs and Muslims are divided among themselves and bleeding each other dry. The resulting wounds would be so deep that they would require decades to heal. This war would cause widespread destruction in the infrastructure and economies of the Arab countries. They would be turned into the battleground for a war that would not be waged in Europe or the United States, but rather in the Arab-Persian Gulf.
This, in turn, would create an economic catastrophe for the entire Third World, whose interests ought, in all fairness, to be taken into account at this time. It would be hard to imagine the extent of hardship and exhaustion this would create for the already battered underdeveloped economies. Oil prices would spiral out of reach for most of these countries, which are already devoid of fuel reserves or the resources to obtain them.
It is impossible to overlook, Your Excellency, the tragic irony involved if the United States and its allies in this inglorious crusade fulfill their goals—among them the consolidation of Zionist domination—with a minimum loss of life for the West. Their plans, all worked out and tested over time, call for high- technology warfare, based on the supremacy of their weapons and know-how. The casualties will be mostly sustained by Arab armies and the population involved in the operation.
Let me share with you, Your Excellency, the certainty that inspires me of the wisdom and courage of the leaders of the Arab nation, and the vitality of its institutions.
Nothing and no one can replace this strength, this authority, and this morale in the immediate search for a negotiated solution to a conflict between two Arab peoples. Such a solution would, of course, include the withdrawal of Iraqi troops and the full restoration of Kuwait’s sovereignty, without catastrophic war, immolation of peoples, and vast material destruction. In the same manner, I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries and the United Nations system, with all its flaws and limitations, can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against intervention and aggression.
The seriousness and dangers of the present situation demand rapid and effective actions by the most prestigious and outstanding leaders of the Arab world. The experience of history more than attests to how dominant powers like the United States are accustomed to imposing accomplished facts and unleashing processes difficult to reverse.
With all due respect and consideration, I exhort you to act with the speed that the risks involved demand and within the shortest time possible, overlooking the differences that must now necessarily occupy a second place. I regard this unity of opinion and action as an urgent necessity.
Do not doubt even for a second that in this just and noble endeavor you can count on the support of the overwhelming majority of the international community and, naturally, on the modest cooperation of Cuba.
Fraternally,
Fidel Castro Ruz
President of the Council of State and
of the government of the Republic of Cuba
Fidel Castro, “We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies,” first published in Granma (the daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba) and translated and reprinted in Fidel Castro and Alarcón, U.S. Hands off the Mideast! Cuba speaks out at the United Nations (Pathfinder Press, 1990).
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