Bush's War on Iraq:
A Threat to Civilization
By Paul Fasse
During the months after September 11th, Bush has looked beyond Afghanistan to permeate the world with his "war on terrorism." In his State of the Union address, Iraq was one of the countries that he labeled in the "axis of evil." Bush seems to be on a non-stop, tunnel-vision path to expand the war to Iraq. The Wall Street Journal reports, "a showdown with Iraq appears nearly inevitable."
But behind Bush's pro-war propaganda campaign to "end terrorism," there really are no legitimate reasons to invade Iraq. U.S. foreign policy has nothing to do with protecting the U.S., the Iraqi people, or the rest of the world from Saddam and his "threat to civilization." However, it has everything to do with the expansion of multinational corporations' drilling for Middle-East oil.
Saddam Hussein is a tyrant. There is no question about that. However, the U.S. has never dictated its policies towards Saddam based on his atrocities. Actually, the U.S. supported Saddam through his worst atrocities. Saddam and the U.S. were wonderful trading partners during the 1980s. During this time, Saddam carried out his worst crime of gassing of the Kurds in 1988 with the chemical weapons that we sold him.
How did the U.S. respond to this atrocity? The U.S. increased its support for Saddam through subsidized agricultural exports to his country (since Saddam destroyed the agriculture industry in his own country). If the Bush is not basing his war on Saddam's atrocities, is it to promote democracy in Iraq?
Unfortunately, the U.S. has also blocked many alternatives to Saddam's dictatorship in Iraq. The Iraqi Democratic Opposition, which is in exile from their country, has worked towards bringing about democracy and justice to Iraq. During the U.S. support for Saddam, they told the U.S. about the need to end ties with Hussein. However, the U.S. has not done anything for their cause before, during, or after the Gulf War. "Political meetings with them would not be appropriate for our policy at this time," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher stated on March 14, 1991.
Bernard Lewis, a Princeton scholar and Middle-East expert, was invited to a private dinner with the Bush Administration, argues that the U.S. "betrayed" the Iraqi people in 1991 and 1995: "opposition groups opposed to the Iraqi leader are viable, and provide the best hope for a stable democracy in the Arab world." If democracy, human rights, and justice were core principles in U.S. foreign policy, the Iraqi Democratic Opposition would have been considered and implemented into the process of ridding Iraq of Saddam.
Bush has been adamant about the fact that Iraq could possess biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, and we cannot allow this. Let's just note that the U.S. has the largest stockpile of all of these weapons without allowing any U.N. inspection, and has inflicted mass destruction on Japan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been diminished to non-existence from the U.N. inspections during the 1990's. Former chief UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter was satisfied in 1995 that Iraq had destroyed up to 98 percent of its weapons. Furthermore, William Cohen, Clinton's defense secretary, told the Bush Administration in 2000 that "Iraq no longer poses a military threat to its neighbors." Also, Hans von Sponeck, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Iraq from 1998-2000, wrote, "Iraq today is no longer a military threat to anyone. Intelligence agencies know this. All the conjectures about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq lack evidence."
This illustrates the enormous hypocrisy of U.S. policies. The U.S. does not allow U.N. inspections of its weapons of mass destruction, but Iraq has almost completely demolished them, yet Bush calls Saddam Hussein "a threat to civilization" and we have legitimate pretexts for invading Iraq. Furthermore, if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, why would we invade? What better reason would he need to use his weapons other than an invasion?
Bush will continue to be vigilant about getting rid of Saddam with an attack on Iraq. Unfortunately, this vigilance has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, and human rights, but the interests of the elite class (which the Bush administration represents) in the drive for domination of Middle-East oil.
The Iraqi people have suffered immensely over the past 20 years from Saddam Hussein and the policies of the U.S. towards Iraq. The U.N sanctions (which the U.S. has imposed) on Iraq since the end of the Gulf War have decimated the population. Approximately 500,000 children have died due to the sanctions and periodic bombings of Iraq. This is well known among the dissident culture, but seems to be absent from the minds of many people in this nation. I do not understand how any sane person could allow our taxpayer money to support sanctions that kill 500,000 children (4,500-5,000 a month); it is a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights endowed to every human being.
In an interview with Madeleine Albright, 60 Minutes asked her about these sanctions and she said that is was a "hard choice" for her administration to make, but said "we think the price is worth it." What price and who paid for it? The U.S. never paid any price; it is only the men, women, and children of Iraq who have paid the price.
How can we try to promote the ideals of freedom, democracy, and stability in the region when we kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and consistently block viable democratic alternatives (Iraqi Democratic Opposition) to a dictator who is in power? Unfortunately, the U.S. government has only been interested in Iraq's large oil reserves and will do anything to take control of Iraq. I think this should make anyone sick that the Clinton Administration and now the Bush Administration impose sanctions that are starving and killing innocent civilians.
Bush will continue to try to start a war on Iraq, but he has no legitimate reason for doing so, and it is up to the American people to stand up for the ideals of this nation - freedom, democracy, equality, and justice - and stop Bush from instigating a war on a nation. There are viable alternatives to the Saddam regime, which will bring about positive change to work towards justice and democracy in Iraq.
Unfortunately, these are not the motives of George W. Bush and his Administration as they look to expand their "war on terrorism" into Iraq..
Take Action Against War
To sign a petition against war in Iraq, go to www.moveon.org/nowar. Go to www.peacepledge.org to sign the pledge of peace. Go to www.iraqpeaceteam.org to learn more about efforts to bring peace to Iraq.
Contact these politicians:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1111; Fax: (202) 456-2461
E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
Rep. Tim Johnson
Washington Office:
Phone: (202) 225-2371; Fax: (202) 226-0791
1541 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1315
Bloomington Office:
Phone: (309) 663-7049; Fax: (309) 663-9880
1 Brickyard Dr., Ste. 201, Bloomington, IL 61701
Email: go to www.congress.org
Sen. Dick Durbin
Email: dick@durbin.senate.gov
Washington Office:
Phone: (202) 224-2152; Fax: (202) 228-0400
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1304
Chicago Office:
Phone: (312) 353-4952; Fax: (312) 353-0150
230 S. Dearborn St., 38th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604
Sen. Peter Fitzgerald
Email: senator_fitzgerald@fitzgerald.senate.gov
Washington Office:
Phone: (202) 224-2854; Fax: (202) 228-1372
555 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1305
Chicago Office:
Phone: (312) 886-3506; Fax: (312) 886-3514
230 S. Dearborn St., #3900, Chicago, IL 60604
Others to contact: rod.blagojevich@mail.house.gov
