Feb. 27, 2003
Palm Beach, Florida - President George Bush claimed this week his impending war against Iraq would bring peace and democracy to the Middle East, and liberate Iraqis from repression.
At the same time, in a move clearly aimed at intimidating the media, the White House denounced a CBS News interview with President Hussein in which the Iraqi leader asserted his nation had nothing to do with 9/11 or al-Qaida, as 'propaganda'.
Now, I have no love for Saddam's sinister, brutal regime. The last time I was in Baghdad, late 1990, the Iraqi secret police threatened to hang me as a spy after I discovered a group of British technicians and scientists who had been secretly sent by the British government to produce anthrax and other germ weapons for Iraq to use against Iran.
But what I dislike even more than Saddam's nasty regime are government lies and propaganda. Since 9/11, North Americans have been subjected to the most intense propaganda campaign from their government since World War II. Much of the mainstream US media has been intimidated by the Administration into unquestioningly amplifying its party line, or, in the worst tradition of yellow, jingoist journalism, it acts as cheerleaders for war. I am reminded of the sycophantic Soviet media during the days of Chairman Leonid Brezhnev.
The American public, often wobbly about geography, history and international affairs, has been alternatively terrified and enraged by bare-faced lies that Iraq was about to attack America with nuclear weapons or germs, and was a secret ally of al-Qaida. A shocking two-thirds of Americans mistakenly believe Iraq staged the 9/11 attacks.
A surging wave of anti-Islamic hate promoted by Bush's allies on the Christian loony far right, and Administration repression of Muslims, frighteningly recall Europe's growing anti-semitism of the early 1930's. These are the reasons why a majority of Americans still support a war of pure aggression against Iraq, though more and more question the president's motives.
It's frightening to see Bush claim with a straight face his war against Iraq will bring democracy and peace to the Mideast, and save Iraqis from repression. Why didn't he begin by saving Palestinians from the repression by his alter-ego and, increasingly, his mentor, Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. If Bush really cared about Mideast democracy, he's had two years to do something about US-sponsored dictatorships like Egypt and Pakistan, or medieval autocracies such as Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and American's Gulf protectorates.
When Bush says he will bring democracy to benighted Iraqis, what he really means is US rule. In Bush-speak, 'democracy' has been perverted to mean US imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who makes all the right noises, like Afghanistan's US-installed figurehead, Hamid Karzai, while following Washington's orders to the letter.
Bush's War is not about democracy, weapons of mass destruction, human rights, or terrorism. It has two main motivations. First, the Manifest Destiny crowd in Washington, led by VP Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The terrible events of 9/11 seemed to produce a psychotic reaction in these good, patriotic Americans, transforming them into 19th century imperialists.
Their intention is perfectly clear.
1. prevent any nation ever challenging US global hegemony;
2. Dominating oil. The aggression against Iraq is not about oil per se, it is about control of oil. Before the Iraq crisis, the US imported about $18 billion of oil annually from the Mideast, but spent $31 billion keeping military forces there. Why? Control of Mideast oil gives the US domination over Europe and Japan, who draw most of their oil from the region. Domination of Mideast and Caspian oil will assure the US a permanent stranglehold over China and India, as well as Europe and Japan.
The second, but almost invisible driving force is Israel's far right Likud government, which has come to dominate Bush Administration policy and US media commentary on the Mideast. The Clinton Administration was close to Israel's moderate Labor Party; Bush's camp is totally aligned with Israel's aggressive far right and mirrors its views and policies to a remarkable, unprecedented degree. Likud, and its powerful American supporters, want the US to crush Iraq into pieces. The principal beneficiary of the war against Iraq will be Israel.
Many Americans simply don't understand their leadership is about to plunge the nation into an open-ended, dangerous colonial war. All the propaganda about democracy, human rights, and regional stability is the same kind of double-talk used by the 19th century British and French imperialists who claimed they were grabbing Africa and Asia to bring the benefits of Christian civilization to the heathens.
A veteran US diplomat, John Kiesling, who just resigned from the State Department in protest over Iraq, eloquently described the damage inflicted on America by the run-amok Bush Administration: 'Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.' Amen.
Misery loves company. American-occupied Iraq looks destined to join the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza as another human, political, and moral disaster for all concerned.
Foreign Correspondent