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A War Only The White House Wants
By Eric Margolis
Contributing Foreign Editor
The Toronto Sun
8-27-2

NEW YORK -- U.S. forces are rapidly massing in the Arabian Gulf to invade Iraq. Four heavy brigades have been positioned near Iraq, a huge new air complex is now operational in Qatar and American special forces are active in Iraqi Kurdistan.
 
The White House is hoping its threats of war will provoke a coup against Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Army. But if one does not come, the George Bush administration shows every sign of plunging into an unprovoked war that the rest of the world will view as blatant aggression.
 
Even America's closest allies are appalled by the tide of warmongering and jingoism that has engulfed the United States. Bush's recently proclaimed doctrine of "pre-emptive intervention" anywhere on Earth is nothing less than a frightening revival of the old imperialist Brezhnev Doctrine of 25 years ago that called for Soviet intervention wherever socialism was threatened.
 
"Bush, himself the most intellectually backward American president of my political lifetime, is surrounded by advisers whose bellicosity is exceeded only by their political, military and diplomatic illiteracy." Such were the stinging words of Gerald Kaufman, highly respected former foreign affairs spokesman of Britain's ruling Labour party, America's closest ally.
 
Bush's accelerating campaign to invade Iraq and turn it into another U.S. oil protectorate is also provoking a storm of outrage across Europe, the Mideast and Asia, where people believe pollution and climate change are far bigger and more urgent threats than the bogeyman of Baghdad.
 
There are two important exceptions. First, Israel. Last week, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, sounding like he was giving orders to a subordinate, demanded Bush speed up plans to attack Iraq. Right on cue, American supporters of Sharon's far-right Likud party, led by the Bush administration's Rasputin, Richard Perle, intensified their clamour to send American GIs to fight Iraq.
 
Virtual monopoly on U.S. media
 
These bloodthirsty "neo-conservatives" - most of whom evaded military service in their own country - dominate the Pentagon and exercise a virtual monopoly on U.S. media commentary on the Mideast. They are ardently backed by loony Armageddon-seekers of the Christian far right.
 
Senior Republican senator Chuck Hagel spoke for many when he asked if Perle was so eager to attack, why didn't he join the first assault wave against Baghdad. Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to Bush's father, warned an attack on Iraq would be a disastrous mistake.
 
Meanwhile, in Congressional hearings last week, former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter courageously stated what many Americans believe, but dare not say: "A handful of ideologues have hijacked the national security policy of the United States for their own ambitions." Ritter insisted Iraq was totally disarmed and no threat to the U.S. or the Mideast. The Bush administration - or, more precisely, the people pulling its strings - does not want renewed inspections of Iraq, Ritter said, it only wants war.
 
A torrent of propaganda, lies and half-truths about Iraq has been pouring from the White House in a campaign reminiscent of old Soviet agitprop. The government-appointed "defence" team representing accused 9/11 plot member Zacharias Moussaui reportedly urged him to falsely claim Iraq was behind the attacks. Moussaui refused. The head of Czech intelligence said there were no contacts in Prague between Iraq and al-Qaida, a key Bush reason for attacking Saddam. CIA veterans and European intelligence officials scoff at White House claims Iraq is a threat to the world.
 
The other exception to worldwide outrage over America's Mideast policies was Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. In 1998, bin Laden carefully outlined his grand strategy to: 1) liberate Palestine; 2) drive the U.S. occupying troops from Saudi Arabia and 3) end the punishment of Iraq's people. To attain these goals, bin Laden planned to provoke the U.S. into a large number of fruitless military involvements that would wear it out and bleed its military and financial power.
 
Afghanistan, which costs American taxpayers $5 billion monthly, is the first step. Iraq, whose leader is hated by bin Laden - a hatred equally returned by Saddam - will be No. 2. Then, Iran, Syria, Libya - all also on Perle's hit list - and so on until a host of Lilliputian conflicts tie down the American imperial giant.
 
George Bush, who takes pride in not reading books, and calls Greeks "Grecians," is charging like a Texas bull into the trap set for him by both bin Laden and Gen. Sharon.
 
Israel has been trying for 20 years to get the U.S. to go to war against the Arabs and Iran, knowing this will permanently enlist America's vast wealth and power in its cause, and permanently alienate the U.S. from the Islamic world.
 
If ever the United States needed real friends, it is now. And real friends like Canada, Germany and France are trying to deter the empty, misguided George Bush and his hijacked cabinet from committing an outright aggression that risks plunging the Mideast into chaos, or even nuclear war.
 
 
 
Comment
 
From Bob Mcdougall
To Editor, Toronto Sun
8-28-2
 
 
Dear Editor:
 
Sun Foreign Editor Eric Margolis is a hero. His Toronto Sun piece of August 27 entitled 'A war only the White House wants' is a courageous and cogent commentary about a troubled world on the brink of what could well end up being a nuclear conflict.
 
It is heartening to know that many intelligent Canadians like Mr. Margolis are in no way fooled by Bush and his jingoism. The president of the United States has not made a case for war against Iraq, as many of his own Republican colleagues are adamantly pointing out. But what's really troubling is that Bush is moving ahead unilaterally with preparations for war while thumbing his nose at both the world and the United States Congress.
 
Bush and his gang want war come hell or high water. And thanks to the cowardice of virtually all of the major media in the United States, he is probably going to get it. Indeed, Dick Cheney's rhetoric this week suggests the Bush aministration is laying down the gauntlet.
 
One would laugh at Cheney's position if the subject at hand were not so tragic in its implications. The vice president of the United states speaks of flawed logic in those who question the notion that if Irag is not immediately attacked, it will only grow in strength, develop weapons of mass destruction and use them. Okay. So logically Cheney is saying that the United States is prepared to go to war with another sovereign nation based on a hypothetical proposition.
 
If this is the policy of the Bush administration, then perhaps the United States should also declare war on China, since it is hypothetically possible that it will at some point in the future attempt to overrun Taiwan.
 
Actually, if Cheney wants to talk about logic, he ought to consider the request he made that Congress put off its investigation of 9/11 for a year in the interest of pooling investigative resources for the fight against terrorism. This is the equivalent of asking a homicide detective to put off a murder investigation in the interest of pooling resources to fight crime.
 
This is the Bush-Cheney logic. Thanks to reporters like Eric Margolis, it is being exposed for what it really is: madness or perhaps something worse.
 
Sincerely,
Robert McDougall
50 Hillsboro Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M5R 1S8
416-858-2968






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