- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Virtual monopoly on U.S. media
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Comment
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- From Bob Mcdougall
- To Editor, Toronto Sun
- 8-28-2
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- Dear Editor:
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Sincerely,
- Robert McDougall
- 50 Hillsboro Avenue
- Toronto, Ontario M5R 1S8
- 416-858-2968
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