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CounterPunch
January
31, 2003
Blaming
Consumers for Capitalism's Wars
"A
Threat to Its Neighbors and World Peace"
by RON JACOBS
In light of the intensifying campaign by the government
and media to portray Saddam Hussein's government as the greatest
threat in the Middle East to its neighbors and to world peace,
I thought it would be useful to catalogue some of those actions
by his government which could be characterized as such threats.
Then I will compare them to actions by Washington during the
same time period which could also be considered threats to world
peace.
The time period I have chosen begins
in 1985 and ends as of today, January 30, 2003. First, let's
look at the Iraqi record:
1) attacks on the Kurdish and Shi'a populations
in Iraq with various weaponry, including the use of chemical
agents;
2) the invasion of Kuwait;
3) SCUD missile attacks on Israel during
the Gulf War of 1991;
4) elimination of opposition figures
via murder;
5) torture of opponents of the regime
in Baghdad;
6)unproven research and development of
weapons of mass destruction.
Now, let's take a brief look at the record
of the U.S. government during that same period.
1) subversion of the legal government
of Nicaragua through war waged by mercenaries trained and paid
for by the United States;
2) funding and training of death squads
in El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America--squads
responsible for innumerable murders;
3) the invasion of Panama resulting in
the deaths of over 2000 Panamanian civilians;
4) killing, via war and sanctions, over
1 million Iraqis since January 16, 1991;
5) the training and funding of mercenary
forces in Afghanistan who subverted the government there, traded
in heroin and now represent many of the terrorist forces arrayed
against the US and other Western regimes;
6) the imprisonment of tens of thousands
of mostly poor, mostly non-white American citizens via laws specifically
targeting these populations deemed "surplus" the use
of these prisoners as cheap government subsidized labor;
7) massive military and political support
to the Israeli government's campaign of terror against the people
of Palestine;
8) verified development and stockpiling
of weapons of mass destruction on aircraft carriers and bases
throughout the world, esp. in the Middle East, with the intent
of using these weapons to blackmail governments into doing Washington's
will;
9) the use of these weapons against the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan;
10) torture, preventive detention and
assassination of foreign and domestic opponents of the regime
in Washington.
In both cases, I have listed only the
most obvious and better publicized threats known. One can be
certain there are others. Which government has been the greater
threat to world peace? I know what my conclusion is. What's yours?
Ron Jacobs
lives in Burlington, VT. He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
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January 25
/ 26, 2003
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