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April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
the Case of Judy Miller
Zeynep
Toufe
A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist
CounterPunch
Wire
Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War
April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
Camp X-Ray
John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
Dokhi
Fassihian
Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web?
CounterPunch
Wire
Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
Sam
Hamod
Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
C. Higgins
Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
A. Gould
Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
of the Day
Muscles
Abroad
Hot Stories
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
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April 28,
2003
Where's The
Pretext?
Lack of WMD Kills Case for War
By ROBERT JENSEN
How blatantly can an administration lie to promote
a war and get away with it? We'll find out in the coming weeks,
as U.S. forces in Iraq search for evidence of banned weapons
and U.S. officials shape postwar Iraq.
Ironically, the conduct of the war provides
compelling evidence that Iraq probably had no usable weapons
of mass destruction and posed no threat outside its borders.
Everyone agreed that Saddam Hussein was most likely to use such
weapons if his regime faced collapse. But no such weapons were
used, suggesting that he lacked the weapons or a delivery capacity,
suggesting the Bush administration had been lying.
That would not be big news. To whip up
fear about Iraq, U.S. officials lied and distorted the truth
for months:
* In his Feb. 5 U.N. speech, Secretary
of State Colin L. Powell claimed that a "poison and explosive
training center camp" existed in northeastern Iraq. A few
days later, journalists visited the site and found "a dilapidated
collection of concrete outbuildings" and no evidence for
Powell's claims.
* The Blair administration's report on
weapons - which Powell lauded in his U.N. speech for its "exquisite
detail" about "Iraqi deception activities" - was
stitched together from public sources, including a 12-year-old
report. One expert described it as "cut-and-paste plagiarism."
* U.S. officials claimed that Iraq had
purchased uranium from Niger. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, later explained that the
documents on which the claim was based were faked.
Propagandists know that perception counts
for more than truth. This was the approach the administration
used concerning Iraq's alleged terrorist ties. Bush officials
avoided specific claims about Iraqi involvement in past attacks
on Americans - but they sowed enough speculation to create impressions.
That's why in a March poll, 45 percent of the American people
believed Hussein had been "personally involved" in
the 9/11 attacks.
This strategy of multiple justifications
provided a shifting cover story to divert attention from the
obvious reason for war: expanding the U.S. empire to control
the flow of oil and oil profits. Secretary of Defense Donald
H. Rumsfeld called such assertions "nonsense," though
it made - and continues to make - sense to most of the world.
Rumsfeld and the gang hope that finding
some evidence of banned weapons or weapons programs will provide
a retroactive justification - something like, "Even if we
lied, we turned out to be right."
If no or little evidence is found, Bush
has ways out. There are several semi-plausible explanations:
Weapons and records were destroyed in bombing or looting. Hussein
hid them so they can never be found. They were transferred out
of the country. There is no way to disprove such claims.
But those rationalizations may prove
unnecessary if the "liberation" of the Iraqi people
sticks as a blanket justification for the invasion. Anyone with
an ounce of compassion feels grateful that Iraqi suffering at
the hands of Hussein is over. But while the vast majority of
Iraqis are glad the tyrant is gone, they seem less excited about
military occupation and U.S. domination of their politics. Mistrust
is compounded by the fact that Iraqis know the destruction of
their civilian infrastructure by the United States in the 1991
Gulf War - along with a dozen years of punishing economic sanctions
maintained at U.S. insistence - have intensified their suffering.
So Bush's stated concern for freedom
in Iraq also will be tested in the coming weeks. If he is truly
interested in democracy, he will remove U.S. forces, acknowledging
that no meaningful democratic process can proceed under occupation
by a nation with selfish interests in the outcome. If strategic
advantage was not a motive for war, Bush will not seek a permanent
military presence in Iraq from which the United States can dominate
the region.
If the United States stays in Iraq while
a new government is formed, and retains basing rights, the world
will justifiably conclude that the motivation for war was to
install a compliant government to extend and deepen U.S. control
over the energy resources of the region. The question is whether
the American public is willing to face those realities or hide
in the lies.
Robert Jensen
is an associate professor of journalism at the University of
Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author
of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream
and the pamphlet "Citizens of the Empire." He can be
reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
Yesterday's
Features
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
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