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CounterPunch
March 4,
2003
Meanwhile, Back at
the Security Council...
Bush Remains Eager for War
By DAVID KRIEGER
US polling indicates that only a third of the American
public would support a war against Iraq without United Nations
approval, while a large majority would support such a war with
UN backing. Most likely on the basis of these polls, the Bush
administration has gone back to the UN Security Council with
another resolution seeking war against Iraq. The resolution,
co-sponsored by the UK and Spain, is a call to war under Chapter
VII, which contains the use of force provisions of the United
Nations Charter.
In essence, the resolution is an attempt
to turn some details of the reporting requirements under Resolution
1441, and a dispute over the actual range of a short-range Iraqi
missile, into an authorization to bomb the Iraqis, remove Saddam
Hussein from power and occupy Iraq. The resolution concludes
that "Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity afforded
to it in Resolution 1441 (2002)."
An alternative resolution has been submitted
to the Security Council by France, Germany and Russia. This resolution
calls for more in-depth and reinforced inspections. It finds
that "the conditions for using force against Iraq are not
fulfilled," and that "inspections have just reached
their full pace...are functioning without hindrance...[and] have
already produced results."
The two resolutions offer vastly different
alternative outcomes. The US/UK/Spain resolution is an authorization
for US military action against Iraq. The French/German/Russian
resolution seeks to maintain the peace and achieve "the
verifiable disarmament of Iraq."
The world awaits the result of the Security
Council's decision, which is likely to come in the next two weeks.
If nine of the fifteen members of the Security Council vote for
the US resolution and none of the permanent members of the Council
exercises its veto power, the United States will set loose the
dogs of war on Iraq.
Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney all seem so
eager to get on with the war they have been anticipating and
working toward for years. They will undoubtedly be doing everything
within their power, and probably much that is beyond their actual
authority, to coerce other members of the Security Council to
vote for their resolution.
Not since Vietnam have US leaders been
so eager to prosecute a war where someone else's children will
die and be used to kill the children of another nation. If they
"succeed" in getting the votes in the Security Council,
we will again witness the awesome power of the US military machine
that the country has prized so highly as to give it half of its
discretionary income.
Even if the Bush administration fails
to get the necessary votes in the Security Council, it is still
possible that it will follow through with its threats to proceed
to war with a "coalition of the willing." This would
dramatically divide the US population, wreak havoc on the system
of international law that has existed since World War II, and
undoubtedly increase the hatred and violence directed against
the United States and its citizens.
A US-led war against Iraq would be a
tragedy not only for the people of Iraq, but for the world. The
greatest tragedy, however, may be that at this pivotal moment
in world history, the US should have leadership that is so militaristic,
myopic and lacking in insight, intelligence and integrity.
It has never been more important for
the American people to wake up, stand up and act to exercise
their combined "veto power" on the threatened actions
of this war-hungry and dangerous administration by stating an
unequivocal and resounding No to the proposed war.
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. He can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org.
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February 28,
2003
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