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CounterPunch
January
17, 2003
When Bush First
Vowed to "Take Out" Saddam...December 1999
by JASON LEOPOLD
Hopefully, by now, most Americans will agree that
President Bush's war mongering against Iraq is purely personal.
To prove this point, go back to December 1999 when Bush was
still governor of Texas and wasn't even the Republican candidate
for President yet. Back then, Bush Jr. had said that if elected
President of the United States he would use military force to
"take out" Hussein and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Bush said publicly last year that Saddam Hussein tried to kill
his father, George Bush, Sr., when he was President a decade
ago as if that should be reason enough to attack Iraq. But Bush
still can't prove that Iraq poses a threat to the United States.
Back in 1999, just as today, there was
no evidence that Iraq concealed any such weapons. Bush was governor
of Texas at the time and the presidential race was still one
year away. Bush couldn't have possibly had any intelligence
information, which he claims he presently has but refuses to
make public, that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Still,
Bush knew exactly what he would do first when he got to office:
bomb Iraq.
"Gov. George W. Bush of Texas talks
about contingencies in which he would use American military
power to ''take out'' Iraq's illegal weapons" if elected
president, according to a Dec. 12, 1999 editorial in the New
York Times. The Times editorial was headlined Rhetoric and Reality
on Iraq and it too presumed that Iraq still had weapons of mass
destruction but the editorial offered no evidence.
"More than eight years after American-led
military forces triumphed in the Persian Gulf war, Saddam Hussein
still rules Iraq and continues to cheat on the surrender terms
that require him to eliminate all biological, chemical and
nuclear weapons and missiles capable of delivering them. His
galling defiance and America's frustrations in dealing with
him have again made Iraq an issue in a United States presidential
campaign," the editorial says.
But then, two years later, the terrorist
attacks of September 11 took place. Bush war plans for Iraq
were sidelined while he dealt with this new war. Americans forgot
about those statements he made pre-9/11, but Bush uses that
date to push his war and wants the public to believe we are
in grave danger if our troops don't topple Iraq. Hussein is
a tyrant and he has done despicable acts against his own people,
but that is no reason for the United States to attack. This
is Bush's war. He made that clear as far back as 1999.
But asking Bush not to go to war is like,
unfortunately, asking Bush when he was governor of Texas to
put a moratorium on the death penalty. That request also fell
on deaf ears.
"As far as I'm concerned there has
not been one innocent person executed since I've become governor,''
Bush said in June 2000 during a presidential campaign trail
visit to Los Angeles.
While Bush was governor, there were 134
executions in Texas, despite the fact that many activists and
lawyers said that some executed prisoners may not have received
fair trials.
One particular death penalty case that
celebrities including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Amnesty
International activist Bianca Jagger have called on Bush to
stay was the execution of Gary Graham, who was for shooting
to death a Houston man during a supermarket holdup in 1981.
Graham was convicted on the basis of
testimony from one eyewitness. But that witness also gave police
a statement saying the shooter she saw had darker skin and a
narrower face than Graham.
Graham's lawyer at the time slept through
parts of the trial and failed to call six other witnesses who
either were not able to identify Graham as the suspect or described
the killer differently.
"I've thought about it. We don't
need a moratorium,'' Bush said about the Graham case. "I'm
going to continue to uphold the laws of the land. I believe
the system is fair and just."
Now, some of those same celebrities now
oppose the possibility of a war in Iraq and are asking Bush
not to use military force in the region. But Bush won't listen.
Jason Leopold
can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
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