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CounterPunch
January
24, 2003
Bush as a B-Grade
Nixon
Selling a War
No One Wants
by JASON LEOPOLD
President Bush said the Iraq conflict is like
watching a "rerun of a bad movie." But clearly, the
only bad movie Americans are being forced to watch all over again
are the Nixon-like qualities--the paranoia, the secrecy and lies--that
Bush recycled from Tricky Dick and is now the standard operating
procedure for the Bush administration.
Iraq just happens to be the icing on
the cake. There are still the thorny questions that linger about
what Bush knew about the September 11 terrorist attacks and when
he knew it; Vice President Dick Cheney' refusal to turn over
the names of the people his energy task force met with and the
desire to start a war with Iraq without proving to the world
first that the country has weapons of mass destruction. All of
these issues require answers. In the three years that Bush has
been in office, he hasn't answered one.
On Thursday, National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice, in an opinion piece in The New York Times titled
"Why We Know Iraq is Lying," made half-a-dozen allegations,
but provided no evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
"Instead of a commitment to disarm,
Iraq has a high-level political commitment to maintain and conceal
its weapons," Rice wrote in her editorial. "Instead
of full cooperation and transparency, Iraq has filed a false
declaration to the United Nations that amounts to a 12,200-page
lie."
"For example, the declaration fails
to account for or explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from
abroad, its manufacture of specific fuel for ballistic missiles
it claims not to have, and the gaps previously identified by
the United Nations in Iraq's accounting for more than two tons
of the raw materials needed to produce thousands of gallons of
anthrax and other biological weapons," Rice said. "Far
from informing, the declaration is intended to cloud and confuse
the true picture of Iraq's arsenal."
Rice says the discovery last week of
12 empty chemical warheads is "troubling." But as Brookings
Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon said in news reports
last week: "No one wants to go to war over 12 artillery
shells."
So, to sell a war on Iraq to the public,
Bush and his cronies have turned the White House into a propaganda
machine. This week, the new office of Global Communications issued
the report "Apparatus of Lies," which attempts to make
a case for war by showing the world how Saddam Hussein murdered
his own people during the Gulf War, destroyed his country's infrastructure
and has a long history of lying and deceit.
"To craft tragedy, the regime places
civilians close to military equipment, facilities, and troops,
which are legitimate targets in an armed conflict," according
to an excerpt of the report. "The Iraqi regime openly used
both Iraqis and foreigners as human shields during the Gulf War,
eventually bowing to international pressure and releasing them.
It has also placed military equipment next to or inside mosques
and ancient cultural treasures. Finally, it has deliberately
damaged facilities and attributed the damage to coalition bombing..."
If Saddam Hussein remains in power he
could destroy the world, according to the report. That's Bush's
paranoia talking. No one disputes the fact that Iraqis would
be better off without Hussein as their president or that Hussein
is a cold-blooded killer. This "Apparatus of Lies"
is nothing more than a psychological tactic_an advertisement_by
the Bush administration to get the public to support a war.
However, the latest poll conducted by
NBC/Wall Street Journal show public support waning for if the
United States wages a war against Iraq without the support of
its allies. But Bush doesn't care what the public thinks, according
to his press secretary, Ari Fleischer, he doesn't give a damn
what Russia, Germany, China or France think either.
"The President will make his judgment
about when to use force to protect the country on the basis of
what he believes is best to protect the country, not on the basis
of any poll for or against," Fleischer said during his press
briefing Thursday.
Bush's tough guy persona, particularly
his "I'm sick and tired" of dealing with Iraq statement
and his refusal to give the United Inspectors more time have
boosted anti-American sentiment around the world to an all-time
high and have forced his approval rating here to nosedive. A
reporter for a newspaper in Japan told CNN last week that Bush
is being perceived as a "cowboy" and a "bully"
because of his public remarks leaving many people to ask why
he is so gung-ho to start a war. If the Bush administration is
concealing intelligence information about the alleged threat
Iraq poses now is the time to share the information.
If the Democrats have any hope for reclaiming
the White House in 2004 now is the time to speak up against the
President. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the
streets at antiwar demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington,
D.C. to make sure their voices are heard. The least the Democrats
can do is show some spine too.
Jason Leopold
can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
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January 18
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