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CounterPunch
February
21, 2003
Let Us Reject Empire
12 Reasons to
Oppose War on Iraq
by RUSSELL MOKHIBER
and ROBERT WEISSMAN
Millions of people around the world last weekend
demonstrated against a war on Iraq.
There was no mistaking the message: No
war.
But, particularly with the airwaves and
op-ed pages dominated by war-mongers who mock and mischaracterize
the burgeoning peace movement, there remains a need to continually
reiterate the common-sense reasons to oppose a war. Here are
a dozen:
1. Iraq is no threat to the United States.
With one of the weakest militaries in
the region, Iraq is surely no threat to the world's lone superpower.
There is no evidence it has or is close to having a nuclear capacity.
There is no evidence that it has the means to launch a chemical
and biological attack against the United States, if in fact it
has such weaponry. There is no evidence of any Iraqi connection
to al-Qaeda.
2. Iraq is deterrable.
Even if it had the means to threaten
the United States, Iraq would be deterred by the certainty of
an overwhelming military response in event of any attack on the
United States. That Iraq is deterrable is shown by its decision
not to use chemical or biological weapons (CBW) against the United
States or Israel in the Gulf War.
3. Iraq's only conceivable threat to
the United States is in event of war.
"Baghdad for now appears to be drawing
a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional
or CBW against the United States," wrote CIA Director George
Tenet in an October 2002 letter to Congress. "Should Saddam
conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred,
he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist
actions."
4. Other terrorist risks rise in event
of war.
A U.S. attack and subsequent occupation
of Iraq will provide new inspiration -- and new recruitment fodder
-- for al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups, and will stimulate
a long-term increased risk of terrorism, either on U.S. soil
or against U.S. citizens overseas.
5. U.S. soldiers are vulnerable to chemical
or biological attack in a war.
Although there is little reason to doubt
the U.S. military will triumph relatively quickly in event of
a war, U.S. soldiers face non-negligible risk of casualty. House-to-house
fighting in Baghdad would be perilous.
If Bush administration accusations that
Saddam maintains a CBW capacity are true, and if its claims of
intelligence showing Iraqi plans to use CBW in event of war are
both non-fabricated and accurate, then U.S. soldiers are at major
risk. Last Sunday, 60 Minutes reported that army investigations
show between 60 and 90 percent of its CBW protective gear malfunction.
A Pentagon spokesperson actually suggested that holes in gas
masks could easily be covered by duct tape.
6. Inspections can work.
To whatever extent Iraq maintains weapons
of mass destruction, it is clear that the previous inspections
process succeeded in destroying the overwhelming proportion.
Iraqi intransigence notwithstanding, inspectors are now making
progress. Despite the histrionics of the administration, past
experience suggests the inspection process can work and finish
the job.
7. Common sense says: Err on the side
of non-violence.
Since Iraq poses no imminent threat to
the United States nor any of its neighbors, it makes sense to
continue to give inspections a chance. War can always be resorted
to later. But once a war is commenced, the opportunity to achieve
legitimate objectives without violence are lost. In addition
to the obvious costs, the use of violence tends to beget more
violence, spurring a highly unpredictable cycle.
8. The doctrine of preventative war is
a threat to international law and humanity.
Conceding there is no imminent threat
to the United States, the administration has sought to justify
the war under a doctrine of preemptive, or preventative, action.
But if it were legitimate to start a war because of what another
country might do sometime in the future, then there would be
very little legal or moral constraint on war-making. This proposition
is dangerous and immoral.
9. Reject empire.
Many of the leading proponents of a war
are motivated by desire to demonstrate U.S. military might, and
commence an era when U.S. military power is exercised more routinely
to satisfy the whims of elite U.S. factions. Many proponents
now overtly defend the idea of U.S. imperialism, justified on
the grounds that the United States -- apparently unique among
all previous aspirants to imperial authority -- is motivated
by promotion of democracy and human rights. But all empires have
proffered such self-serving rationalizations to legitimize narrow
self-interest. The present case is no different. Imperialism
is fundamentally incompatible with democracy.
10. Revenge is not a legitimate motive
for war.
There seems little doubt that part of
the Bush administration motivation for war is the desire to "get"
Saddam, since he refused to go away after the Gulf War and allegedly
targeted the president's father. Saddam is an awful and brutal
dictator, and an assassination attempt, if there was one, is
a heinous act. But revenge should be no basis for war.
11. There are better solutions to our
energy problems.
It overstates the case to say a war with
Iraq would be a war for oil. There are too many other contributing
factors to the rush to war. At the same time, it is not credible
to claim designs on Iraqi oil are not part of calculus. And it
is hard to see the United States caring much about Iraq if the
country did not sit on the world's second largest oil reserves.
But it is past time for the United States (and the rest of the
world) to move beyond oil and carbon-based sources of energy.
Existing efficiency technologies and renewable energy sources,
if deployed, could dramatically reduce reliance on conventional
energy sources; and modest investments in renewables could soon
move us away from an oil-based economy.
12. Iraqi lives are at stake.
Unless a war brings immediate abdication
by Saddam, military action is sure to cause massive casualties
among Iraqi conscripts and especially among Iraqi civilians.
Solidarity with the Iraqi people -- not their brutal government,
but the people -- requires opposition to a war almost certain
to cause them enormous suffering.
Russell Mokhiber
is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational
Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action. They are
co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999.)
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