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CounterPunch
September
21, 2002
The Bush Victory
in Iraq
by
RUSSELL MOKHIBER and ROBERT WEISSMAN
George Bush has already won a victory in Iraq,
and we're not talking about weapons inspectors' access inside
the country.
The administration's beating of the war
drums has drowned out the dominant stories of two months ago
-- the corporate scandals and failing economy.
The scandals continue to unfold, in ever
more gory detail. In recent weeks, Chainsaw Al Dunlap has settled
charges of financial manipulation, former GE CEO Jack Welch has
renounced his obscene retirement perks, and new information surfaces
almost daily on the tens of millions of dollars of shady loans
and perks that Tyco granted to its executives.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy continues
to struggle. Unemployment  remains high by recent standards.
The stock market collapse has eaten away the retirement savings
of tens of millions of people. Many experts believe the economy
may return to recession.
The media still report on all of this,
but not with the banner headlines of a few months ago.
Now, the coverage is focused on Iraq.
While the administration has taken some lumps from those who
advocate a common-sense resistance to military unilateralism
and a dangerous and illegal doctrine of preemptive war, it has
successfully changed the primary topic of political conversation
in the United States. From a subject that had the administration
on the defensive -- especially as revelations continued of more
and more improper or unethical actions at Dick Cheney's Halliburton
-- the focus is now on a topic that plays to the administration's
strengths and ability to control information.
Of course, external events might have
forced such a shift. But they did not. The administration has
abandoned its claims that Iraq is involved with global terrorism.
And whatever the truth about Iraq's efforts to build nuclear
weaponry, there is absolutely no evidence that there has been
a step-up in the Iraqi nuclear program or that the country is
anywhere near construction of a nuclear bomb.
In short, not only is there no evidence
of an imminent threat from Iraq against the United States, nothing
has changed in the recent period to suggest Iraq is anywhere
near being a threat to the U.S.
It is the United States that has chosen
to force the issue. The fanatical faction in the Bush Pentagon
and White House (still counterbalanced more effectively by dissident
Republicans than the Democratic Party) wants to put the United
States on permanent war footing, with Iraq and Afghanistan just
the beginning.
One not-so-incidental impact of the permanent
war society is that war talk permanently displaces debate over
economic and social justice.
The administration has already had its
first victory in Iraq, simply by threatening to go to war. If
the American people permit the Bush team to launch a war, we
can be sure of long-term defeat for the people on the American
homefront, irrespective of the outcome on the battlefield.
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.)
Today's Features
Joan Hoff
Debating
War:
the Forgotten Tradition
Norman Madarasz
Lessons from a Cyncial Master
Jean Chretien's New York
State of Mind
Mitchel Cohen
Toxic Wastes
and
the New World Order
Peter Lee
Why Bush
Wants This War
Bruce Jackson
20 Questions
About Bush's
War Against Arabs
Krystal Kyer
Greenwashing the Marketplace
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Traficant and Barr;
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September
20, 2002
Joan Hoff
Debating
War:
the Forgotten Tradition
Norman Madarasz
Lessons from a Cyncial Master
Jean Chretien's New York
State of Mind
Mitchel Cohen
Toxic Wastes
and
the New World Order
Peter Lee
Why Bush
Wants This War
Bruce Jackson
20 Questions
About Bush's
War Against Arabs
Krystal Kyer
Greenwashing the Marketplace
September
19, 2002
Ron Jacobs
Cheney's
Vermont Breakfast
Ilija Trojanow
/ Ranjit Hoskote
Who Cares
for Human Rights?
It's a "Just" War
Jordy Cummings
How
to Silence
Pro-Palestinian Voices
Salam Rahal
The Rape
of a Nation
Richard Falk
& David Krieger
War with
Iraq:
It's Not Bush's Decision
Ralph Nader
How Congress
Can Fight Corporate Crime
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Senior:
Hating Saddam, Selling Him Weapons
September
18, 2002
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Goodbye
to All That
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Cancerous
Air
Born Under a Bad Sky
Ben Tripp
Smoking
Gun
of a Hatchet Job
Peggy Thomson
20 Years
After:
Sabra and Shatila
Thomas Mountain
September
1982
Sabra and Chatila (Poem)
William Cook
Yet Another
Bush Doctrine
Kathleen Christison
Israel's Other Voices
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