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CounterPunch
January
24, 2003
Bush Will Attack
Iraq
Chemical Warheads
or Not
by KURT NIMMO
Okay, so the Bushites had their yesmen at the
UN find a few empty "chemical warheads," which are
not warheads (those fit on missiles) but artillery shells, and
now we're supposed to think this is evidence of Saddam's homicidal
intent when in fact under the terms of the 12-year old sanctions
Iraq is allowed to have short range missiles (150 km) and artillery
pieces for self-defense. The corporate media wants us to believe
these empty shells -- which contained absolutely nothing and
if they had contained deadly chemicals not one UN inspector would
have gone near them without a chem suit -- these measly empty
green artillery shells are more than enough evidence for Bush
to "trigger" his long planned attack (not war, mind
you, because in a war two sides slug it out and Iraq is simply
incapable of slugging anything out with anybody).
So this is it. Finally Dubya will get
his war (or lopsided attack).
In a week or so Blix and Mohammed el-Baradei
will report on whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
So far they have not found much except these paltry and quite
pathetic empty artillery shells. Nonetheless, the Bushites are
expecting a tidal wave of damning information (they are masters
at converting mole hills into mountains -- or in a pinch inventing
preposterous lies). "We must not shrink from our duties
and our responsibilities when the material comes before us next
week," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell. "We
cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the
difficult choices that are ahead of us... I wanted there to be
no mistake about this, and time is running out." In other
words, after Blix and his boys deliver their report the world
had best brace itself for mass destruction and mass murder in
Iraq.
If anybody understands the Bushite mindset
it is insider Bob Novak. "Well, if we don't hit in Iraq,
where are we going to hit?" a nameless Bushite asked Novak
recently. Sure, it's about the oil -- but it's more about Bush
wanting to show the world what a hard ass he is. "They want
a war as a manifestation of U.S. power in the world and as a
sign that the United States is capable of changing the balance
of power and the political map of the Middle East," Novak
explained on Capital Gang. The handful of empty shells, Novak
said, are "being used as a pretext for a decision that's
already been made at high levels of the U.S. government to change
the government in Iraq. It has nothing to do with, boy, we're
-- we are really worried about these little chemical warheads
that's going to cause a holocaust in the Middle East."
Oil is the bonus prize.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
he would be "delighted" if Hussein chose exile as an
alternative to military conflict with Iraq -- but really doesn't
mean it. "To avoid a war I would personally recommend that
some provision be made so that the senior leadership and their
families could be provided haven in some other country,"
Rumsfeld said on ABC. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
Rumsfeld's suggestion to offer a safe haven in exchange for averting
war was a "sensible suggestion." But it's all smoke
and mirrors. Bush's worst nightmare is Saddam going down in a
coup or packing his bags and catching the next plane to Mauritania
or Belarus. If that happened Bush would have no reason to invade.
It would throw a monkey wrench in the works of world domination.
Dubya has all his ducks set up nicely
in a row. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is one such duck. "I
don't think a few thousand protesters out of 270 million people
is going to change the American people's minds," said DeLay
as he emerged from a meeting with Lockheed-Martin representatives.
"The president is going to do the right thing. They can
protest until the cows come home." Of course, when DeLay
mentions the American people, he's talking about his friends
at Lockheed Martin and fat cat Texan contractors (and the eight
current policymakers that had direct or indirect ties to the
death merchant before joining the Bush administration).
Never mind that a recent poll by the
Pew Research Center indicates most Americans think there is no
justification for Bush's Iraq attack. DeLay and all the other
Republicans (and their rolled-over Democrat colleagues) are standing
up to be counted in the Bush's murder conspiracy and in no way
do they represent the vast majority of Americans who think the
idea of attacking Iraq is wrong. All those Americans need do
is pay their war taxes and donate their children to die (or suffer
in the years to come from Gulf War Syndrome II). If every last
one of the 270 million Americans DeLay mentioned were against
the Bush's impending attack it would not make a lick of difference.
It really does not matter if Bush considers
the "empty warheads" found at the Ukhaider ammunition
dump in Iraq a "material breach" or not. It's irrelevant.
The Bush neocons have made no secret of their perverse desire
to wage unending war against the rest of the world. In the weeks
to come chances are more "warheads" will be found in
Iraq -- and in the nick of time -- because time is running out
for Bush. No way in hell will he go into the election next year
without a war under his belt. We can only hope he screws up so
badly the people throw him out on his ear come 2004 -- that is
if they are allowed to throw him out (there's no shortage of
rabid right wing Supreme Court justices and paperless voting
machines these days).
Cross your fingers and hope Dubya makes
the same mistakes his daddy made.
Kurt Nimmo
is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. Visit his excellent online
gallery. He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
We highly recommend regular visits to
Nimmo's website, Another
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