[Peace-discuss] Anti-war Right

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I've said for a while that we should pay attention to opposition to the
Bush wars from the principled Right (which also opposes this
administration's invasions of civil liberties).  The author of the
following is a Southerner, a self-proclaimed conservative Democrat, and a
former columnist for a Florida newspaper. I know of few comments from the
contemporary American left as clear as this -- certainly not from the
"left wing" of the Democratic party.  --CGE]

	http://reese.king-online.com/
	Charley Reese
	For Wednesday, January 21, 2004
	Are You Going To Get Mad?

It is now about as clear as it's going to get that Saddam Hussein had no
weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of State Colin Powell even
contradicted himself (in his U.N. speech) by admitting recently that there
is no evidence of any link between Saddam and al-Qaida.

Prior to the Iraq War, the Bush administration asserted as fact that
Saddam had huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons and was
actively pursuing nuclear weapons. Administration members ridiculed people
who expressed any doubts. Today, after spending millions of dollars
looking for the weapons, they haven't found anything. And every Iraqi
official captured, none of whom has any reason at all to lie, has said the
same thing: There are no weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, the Iraqis had been saying that for years, and the Bush
administration replied, "You're lying." Now we have this situation. The
facts on the ground prove that the Iraqis, whom President Bush called
liars, were telling the truth. What does that make Bush? It makes Bush
either very badly mistaken or a liar.

It seems to me that if Bush were merely mistaken, he would admit it. He
would say to the American people: "Look, I thought Iraq had those weapons
based on intelligence, but apparently the intelligence was wrong. I
apologize for misleading you." But the president will not do that. He gets
huffy and defensive when asked about weapons of mass destruction. Before
the war, he never opened his mouth without talking about weapons of mass
destruction. It might be that there is simply an arrogant gene in the Bush
family. It might be that he was just lying.

It is true that the intelligence reports contained a lot of reservations,
expressions of doubt and uncertainty, but when this came out of the
political process, it was told to the American people as unquestionable
fact without reservations. "Intelligence gathered by this government and
other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to
possess and to conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," Bush
said on March 17. All the Bush people were asserting this to be a fact.

Now we have nearly 500 dead Americans who died to protect the United
States from weapons that don't exist. And more will die, and for what
reason? So Halliburton and other big corporations can make a lot of money?
So Israel can feel safer? So we can have permanent military bases in Iraq?
So the president can strut about and call himself the Conqueror of Iraq?
One thing you can be sure of: They won't die defending the United States,
because Iraq is not now and never was a threat to the United States.

It's no wonder Bush avoids military funerals and has barred the press from
the airport where our dead come home. It's no wonder he has clamped a lid
of secrecy on the search for weapons of mass destruction. What he ought to
do is write a letter of apology to the families of every dead and wounded
soldier. That'll be the day.

I don't know about you, but I'm damned angry that the president took this
country to war on false pretenses. He has now dreamed up all these other
reasons for going to war, but he sold this war to Congress and to the
American people on the basis that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

This is far more serious than anything Bill Clinton did. He lied about
dillydallying with a young girl. This president apparently lied about the
reasons he wanted to take this country to war. He is, behind his facade of
good old boy, apparently a man so arrogant that he does not think the
American people deserve to be told the truth.

Maybe he's right. If the American people are not offended enough to throw
him out of office, then apparently — in this country, anyway — the
truth no longer matters.

© 2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.