[Peace] "Since two-thirty-four GMT we are returning fire!"

[Dubya Peacechild]

"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is
sometimes until we get an objective analysis."
— G. W. Bush
(Source: Slate)

Then read now the "objective analysis" of a war, in which our Texas George "shoots back":

If you want a sense of how lopsided this war is, and how hollow American claims of self-defense must look to the entire world, compare two scenes we saw on television this night.

First there were the missile and bomb strikes on Baghdad, reportedly aimed at Saddam Hussein's latest hideout. Retired generals sit in their chairs in the network studios, marveling at the audacity of sending bombers to Baghdad before taking out Iraqi radar and anti-aircraft batteries. They speak in awe of how good their technology has grown since the 1991 Gulf War. The USA has hit the Iraqis, who evidently can't touch them.

Then President Bush gets on the tube and tells us why he's doing this. He's wearing a suit, sitting in a building everybody recognizes, and worrying more about how he's holding his head than whether he'll still have it tomorrow. "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace," says Bush.

Watching the GIs pummel the Iraqi guys in their capital with impunity makes me wonder how grave the threat really was. The Iraq-al-Qaida connection was always the weakest part of Bush's case against Saddam. And I can't help feeling that this doesn't quite look like a war of self-defense. Definitely it doesn't!

This war is indeed completely illegal under international law (military action is lawful only when specifically authorized by the United Nations Security Council or undertaken in self-defense against an existing or imminent armed attack; but the USA are not under attack by Iraq - quite the opposite - and the Security Council has not approved military action).

Meanwhile, twelve years after the first Persian Gulf War, more than 150.000 ailing American veterans are trying to understand why they are sick and why their government has not done more to help them. Too many government doctors still treat ailing Desert Storm veterans as whiners and are not doing enough to get to the bottom of Persian Gulf Syndrome, environmental medicine experts charge. The veterans attribute their illnesses to vehicle paint spray and dust, oil well fires, insects, unhealthy food and experimental drugs used to protect them from chemical and biological warfare.

This is the real threat, and Bush throws his own people in it. Jeran Gallimore, an aircraft mechanic from Robinson, Texas, was such a victim. He died at age 25. "He was there a couple of days, and he passed away," his mother said. Just before he died, she said, "He said, Mama, Mama.' I said, 'I love you Jeran, and I'm right here with you. Jesus, from my hand to your hand I give you my son.'...I thank you, Jesus, because my son was in torture."

Not to forget that no one can even guess how many innocent civilians will die in a ground war once the US assault on Baghdad - complete with block-by-block urban warfare - has become a cruel reality. And of course, the Bush administration is ready to put the lives of tens of thousands of US soldiers at risk.

All this what for? Late last year, the Bush administration issued its National Security Strategy document. This so-called "Bush Doctrine" justifies launching "pre-emptive wars" and plotting "regime change" to make sure that no other power emerges to challenge the US "position of unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence." Already in 1999, Patrick Clawson - whose think tank has a cozy relationship with the Bush administration - freely admitted: "US oil companies would have an opportunity to make significant profits," he said. "We should not be embarrassed about the commercial advantages that would come from a reintegration of Iraq into the world economy."

Is oil really thicker than blood?




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