| Author | Message | | Guest | |  | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 1:50 pm Post subject: Put Up Or Shut Up |
| Put Up Or Shut Up
President George Bush has to put up or shut up. If his administration has hard evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, he has to put that evidence on the table for everyone to see. Otherwise his credibility and the credibility of the United States will be zilch.
It's beginning to appear that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein isn't as stupid as the Bush administration believed him to be. He has readmitted the inspectors, he's cooperating with them, and he's made his declaration: We have no weapons of mass destruction; if the United States and Great Britain have evidence to the contrary, give it to the international inspectors.
So far, the Bush administration has done nothing but indulge in name-calling, like some bratty kid on a schoolyard. It's not enough to keep calling Saddam a liar; it's time to prove it. And if the United States lacks proof, as I personally believe, then it's time to shut up or else confess the real motives for wanting to go to war. So far, the Bush administration's credibility hasn't been that great itself.
Item: It made much to-do about Iraq having drone airplanes. The existence of these planes was made public in 1998. The president even said they could be used in an attack against the United States, which is patently absurd on its face.
Item: Great Britain recently released a dossier on human-rights violations in Iraq. Again, it was all old stuff, 10 or 12 years old, and Amnesty International, which had collected the information in the first place, severely criticized the British government for misusing a report that the United Kingdom had ignored a decade ago when it was first issued.
Demonization and name-calling do not constitute evidence that Iraq is a threat to the United States. The Bush administration has no hard evidence that Iraq was involved with al-Qaida or any other kind of international terrorism. It has twisted the truth about Iraq's involvement with the Palestinians, implying that Saddam subsidized suicide bombers. The fact is that Saddam was giving a check to the families of any Palestinian killed in the intifada. That, of course, included the families of suicide bombers, but the program was not specifically directed toward them. Don't forget, the Israelis have killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Unlike most Arab governments that only pay lip service to the Palestinian struggle for independence, Saddam has put his money where his mouth is.
If it is true, as Richard Pearle, the chief warmonger in the Bush administration, has said publicly, that Bush will go to war against Iraq even if there are no ties to terrorism and no weapons of mass destruction, the American people had better start raising hell with the administration. A war without justification can produce catastrophic consequences.
For one thing, with our economy in the shape it is in, much better use for $200 billion can be found right here at home than to waste it on killing Iraqis. For another, the days when we can inflict death and destruction on other people in other places without paying a price for it are over. Making war against Iraq without justification and international support will produce an enormous increase in terrorism directed at the United States and at Americans everywhere. For still another, it will alienate allies all over the world.
If genuine, publicly exposed proof can be found that Iraq is in violation and if the United States goes back to the United Nations Security Council for a second resolution, then all's well and good. If the president decides to go it alone based on propaganda, he will be making the mistake of his life. The trouble is it will be other innocent lives, both Iraqi and American, that will pay for his blunder.
Charlie Reese | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
