Not a speech but a diatribe
Bush builds a war on lies
By Fred Goldstein
President George W. Bush's speech in Cincinnati on Oct. 7
was designed to build momentum for Washington's planned war of
aggression against Iraq. The speech contained an almost
uninterrupted stream of lies, vilification and appeals to fear
and threats, all couched as "arguments" to answer his so-called
critics.
Bush repeated his insinuation, made over and over again in
other speeches, that the Iraqi government was somehow tied to
the Sept. 11 attack. These insinuations were made without one
iota of evidence.
Bush reiterated the charge, denied by the Iraqi government,
that Baghdad was producing biological and chemical weapons-
again without any evidence. He repeated the charge that Iraq
was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon with which to
threaten the United States. No evidence supplied.
Bush again implied that Iraq had expelled weapons
inspectors, when in fact it was the U.S. that had the weapons
inspectors withdrawn in 1998, prior to the bombing of Iraq in
operation Desert Fox. Iraq refused later to readmit the
inspectors because the inspection team was being directed by
Washington to violate the terms of the inspection regime by
probing for military information that could be used by the
Pentagon in an attack.
Speech ignores Iraqi concessions
Bush completely left out of his talk the monumental fact
that Iraq has made the major concession of agreeing to
unfettered weapons inspections of the country by the UN. Not
only did Iraq announce this concession, it followed it up by
working out a detailed agreement with Hans Blix, head of the UN
weapons inspection team, including arrangements to inspect
government buildings like the headquarters of the Republican
Guard and the Defense Ministry building, among others.
This agreement was torn up by U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell on the grounds that it was based on a 1998 UN resolution
specifying that the inspection of presidential sites had to be
announced in advance and accompanied by an Iraqi official. The
Iraqi government then stated it would allow unannounced
inspection of presidential sites.
Bush had the audacity to accuse the Iraqis of aggression for
firing back in self-defense at U.S. and British war planes that
illegally violate its air space every single day. They fly in
the so-called "no-fly zones" and fire at will on Iraqi targets,
killing many civilians in the process. These "no-fly zones"
were simply declared by Washington in violation of all
international law.
By launching an uninterrupted stream of baseless
charges--while omitting any reference to Iraqi
concessions--Bush made it clear that there is no condition that
the Iraqi government can meet, short of resigning and turning
over the government to a U.S.-puppet regime, that will satisfy
the White House and prevent the Pentagon from launching an
unprovoked war of imperialist aggression.
Bush's hypocrisy could not have been clearer. On the same
day that he was beating the drums of war against Iraq for
"supporting terrorism" and seeking "weapons of mass
destruction," U.S. imperialism's client state of Israel--the
only nuclear power in the Middle East--launched a massive
invasion upon the densely populated refugee camp of Khan Yunis
in Gaza, using tanks and helicopters. They fired a missile into
a crowded street, killing 13 Palestinian civilians, including
children. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the operation to
be a "great success."
Bush lines up Congress
Bush's immediate political goal was to add momentum to the
vote for military intervention about to take place in Congress.
This vote, in turn, is meant to strong-arm the UN Security
Council and let them know that whatever they do or say,
Washington is going to invade.
The first victory of the Bush administration in lining up
the political establishment for the new "unilateralism" of the
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz grouping came in the
struggle over a joint congressional resolution on the war.
This victory was attained on Oct. 2 when House Minority
Leader Dick Gephardt, a Democrat from Missouri, stepped forward
to embrace the Bush resolution. He was photographed along with
the Republican supporters of Bush announcing the deal on the
White House steps.
The joint resolution is titled "Authorization for the Use of
Military Force Against Iraq." Its preamble declares that "it
should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to
remove from power the current Iraqi regime."
The body of the resolution declares that "The Congress of
the United States supports the efforts by the president to
strictly enforce through the United Nations Security Council
all relevant Security Council resolutions applicable to Iraq
and encourages him in those efforts." It goes on to "encourage"
the president to "obtain decisive action by the Security
Council."
It then concludes that "the president is authorized to use
the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines
necessary to (1) defend the national security of the United
States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and (2)
enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council
Resolutions regarding Iraq."
It requires that the failure of diplomatic measure be
reported by Bush to the House of Representatives 48 hours after
(!) an invasion takes place.
In other words, this resolution tells the French
imperialists, the Russian capitalists, the Chinese government
that they will have no say whatsoever in the matter of a U.S.
war against Iraq. This resolution tells the world that U.S.
imperialism reserves the right to and fully intends to destroy
a sovereign government in Baghdad without anyone else's
permission, and that the political establishment of the ruling
class is overwhelmingly united in its readiness to support the
war.
As for the other imperialists in Paris, Berlin and Rome,
they had better line up or be left out. And for those who were
counting upon the imperialist allies to slow down Bush's rush
to war, they should forget it and get on board.
The speech was calculated to cover up the fundamental fact
that an imperialist super-power--with a population of 280
million, an economy of $10 trillion, and a military
establishment larger than the next 20 countries in the
world--is planning an unprovoked invasion of a poor country of
20 million, formerly dominated by colonial powers, whose
economy and military machine have been devastated by U.S.
invasion and 11 years of deadly sanctions, and which has 110
billion barrels of oil on its territory, coveted by the giant
oil monopolies.
The war talk is also calculated to distract the population
at home from the fact that the stock market is crashing in slow
motion; retirement funds of the masses are being wiped out as
their 401k plans evaporate; 435,000 more workers were laid off
in manufacturing in September; and millions of workers are no
longer counted in the work force because they have given up
looking for jobs or are living on paltry disability
incomes.
Bush's speech was also meant to counteract the diminishing
support for the war in the polls and the rising active
opposition of the budding anti-war movement.
A Gallup poll released on Oct. 7, as reported in the
Washington Post of Oct. 8, "found a bare majority of
Americans-53 percent-favored a ground invasion of Iraq, down
from 61 percent in June and 74 percent last November." These
conservative numbers show the clear trend of plummeting
support, as the suffering of the people increases and the
alarmist rhetoric of the Bush administration, unsubstantiated
by any evidence, seems more and more hollow.
It is highly significant that the Bush war talk has clearly
awakened the beginnings of a new and vigorous anti-war
movement. The tens of thousands who turned out around the
country on Oct. 6 to protest the Bush war plans show that the
movement is overcoming the mood of retreat that took hold after
Sept. 11 and is gathering forward momentum. It shows that a new
generation of youth is preparing to resist the militarist
adventurism emanating from Washington.
The massive support that is growing for the Oct. 26 national
demonstration in Washington, D.C., along with a simultaneous
activity in San Francisco, holds out the greatest hope that a
revival of the struggle against imperialist war can spread to
the workers and the oppressed, can really challenge the
capitalist war makers and can push back the war drive.
Reprinted from the Oct. 17, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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