George Bush II has a bug regarding Iraq. I think he wants to finish what his father couldn’t finish. He thinks that Iraq needs to be dealt with because of the danger it poses to the region. After all, Saddam Hussein killed a bunch of Kurds – his own people – with chemical weapons. Or did he?
News reports circulating in the United States continue to repeat the story that Iraq killed a large number of Kurds in Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war. But studies have shown that it was actually the Iranians who used the chemicals, not Iraq. Yet the false story that Saddam gassed his own people continues to circulate, making him appear evil to the average American. After all, the only other person to ever gas his own people was Hitler.
According to UN and other reports, our economic sanctions since 1991 have killed perhaps a million Iraqis, half of which are children under the age of five. Ramsey Clark, our former attorney general under LBJ, authored one such report. How do you think the Iraqi people must feel about us? Iraq has only 33 million people, so that’s a pretty high percentage of their total population. About 600,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War. At that time, our population was about 34 million, so, as a percentage of population, Iraq’s losses are nearly double what our losses were during the worst war in our history.
What’s the big deal about weapons of mass destruction? The United States has more chemical and biological weapons than any other country on earth, in spite of the fact that we signed a treaty banning such weapons. And let’s not even mention our nuclear arsenal. Then there’s Israel, which has an estimated 200 to 300 nuclear warheads. Why don’t we demand that weapons inspectors check them out? The UN is too chicken to even investigate the slaughter at Jenin and the Bushies are too lilly livered to put up a squawk about it.
How about anthrax? It has been revealed through chemical tests that it came from a US government laboratory in Maryland, just about a mile from where my daughter lives. That makes me feel really good.
So why do the Bushies keep blaming Iraq? Because Saddam Hussein is a threat to Israel, our “most loyal ally” in the Middle East. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – Israel’s also the only democracy in the Middle East. Well, it is if you forget the inconvenient fact that Yassir Arafat was democratically elected, although the Israeli occupiers are preventing the Palestinian democracy from functioning. Why don’t the Bushies squawk about that? Perhaps someone would accuse them of being anti-Semitic.
And what’s so sacred about democracy anyway? Both Hitler and Mussolini came to power by the democratic process — not to mention Ariel Sharon.
The attack on the World Trade Center was a direct result of our supporting Israel all these years. Osama bin Laden gave three reasons for the attack and they all point to Israel. (1) American troops are stationed on Saudi soil. Why? So that we can launch air attacks against Iraq and so that we can protect Israel. (2) Our Iraq policy of bombing and economic sanctions. Why are we doing it? To protect Iraq's neighbors. Which neighbors are we concerned about? Not Lebanon. Not Iran. Not Yemen. Could it be … Israel? (3) Our support of Israel.
What has Israel done for us lately? Or ever? It doesn't even have oil. It is a socialist country that American taxpayers have been forced to support with our tax dollars since 1948. The attack on the World Trade Center caused a few billion dollars damage to lower Manhattan and a few hundred billion dollars damage to stock prices. Is it worth it?
The security measures imposed on us after September 11 are destroying our freedom. They are checking our e-mails. They are tapping our phones. They are even checking our shoes at airports. Thousands of Americans and legal residents have been arrested, taken in for questioning and even jailed as a result of the World Trade Center attack. The vast majority of them had nothing to do with the attack. Their only crime was being Muslim.
George Bush and company are pushing us toward a major war with their idiotic and blind policy. At the very least, we should demand that our government cut off all aid – economic and military – to Israel. Better yet, we should allow the Palestinians to be armed so they can defend themselves.
If we don't stop our unconditional support for Israel, we are going to get hit again. And for what purpose?
May 4, 2002
