MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: Friday, September 27, 2002
Contacts: Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen at acadia.net Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty at yahoo.com
GREENS WARN OF A CHENEY-RUMSFELD IDEOLOGY OF 'WORLD DOMINANCE' BEHIND BUSH'S PLANS FOR THE INVASION OF IRAQ
The Bush Administration misleads the U.S. and world about the need for preemptive strikes, charge Greens; Congress urged to vote NO on giving Bush war powers
WASHINGTON, DC -- Greens today warned that the likely U.S. attack on Iraq is part of the Bush Administration's ideology of global military dominance and disregard for international law. The Green Party of the United States, taking the lead as a national party in opposing President Bush's planned invasion, adopted a statement last week condemning the invasion and demanding measures based on multilateral cooperation and readmittance of U.N. inspectors to Iraq.
"The invasion of Iraq can only be understood if we look past Bush's shifting and implausible stated justifications, and instead recognize the anti-constitutional, imperialist designs of Bush's Cabinet and closest advisors," said John Rensenbrink, U.S. Green Party Representative to the Global Greens Conference in 2001.
Ironically, Greens agree with conservative Republican opponents of the invasion who foresee a collapse of civil liberties and constitutional law under the Bush plan for world order, but Greens also warn of a looming humanitarian and environmental disaster.
"Many Democrats have fallen over themselves in their zeal to endorse the Bush Administration's plan to violate constitutional and international law and the U.N. Charter," said Tim Harthan, Iowa Green candidate for the U.S. Senate. "These Democrats are quite comfortable with Bush's quest for U.S. global military domination and disregard for law. The vote in Congress on giving Bush war powers will show the extent to which the Democratic Party has embraced the Cheney-Rumsfeld ideology. Bush is relying on Democrats, since the main opposition he faces comes from conservatives within his own party."
"Bush officials base their arguments on misinformation, just as then-Secretary of Defense Cheney misinformed Congress and the American people in 1990 when he falsely warned that Iraqi forces were lined up and ready to invade Saudi Arabia," said Dick Kaiser, Green candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's 8th District.
Greens cited the following evidence of Bush Administration's obfuscation, deception, and destructive ideology of global domination:
*** Ex-Inspector Scott Ritter doubts that Iraq is capable of effectively producing and deploying chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. "The truth is Iraq is not a threat to its neighbors and it is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside its borders," Ritter has said. "Military action against Iraq cannot be justified." Ritter's assessment disputes Bush's mention of Iraqi weapons capability as a reason for the U.S. to invade. It's unlikely that Saddam would (or could) attempt anything as suicidal as an assault on the U.S. or its allies, except in the cause of his own survival; Saddam's own willingness to allow new inspections hasn't slowed Bush's zeal for an invasion.
*** The White House lied in accusing Saddam of aiding Al Qaeda and supporting anti-U.S. terrorism. Bush has offered no credible evidence of meetings between Iraqi representatives and Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden considers Saddam, a Muslim moderate running a secular government, an infidel to be deposed.
*** Little discussion has taken place on possible outcomes of an invasion: numerous U.S. and civilian Iraqi casualties in the ground war; a retaliatory attack by Saddam on Israel that could escalate into an exchange involving weapons of mass destruction; motivation for thousands of Iraqis and other Arabs to join terrorist networks like Al Qaeda; destabilization of the region, from Palestine and Israel to Pakistan and India, and probable collapse of the Jordan government; likely installation of a post-Saddam regime headed by military thugs with bloody resumes comparable to Saddam.
*** The Bush Administration refuses to admit responsibility by its own officials and by past U.S. administrations in aiding Saddam. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld served as special envoy promising secret military assistance to Saddam in the Iran-Iraq War under Reagan, even though it was known that Saddam was using chemical weapons to wipe out entire populations. The Halliburton Company, under Cheney's reign as CEO, did $23.8 million worth of business with Iraq between 1998 and 2000, in violation of U.S. law.
*** Bush's future cabinet drafted plans to invade Iraq even before Election Day 2000, according to a policy blueprint titled "Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century," drafted in September 2000 by the think tank Project for the New American Century. The blueprint called for U.S. control over the Persian Gulf region to protect U.S. interests (i.e., oil), and also favored government takeover of the Internet, possible U.S. use of bio-warfare, and 'regime changes' in China, North Korea, Libya, Syria, and Iran. Among those involved in its draft were Cheney, Rumsfeld, and advisor Paul Wolfowitz. The call for U.S. global military supremacy by threat of pre-emptive strike was reaffirmed in Bush's 33-page national security policy paper submitted to Congress on Friday, September 20.
*** The "Defense Planning Guidance" series of policy reviews from the Defense Departments of both Bush Administrations shows an evolving post-Cold-War doctrine of global 'full spectrum dominance' by the U.S. Drafted variously by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and other ideologues, the documents outline an ideology based on the protection of global corporate interests, such as oil in the Persian Gulf.
The Cheney-Rumsfeld ideology expressed in "Defense Planning Guidance" embraces global military superiority that gives the U.S. coercive power over friends and enemies alike; abandonment of treaties, arms control agreements, and international law (e.g., the Antiballistic Missile Treaty; the International Criminal Court); unilateralism and disregard for coalitions and alliances; preemptive invasion of sovereign nations; national missile defense ('Star Wars'); and possible use of nuclear weapons.
"We in the U.S. have our own dangerous extremists, and some are in the White House," said Annie Goeke, co-chair of the Green Party's International Committee and a member of the NGO Women's Caucus delegation on the International Criminal Court who was present when the court was signed into effect at the U.N. on September 10, 2002. "We shudder to think about what they'll do next, and what the backlash against Americans might be."
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