>
>http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/bush-m20.shtml
>
>The twenty lies of George W. Bush
>
>By Patrick Martin
>20 March 2003
>
>
>Monday night's 15-minute speech by President Bush, setting a 48-hour
>deadline for war against Iraq, went beyond the usual distortions,
>half-truths, and appeals to fear and backwardness to include a remarkable
>number of barefaced, easily refuted lies.
>
>The enormous scale of the lying suggests two political conclusions: the
>Bush administration is going to war against Iraq with utter contempt for
>democracy and public opinion, and its war propaganda counts heavily on the
>support of the American media, which not only fails to challenge the lies,
>but repeats and reinforces them endlessly.
>
>Without attempting to be exhaustive, it is worthwhile listing some of the
>most important lies and contrasting Bush's assertions with the public
>record. All of the false statements listed below are directly quoted from
>the verbatim transcript of Bush's remarks published on the Internet.
>
>Lie No. 1: "My fellow citizens, events in Iraq have now reached the final
>days of decision."
>
>The decision for war with Iraq was made long ago, the intervening time
>having been spent in an attempt to create the political climate in which US
>troops could be deployed for an attack. According to press reports, most
>recently March 16 in the Baltimore Sun, at one of the first National
>Security Council meetings of his presidency, months before the terrorist
>attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Bush expressed his
>determination to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his willingness to commit US
>ground troops to an attack on Iraq for that purpose. All that was required
>was the appropriate pretext-supplied by September 11, 2001.
>
>Lie No. 2: "For more than a decade, the United States and other nations
>have pursued patient and honorable efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime
>without war."
>
>The US-led United Nations regime of sanctions against Iraq, combined with
>"no-fly" zones and provocative weapons inspections, is one of brutal
>oppression. The deliberate withholding of food, medical supplies and other
>vital necessities is responsible for the death of more than a million
>Iraqis, half of them children. Two UN officials who headed the oil-for-food
>program resigned in protest over the conditions created in Iraq by the
>sanctions. The CIA used the inspectors as a front, infiltrating agents into
>UNSCOM, the original inspections program. The CIA's aim was to spy on Iraq'
>s top officials and target Saddam Hussein for assassination.
>
>Lie No. 3: "The Iraqi regime has used diplomacy as a ploy to gain time and
>advantage. It has uniformly defied Security Council resolutions demanding
>full disarmament..."
>
>Iraq has never "defied" a Security Council resolution since the end of the
>Persian Gulf War in 1991. It has generally cooperated with the dictates of
>the UN body, although frequently under protest or with reservations,
>because many of the resolutions involve gross violations of Iraqi
>sovereignty. From 1991 to 1998, UN inspectors supervised the destruction of
>the vast bulk of the chemical and biological weapons, as well as delivery
>systems, which Iraq accumulated (with the assistance of the US) during the
>Iran-Iraq war, and they also destroyed all of Iraq's facilities for making
>new weapons.
>
>Lie No. 4: "Peaceful efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime have failed again
>and again because we are not dealing with peaceful men."
>
>According to the Washington Post of March 16, referring to the 1991-1998
>inspection period: "[U]nder UN supervision, Iraq destroyed 817 of 819
>proscribed medium-range missiles, 14 launchers, 9 trailers and 56 fixed
>missile-launch sites. It also destroyed 73 of 75 chemical or biological
>warheads and 163 warheads for conventional explosives. UN inspectors also
>supervised destruction of 88,000 filled and unfilled chemical munitions,
>more than 600 tons of weaponized and bulk chemical weapons agents, 4,000
>tons of precursor chemicals and 980 pieces of equipment considered key to
>production of such weapons."
>
>Lie No. 5: "The Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the
>most lethal weapons ever devised."
>
>The Washington Post article cited above noted that CIA officials were
>concerned "about whether administration officials have exaggerated
>intelligence in a desire to convince the American public and foreign
>governments that Iraq is violating United Nations prohibitions against
>chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons and long-range missile systems."
>The article quoted "a senior intelligence analyst" who said the inspectors
>could not locate weapons caches "because there may not be much of a
>stockpile."
>
>Former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook, who resigned from the Blair
>government Monday in protest over the decision to go to war without UN
>authorization, declared, "Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction
>in the commonly understood sense of the term." Even if Iraq is concealing
>some remnants of its 1980s arsenal, these would hardly deserve Bush's lurid
>description, since they are primitive and relatively ineffective. "Some of
>the most lethal weapons ever devised" are those being unleashed by the
>United States on Iraq: cruise missiles, smart bombs, fuel-air explosives,
>the 10,000-pound "daisy-cutter" bomb, the 20,000-pound MOAB just tested in
>Florida. In addition, the US has explicitly refused to rule out the use of
>nuclear weapons.
>
>Lie No. 6: "[Iraq] has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including
>operatives of Al Qaeda."
>
>No one, not even US government, seriously believes there is a significant
>connection between the Islamic fundamentalists and the secular nationalist
>Ba'athist regime in Iraq, which have been mortal enemies for decades. The
>continued assertion of an Al Qaeda-Iraq alliance is a desperate attempt to
>link Saddam Hussein to the September 11 attacks.
>
>It also serves to cover up the responsibility of American imperialism for
>sponsoring Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. The forces that now comprise
>Al Qaeda were largely recruited, trained, armed and set in motion by the
>CIA itself, as part of a long-term policy of using Islamic fundamentalists
>as a weapon against left-wing movements in the Muslim countries. This
>policy was pursued from the 1950s and was escalated prior to and during the
>Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, which ended in 1989. Osama bin Laden
>himself was part of the CIA-backed mujaheddin forces in Afghanistan before
>he turned against Washington in the 1990s.
>
>Lie No. 7: "America tried to work with the United Nations to address this
>threat because we wanted to resolve the issue peacefully."
>
>The Bush administration went to the United Nations because it wanted UN
>sanction for military action and it wanted UN member states to cough up
>funds for postwar operations, along the lines of its financial shakedown
>operation for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Bush's most hawkish advisors, such
>as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney,
>initially opposed going to the UN because they did not want diplomacy to
>slow down the drive to war. They only agreed after Secretary of State Colin
>Powell argued that the pace of the US military buildup in the Persian Gulf
>gave enough time to get the UN to rubber-stamp the war.
>
>Lie No. 8: "These governments [the Security Council majority] share our
>assessment of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it."
>
>This is belied by virtually every statement on Iraq issued by the
>governments of France, Russia, China, Germany and other countries opposed
>to military action, which have repeatedly declared that they see no
>imminent threat from Iraq. Bush brands his opponents on the Security
>Council as cowards, as though they were afraid to take action against
>Saddam Hussein. These countries were, in fact, increasingly alarmed-by the
>United States, not Iraq. Insofar as they summoned up resolve, to the shock
>of the Bush administration, it was to deny UN support for the war that
>Washington had already decided to wage.
>
>Lie No. 9: "Many nations, however, do have the resolve and fortitude to act
>against this threat to peace, and a broad coalition is now gathering to
>enforce the just demands of the world."
>
>Only three nations are contributing military forces to the war: 250,000
>from the US, 40,000 from Britain, and 2,000 from Australia. The other
>members of the "broad coalition" are those which have been bribed or
>browbeaten to allow the US to fly over their countries to bomb Iraq, to
>station troops, ships or warplanes on their territory, or provide technical
>assistance or other material aid to the war. None will do any fighting. All
>are acting against the expressed desire of their own population.
>
>Lie No. 10: "The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its
>responsibilities, so we will rise to ours."
>
>Bush defines the UN body's responsibility as serving as a rubber stamp for
>whatever action the United States government demands. In relation to the
>UN, however, the United States does have definite responsibilities,
>including refraining from waging war without Security Council
>authorization, except in the case of immediate self-defense. Under Article
>42 of the UN Charter, it is for the Security Council, not the US or
>Britain, to decide how Security Council resolutions such as 1441 are to be
>enforced. The US decision to "enforce" its interpretation of 1441
>regardless of the will of the Security Council is a violation of
>international law.
>
>Lie No. 11: "If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed
>against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you."
>
>
>
>The widely reported US military strategy is to conduct an aerial
>bombardment of Iraq so devastating that it will "shock and awe" the Iraqi
>people and compel the Iraqi armed forces to surrender en masse. According
>to one press preview, US and British forces "plan to launch the deadliest
>first night of air strikes on a single country in the history of air power.
>Hundreds of targets in every region of Iraq will be hit simultaneously."
>Estimates of likely Iraqi civilian casualties from the immediate impact of
>bombs and missiles range from thousands to hundreds of thousands, and even
>higher when the long-term effects are included.
>
>Lie No. 12: "As our coalition takes their power, we will deliver the food
>and medicine you need."
>
>This is particularly cynical, since the immediate consequence of Bush's
>48-hour ultimatum was the withdrawal of all UN humanitarian aid workers and
>the shutdown of the oil-for-food program, which underwrites the feeding of
>60 percent of Iraq's population. As for medicine, the US has systematically
>deprived the Iraqi people of needed medicine for the past 12 years,
>insisting that even the most basic medical supplies, like antibiotics and
>syringes, be banned as "dual-use" items that could be used in a program of
>biological warfare.
>
>Lie No. 13: "We will tear down the apparatus of terror and we will help you
>to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free."
>
>The goal of the Bush administration is to install a US puppet regime in
>Baghdad, initially taking the form of an American military dictatorship. It
>is no exaggeration to say that the US government has been the leading
>promoter of dictatorships around from the world, from Pinochet of Chile to
>Suharto of Indonesia to Saddam Hussein himself, who, according to one
>recent report, got his political start as an anti-communist hit-man working
>in a CIA-backed plot to assassinate Iraq's left-nationalist President Qasem
>in 1959.
>
>A classified State Department report described by the Los Angeles Times of
>March 14 not only concluded that a democratic Iraq was unlikely to arise
>from the devastation of war, it suggested that this was not even desirable
>from the standpoint of American interests, because "anti-American sentiment
>is so pervasive that elections in the short term could lead to the rise of
>Islamic-controlled governments hostile to the United States."
>
>Lie No. 14: "Should Saddam Hussein choose confrontation, the American
>people can know that every measure has been taken to avoid war and every
>measure will be taken to win it."
>
>This combines a lie and a brutal truth. The Bush administration has taken
>every possible measure to insure that war takes place, viewing the
>resumption of UN weapons inspections with barely disguised hostility and
>directing its venom against those countries that have suggested a
>diplomatic settlement with Iraq is achievable. In prosecuting the war, the
>Bush administration is indeed prepared to use "every measure," up to an
>including nuclear weapons, in order to win it.
>
>Lie No. 15: "War has no certainty except the certainty of sacrifice."
>
>There will be colossal sacrifices for the Iraqi people, and sacrifices in
>blood and economic well-being for the American people as well. But for Bush
>'s real constituency, the wealthiest layer at the top of American society,
>there will be no sacrifices at all. Instead, the administration is seeking
>a tax cut package of over $700 billion, including the abolition of taxation
>on corporate dividends. Major US corporations are in line to reap hundreds
>of millions of dollars in profits from the rebuilding of Iraqi
>infrastructure shattered by the coming US assault. These include the oil
>construction firm Halliburton, which Vice President Cheney headed prior to
>joining the Bush administration, and which continues to include Cheney on
>its payroll.
>
>Lie No. 16: "[T]he only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to
>apply the full force and might of our military, and we are prepared to do
>so."
>
>Every aggressor claims to deplore the suffering of war and seeks to blame
>the victim for resisting, and thus prolonging the agony. Bush is no
>different. His hypocritical statements of "concern" for the Iraqi people
>cannot disguise the fact that, as many administration apologists freely
>admit, this is "a war of choice"-deliberately sought by the US government
>to pursue its strategic agenda in the Middle East.
>
>Lie No. 17: "The terrorist threat to America and the world will be
>diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed."
>
>No one, even in the American military-intelligence complex, seriously
>believes this. US counter-terrorism officials have repeatedly said that a
>US conquest and occupation of Iraq, by killing untold thousands of Arabs
>and Muslims and inflaming public opinion in the Arab world and beyond, will
>spark more terrorism, not less.
>
>Lie No. 18: "We are now acting because the risks of inaction would be far
>greater. In one year, or five years, the power of Iraq to inflict harm on
>all free nations would be multiplied many times over."
>
>This is belied by the record of the past twelve years, which has seen a
>steady decline in Iraqi military power. Saddam Hussein has never been a
>threat to any "free nation," if that term has any meaning, only to the
>reactionary oil sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf and to neighboring Iran, all
>ruled by regimes that are as repressive as his.
>
>Lie No. 19: "As we enforce the just demands of the world, we will also
>honor the deepest commitments of our country."
>
>The demands of the world were expressed by the millions who marched in
>cities throughout the world on February 15 and March 15 to oppose a
>unilateral US attack on Iraq. Bush seeks to have it both ways-claiming to
>enforce previous Security Council resolutions against Iraq ("the just
>demands of the world"), while flagrantly defying the will of the majority
>of the Security Council, the majority of the world's governments, and the
>vast majority of the world's people.
>
>Lie No. 20: "Unlike Saddam Hussein, we believe the Iraqi people are
>deserving and capable of human liberty... The United States with other
>countries will work to advance liberty and peace in that region."
>
>For "the Iraqi people," substitute "the Egyptian people," "the people of
>the Arabian peninsula," "the Pakistani people" or those of other US-backed
>dictatorships, not to mention the Palestinians who live under a brutal
>Israeli occupation that is supported by Washington. Does the US government
>believe that any of them are "deserving and capable of human liberty?" When
>the parliament of Turkey, under the pressure of popular opposition, voted
>to bar the US from using Turkish territory to invade Iraq, the Bush
>administration appealed to the Turkish military to pressure the government
>into overturning this democratic decision.
>
>
>
>
>
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