Let me know what you think about this article someone I used to know wrote:
I am writing this in order to clear up a few misconceptions the media has been propagating regarding the war on Iraq. The Bush administration has no defensive, humanitarian, or moral reasons for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Instead of admitting this, they are disseminating false information to the public in order to garner support for the war. These lies are so blatantly false that they can easily be disproved with a small amount of research…
Lie #1 Iraq is a threat our national security
The lie that Saddam Hussein, the leader of a sovereign nation, is plotting the downfall of our entire country and is armed with a cache of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons is an attempt to play off the fears of the American public. What was Iraq's act of aggression against us that justifies war? There has been no attack on the US, no Iraqi threat of war, no Iraqi connection to September 11. War should be a last recourse of self-defense, a step to be taken only when all other alternatives have been exhausted. What the Bush Administration is planning is an act of aggression, not an act of self-defense. The international coalition that fought the first Gulf War was cemented by the principle that one country cannot invade another without provocation. Now the White House is poised to dismiss the coalition to launch an unprovoked invasion of Iraq. This would violate the US's historic policy against using force preemptively. We should not go to war against a distant country that has not attacked us.
The so-called proof of a Bin Laden/Hussein connection is nothing more than an untested audiotape bought off the internet. Al Qaida has never supported Iraq because of opposition to Iraq’s secular government. Claims of the existence of Al Qaida camps in Iraq neglect to mention the fact that these camps are located in areas that are not controlled by Hussein.
Iraq does not own nuclear weapons, let alone a means of delivering them to the United States. U.N. Weapons Inspectors in Iraq reported in 1998 a 95% verification of disarmament. Despite the common refrain, “Saddam Hussein uses weapons of mass destruction against his own people”, there has been no evidence of the use of any weapon of mass destruction by Iraq since the 1980s.
Lie #2 Anti-war countries (France and Germany) are only anti-war because they buy oil from Iraq
This lie is an attempt by the U.S. to blame their own actions on others. No country has a greater dependence on the oil reserves of the Middle East than the United States. France and Germany have little to nothing to gain from Iraq’s support. Oil import figures from 2001 verify that the U.S.’ accusations are completely hypocritical:
Germany’s Total Oil Imports- 2.7 million barrels/day, 0 from Iraq
France’s Total Oil Imports- 1.87 million barrels/day, .096 from Iraq
U.S.’ Total Oil Imports- 10.9 million barrels/day, .795 from Iraq
Furthermore, the leaders of this country are among those with the most vested interests in Iraq’s oil sectors. Contrary to Vice-President Cheney’s assertions during the 2000 campaign that he did not trade with Iraq, according to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company.
Lie #3: U.S. is attacking Iraq for humanitarian reasons
There have been many assertions from the media that Bush actually cares about the welfare of Iraqi citizens and is declaring war on them in order to liberate them. Maybe this can explain why the U.S. is already at war with Iraq -- a low intensity war, with bombing raids every month. Between the destruction of infrastructure and the sanctions, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died during the past decade, including half a million children, according to U.N. figures. As the co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee states, "If President Bush and Congress truly care about the security of the U.S., they will work with the United Nations to address any threat posed by Iraq through peaceful, diplomatic means. Unilateral military action by the U.S. will increase the suffering of the Iraqi people, provoke more terrorist attacks against Americans, and destabilize the entire region from Israel and Palestine to Pakistan and India."
Bush has no ethical justification for his war on Iraq. The Bush administration would have us believe that the entire world is wrong, while a few politicians are right. This is meant to blind us to the facts: that our country is addicted to a limited resource the use of which has caused unspeakable environmental damage; that our government will go to any lengths to defend industries’ rights to pollute; that as Americans we are more likely to die from health problems caused by pollution than by terrorist attack; and that stupid acts like this are why terrorism exists in the first place. No Bush 2004.
I am writing this in order to clear up a few misconceptions the media has been propagating regarding the war on Iraq. The Bush administration has no defensive, humanitarian, or moral reasons for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Instead of admitting this, they are disseminating false information to the public in order to garner support for the war. These lies are so blatantly false that they can easily be disproved with a small amount of research…
Lie #1 Iraq is a threat our national security
The lie that Saddam Hussein, the leader of a sovereign nation, is plotting the downfall of our entire country and is armed with a cache of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons is an attempt to play off the fears of the American public. What was Iraq's act of aggression against us that justifies war? There has been no attack on the US, no Iraqi threat of war, no Iraqi connection to September 11. War should be a last recourse of self-defense, a step to be taken only when all other alternatives have been exhausted. What the Bush Administration is planning is an act of aggression, not an act of self-defense. The international coalition that fought the first Gulf War was cemented by the principle that one country cannot invade another without provocation. Now the White House is poised to dismiss the coalition to launch an unprovoked invasion of Iraq. This would violate the US's historic policy against using force preemptively. We should not go to war against a distant country that has not attacked us.
The so-called proof of a Bin Laden/Hussein connection is nothing more than an untested audiotape bought off the internet. Al Qaida has never supported Iraq because of opposition to Iraq’s secular government. Claims of the existence of Al Qaida camps in Iraq neglect to mention the fact that these camps are located in areas that are not controlled by Hussein.
Iraq does not own nuclear weapons, let alone a means of delivering them to the United States. U.N. Weapons Inspectors in Iraq reported in 1998 a 95% verification of disarmament. Despite the common refrain, “Saddam Hussein uses weapons of mass destruction against his own people”, there has been no evidence of the use of any weapon of mass destruction by Iraq since the 1980s.
Lie #2 Anti-war countries (France and Germany) are only anti-war because they buy oil from Iraq
This lie is an attempt by the U.S. to blame their own actions on others. No country has a greater dependence on the oil reserves of the Middle East than the United States. France and Germany have little to nothing to gain from Iraq’s support. Oil import figures from 2001 verify that the U.S.’ accusations are completely hypocritical:
Germany’s Total Oil Imports- 2.7 million barrels/day, 0 from Iraq
France’s Total Oil Imports- 1.87 million barrels/day, .096 from Iraq
U.S.’ Total Oil Imports- 10.9 million barrels/day, .795 from Iraq
Furthermore, the leaders of this country are among those with the most vested interests in Iraq’s oil sectors. Contrary to Vice-President Cheney’s assertions during the 2000 campaign that he did not trade with Iraq, according to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company.
Lie #3: U.S. is attacking Iraq for humanitarian reasons
There have been many assertions from the media that Bush actually cares about the welfare of Iraqi citizens and is declaring war on them in order to liberate them. Maybe this can explain why the U.S. is already at war with Iraq -- a low intensity war, with bombing raids every month. Between the destruction of infrastructure and the sanctions, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died during the past decade, including half a million children, according to U.N. figures. As the co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee states, "If President Bush and Congress truly care about the security of the U.S., they will work with the United Nations to address any threat posed by Iraq through peaceful, diplomatic means. Unilateral military action by the U.S. will increase the suffering of the Iraqi people, provoke more terrorist attacks against Americans, and destabilize the entire region from Israel and Palestine to Pakistan and India."
Bush has no ethical justification for his war on Iraq. The Bush administration would have us believe that the entire world is wrong, while a few politicians are right. This is meant to blind us to the facts: that our country is addicted to a limited resource the use of which has caused unspeakable environmental damage; that our government will go to any lengths to defend industries’ rights to pollute; that as Americans we are more likely to die from health problems caused by pollution than by terrorist attack; and that stupid acts like this are why terrorism exists in the first place. No Bush 2004.
