- The Bush administration told the American people over
and over again that war against Iraq was necessary because Saddam Hussein
was lying about not having weapons of mass destruction. We were told that
Saddam Husseinâs weapons of mass destruction were an imminent threat
to the United States. We were told that our government knew where those
weapons of mass destruction were located. And yet, after another brutal
war in which thousands of innocent civilians were killed, the Bush Administration
can produce no evidence that Saddam Hussein had the weapons of mass destruction.
-
- Prior to the war, the Bush administration offered detailed
descriptions of Iraqâs weapons programs, including the claims famously
made by Colin Powell before the UN Security Council. Bush administration
claims included assertions that Iraq had a program for enriching uranium,
that it had weaponized thousands of liters of biological weapons, including
anthrax and botulism, and that Iraq could launch these weapons on very
short notice.
-
- Prior to the war, when Saddam Hussein opened his palaces
to UN inspectors, destroyed missiles with ranges barely longer than UN
restrictions and allowed the US to send U-2 spy planes over Iraq, the Bush
Administration said it was too little, too late.
-
- Prior to the war, when the Chief UN Weapons Inspector,
Hans Blix, said that the inspectors were receiving increased cooperation
from the Iraqis and pleaded for more time to continue their work, George
Bush said he was growing impatient.
-
- Prior to the war, when members of the Security Counsel
of the United Nations said they were not ready to support the use of force
against Iraq, George Bush demonstrated his disdain for international law
and the Security Counsel of the United Nations by launching a preventive
war against Iraq.
-
- The failure to find weapons of mass destruction after
the war is causing widespread skepticism throughout the world about the
justification for going to war. It has become a major political scandal
in the UK, where prior to the war Tony Blair echoed the Bush administrationâs
claims of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction.
-
- In the UK, Robin Cook, who resigned in protest from Tony
Blairâs cabinet over the war in Iraq, has written: ãBritain
was conned into a war to disarm a phantom threat in which not even our
major ally really believed. The truth is that the US chose to attack Iraq
not because it posed a threat, but because they knew it was weak and expected
its military to collapse. It is a truth that leaves the British government
in an uncomfortable position.ä
-
- It is a truth that also leaves the American people in
an uncomfortable position. It would seem that we were also ãconned
into a warä by Mr. Bush and his administration.
-
- In a war that was sold to the American people and the
Congress on the basis of misrepresentations by the Bush administration,
more than 170 American soldiers were killed, more than 5,000 innocent civilians
lost their lives, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers were slaughtered.
-
- In the aftermath of the war, US soldiers continue to
be targets of Iraqi dissatisfaction. Eleven US soldiers were killed in
the past week. Iraq remains a dangerous place, but not because of weapons
of mass destruction.
-
- When the US and British forces invaded Iraq, one might
have expected Saddam Hussein to use weapons of mass destruction if he had
them. Rather, the Bush administration would have us believe that Saddam
Hussein, while preparing for the US invasion or during the US attack, was
busy destroying his weapons of mass destruction or moving them into another
country.
-
- Rather than show any contrition for leading the American
people into war under false pretenses, President Bush has claimed that
weapons of mass destruction have been found. He makes this claim on the
basis of the discovery of two mobile laboratories, presumably meant for
making biological weapons, but which contain no evidence, according to
the CIA, that weapons were actually made.
-
- Far more honest is Lt. General James Conway, the commander
of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, who stated to reporters, ãIt
was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise to me now, that we have
not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal areas.
Believe me, itâs not for lack of trying. Weâve been to virtually
every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but
theyâre simply not there.ä
-
- Congress, which plans to hold hearings next week on
lessons learned in Iraq, should delve into the ãcredibility gapä
between the Bush administrationâs claims regarding Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction as a pretext for war and the failure to locate these
weapons in the aftermath of the war. These claims cannot be dismissed,
as some members of Congress would do, as simple exaggerations. They appear
to be serious misrepresentations to the American people and the people
of the world.
-
- The Bush administration has much to account for regarding
its highly publicized claims prior to the war that Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction. While it is appropriate to acknowledge the tyrannical
nature of Saddam Husseinâs regime, concern for the human rights of
the Iraqi people was not the justification of the Bush administration for
initiating a preventive war. Their justification, stated repeatedly, was
the imminent threat of Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction, and it
was on this basis that the Bush administration defied international law
and the Security Council of the United Nations.
-
- The buck stops with Mr. Bush. Lying about the reasons
for war and misleading the American people into supporting a war has the
look and feel of ãhigh crimes and misdemeanors,ä for which
the Constitution provides impeachment as the remedy.
-
-
-
-
- David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
(www.wagingpeace.org).
-
- "Peace is the only battle worth waging."
- --- Albert Camus
-
- To become a free on-line participating member of the
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
- click here: https://www.ndic.com/wagingpeace/supportus.htm
-
- David Krieger, President
- Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
- PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1
- Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794
- dkrieger@napf.org
- Web site: http://www.wagingpeace.org
- http://www.nuclearfiles.org
|
