Canadian Op-ed on the dangerous lunacy of an Iraq war
This is from a long-term, friendly ally. And not unlike what much of Europe is saying. Y’know, it occurs to me, Dubya has become so dangerously belligerent and irrational that – maybe he’s fallen off the wagon and is drinking again?
A war only the White House wants, Eric Margolis
The White House is hoping its threats of war will provoke a coup against Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Army. But if one does not come, the George Bush administration shows every sign of plunging into an unprovoked war that the rest of the world will view as blatant aggression.
Bush’s accelerating campaign to invade Iraq and turn it into another U.S. oil protectorate is also provoking a storm of outrage across Europe, the Mideast and Asia, where people believe pollution and climate change are far bigger and more urgent threats than the bogeyman of Baghdad.
There are two important exceptions. First, Israel. Last week, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, sounding like he was giving orders to a subordinate, demanded Bush speed up plans to attack Iraq. Right on cue, American supporters of Sharon’s far-right Likud party, led by the Bush administration’s Rasputin, Richard Perle, intensified their clamour to send American GIs to fight Iraq.
These bloodthirsty “neo-conservatives” – most of whom evaded military service in their own country – dominate the Pentagon and exercise a virtual monopoly on U.S. media commentary on the Mideast. They are ardently backed by loony Armageddon-seekers of the Christian far right.
George Bush, who takes pride in not reading books, and calls Greeks “Grecians,” is charging like a Texas bull into the trap set for him by both bin Laden and Gen. Sharon.
Israel has been trying for 20 years to get the U.S. to go to war against the Arabs and Iran, knowing this will permanently enlist America’s vast wealth and power in its cause, and permanently alienate the U.S. from the Islamic world.
If ever the United States needed real friends, it is now. And real friends like Canada, Germany and France are trying to deter the empty, misguided George Bush and his hijacked cabinet from committing an outright aggression that risks plunging the Mideast into chaos, or even nuclear war.