Our blogs about
America's Wars
War on Iraq
War on Drugs
War on Afghanistan
War on Columbia
War on Philippines
War on Venezuela

MORE
Matrix Masters
Blogs
World Events
Katrina's Aftermath
US News
Bush Crime Family News
Science & Health
Earth News
Free Speech
News from Africa
News from Palestine
Bill of Rights Under Attack

Support Bloggers' Rights!

Lorenzo's
Random Musings
. . . about Chaos,
Reason, and Hope

Al Jazeera (English)
    Baghdad Burning Blog (by Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl)
            Dahr Jamail's Blog from Baghdad
                Imad Khadduri's blog "Free Iraq" (scroll down for English version)

Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Iraq: inspecting the situation
by Brendan O'Neill - Sp!ked Online - Politics
Over 21 days, 70 weapons inspectors have inspected 100 buildings in Iraq. Saddam's regime has published one dossier, consisting of 43 volumes, 11,807 pages (12,807 if you read the Sun) and 12 CD-Roms. The USA has positioned 60,000 troops, 200 planes and 24 Apache helicopters in or around the Gulf. And American and British jets have bombed targets in northern and southern Iraq nine times. But the world is still none the wiser about whether, when or why the West intends to invade Iraq. Since the weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad on 18 November 2002, we have been subjected to a tirade of contradictory claims about the Bush administration's plans. According to White House spokesman and self-confessed hawk Ari Fleischer it's up to Saddam to prove he has no weapons. 'The burden of proof lies with Saddam Hussein', says Fleischer, calling on Iraq to fulfil UN resolution 1441 and provide a 'currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its programmes to develop weapons' (1). But when Iraq did publish its 12,000-page dossier on 7 December 2002 it was denounced as a load of lies - before anyone had even read it. Twenty-four hours before it was published UK foreign secretary Jack Straw predicted that Iraq would 'produce a misleading dossier' (2), and 24 hours after it was published he reminded us that every word from Saddam's mouth is 'normally a pack of lies' (3). Others claim that America is routing for war, whatever the outcome of the inspections. 'We are being set up for a war against Saddam', says Independent columnist Robert Fisk, arguing that the Bush administration is 'smearing' the inspections team because 'America plans to go to war whatever the UN inspectors find' (4). But the Bush administration denies that war will necessarily follow the discovery of weapons of mass destruction, instead claiming that Iraq will be subjected to further 'enhanced' or 'aggressive' inspections. 'There may have to be some seriously thorough inspections', says one Bush official. According to another, if Iraq is found to be in material breach of the UN resolution, 'it would not be a reason to go to war, but instead...for enhanced inspections' (5). What's going on? How can Western leaders put the burden of proof on Saddam, but then denounce everything he says as a lie? Why did Bush and co agree to weapons inspections for Iraq, but then undermine the inspectors' authority? And if America is hell-bent on war, why does it continue to talk up inspections - whether of the enhanced, aggressive or 'seriously thorough' varieties?

*****Good article - the issue of the US not going unilaterally might really boil down to the cost of going it alone prior to the Bush second try at election. With the US economy in its current state, how will the populace look upon a 3 or 4 digit Billion dollar expense to oust an insignificant dictator?*****

posted by A Curmudgeon 10:00 AM