WORLDSCAN
March 27, 2003
Lies About Sex and Death
If lying about a sexual indiscretion is an impeachable act, how serious is providing evidence that is known to be false for the purpose of sending Americans to die in a war? What we have here are real high crimes and misdemeanors. Representative Henry Waxman wrote a letter to Bush challenging him on his use of fabricated evidence to justify an invasion of Iraq. "It has become incontrovertibly clear that a key piece of evidence you and other Administration officials have cited regarding Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons is a hoax. What's more, the Central Intelligence Agency questioned the veracity of the evidence at the same time you and other Administration officials were citing it in public statements. This is a breach of the highest order, and the American people are entitled to know how it happened." Waxman voted to approve Bush's use of force and was influenced by Bush's claim that Iraq may be developing nuclear weapons. Now that the war is going on, it is clear that a large part of this case for many months was fraudulent and the CIA knew it was fraudulent even as Bush and Powell were passing it off as a reason to attack Iraq. This is gutsy stuff like you rarely see from any member of Congress. See Rep. Henry Waxman's home page. And if you haven't yet, sign on at votetoimpeach.org. See an analysis of "The crisis of American capitalism and the war against Iraq" on the World Socialist Web site. "The unprovoked and illegal invasion of Iraq by the United States is an event that will live in infamy. The political criminals in Washington who have launched this war, and the wretched scoundrels in the mass media who are reveling in the bloodbath, have covered this country in shame. Hundreds of millions of people in every part of the world are repulsed by the spectacle of a brutal and unrestrained military power pulverizing a small and defenseless country. The invasion of Iraq is an imperialist war in the classic sense of the term: a vile act of aggression that has been undertaken on behalf of the interests of the most reactionary and predatory sections of the financial and corporate oligarchy in the United States. Its overt and immediate purpose is the establishment of control over Iraq's vast oil resources and reduction of that long-oppressed country to an American colonial protectorate." Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times says "Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves." Krugman examines the Texas-based media giant's history in the circle of cronies of George W. Bush. According to the International Herald Tribune, the Pentagon is now admitting that their plan to shock and awe Iraqis hasn't worked out as planned. The Guardian takes a look at how TV shapes the images of war. In America it's all about star spangled patriotic breathlessness. Arab stations focus on the horrors. Robert Fisk in The Independent looks at the killing of innocent civilians up close and asks who dares to call this collateral damage? A 41-year member of the House of Commons in Blair's party now says Blair should be branded a war criminal. See The Guardian. Now the Bush cabal, through the mouthpiece of Colin Powell, has drawn the line in the sand with the rest of the world over "ownership" of Iraq if and when Saddam is overthrown. (See Reuters.) The danger in this situation is enormous. Now the US is essentially telling the world to stand back and let it rape Iraq. Very scary. Buzzflash takes a look at how the Bush administration arranged "The Perfect War." Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that Moscow is not going to trust claims by the US and Britain of finding evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There. It's been said. See Hindustan Times. Tad Bartimus, writing in the Houston Chronicle, says a UN agency is estimating that "a U.S. invasion of Iraq could mean as many as 500,000 civilian casualties, leave 2 million people homeless, 10 million hungry, 18 million without clean water, and risk the lives of 1 million children under age 5 because of malnutrition." And the pretexts for the invasion "don't justify the taking of a single life."