A rchive Date
[ 21-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
|
[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/scarth.html
Do you really believe George?
By TODD SCARTH -- Winnipeg Sun
March 21, 2003
On Wednesday evening as the bombs started to rain down on Iraq, I was watching a re-run of The A-Team. (It just keeps getting better with time!)
The episode began with Hannibal Smith, played by the late George Peppard, having a surreal conversation with a man dressed up as a cowboy. Apparently, someone had "done rustled up a few gunslingers," but he and his boys would "go in and take 'em out."
Two clicks of the remote later, I landed on CNN, and there was George W., squinting into the camera and delivering basically the same message.
I'll say one thing for sure: even the late George Peppard was a better actor than Bush is. Does anyone really believe that guy?
In his speech on Wednesday Bush said, "We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practise. We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."
Can you believe that? No, really - can you?
Let's consider the evidence. Ignore for a second the terribly inadequate humanitarian preparations that have been made.
If Bush really has such "respect" for Iraqi citizens, then we can be sure that the United States, after it takes total control over Iraq, will accept its legal responsibility to look after the welfare of Iraqi civilians.
Can you believe that?
Do you really think the U.S. will spend the money to ensure that Iraqis have adequate food, medical care, and the resources to rebuild their devastated infrastructure?
Or will it move on to the next imperial adventure -- North Korea, maybe?
If Bush really means what he says about his desire to "restore control of that country to its own people," then after the war U.S. troops will take care of all necessary humanitarian supplies. And then they will immediately pull out of Iraq.
Can you believe that will happen?
If Bush means it when he talks about the Iraqis' "great civilization," he will ensure genuine democracy in Iraq. This means that the invading forces -- including Turkey -- will have no say in how Iraqis will choose to govern their bombed-out country after the war.
Can you believe that the U.S. will simply "liberate" Iraq and then walk away?
What about oil? Well, I don't believe, as some people say, that the attack on Iraq is "about oil." At least, not if you mean that it's only about oil. I think it's about American interests more generally. And those interests include oil. But Bush says otherwise.
OK, then. If he's telling the truth, after they've finished bombing the hell out of Iraq, the U.S. will take absolutely none of that country's oil. The oil is the property of the Iraqi people.
Can you really believe that's what'll happen?
If you really believe George W. Bush when he says this war is only about "liberating" Iraq, then you must have been able to convince yourself that he's, uh, changed his mind. Not long ago he said it was about protecting the U.S. from imminent danger.
No one believed that transparent charade.
The U.S. also talked about Iraq's fearsome remote-control "drone" airplanes, capable of launching a biological weapons attack across the Atlantic.
That was a good story, until the New York Times reported that these planes have never successfully flown more than two miles from the airfield, and could only be controlled by visual tracking.
Ever since the Cold War the U.S. has been obsessed with its international "credibility." That has usually been taken to mean that when the Yankees threaten to drop some bombs, they mean it.
On that front, George W's credibility remains unchallenged. However, if you take "credibility" to mean "telling the truth," then the U.S. president has a long way to go.
Todd Scarth is a Sun columnist and director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba. He can be reached by e-mail at todd@policyalternatives.ca. Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@wpgsun.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|