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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=Opinion&oid=18489 Bush war on Iraq divides world By CHARLES LEVENDOSKY Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune March 18, 2003 -Our threats of war defy overwhelming world opposition. We live in the world. We depend upon trade and good relationships between ourselves and other nations. The United States needs its allies and their trust. Some countries’ leaders must be asking themselves: If the United States will attack Iraq without provocation, what country will be the next target? Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune, has a national reputation for Bill of Rights commentary. His e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] While the United States is poised to initiate an attack on a nearly defenseless nation in violation of international law, nations and people around the world continue to demonstrate for a peaceful resolution in Iraq. The division between the few nations supporting a preemptive strike against Iraq -- the United States, Great Britain and Spain -- and the rest of the world is deep. The United States has lost credibility with its allies in Europe and around the globe. Even the governments of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and British Prime Minister Tony Blair may topple if the Bush administration attacks Iraq without a UN resolution. On March 11, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted to reporters, “Support for the war is shrinking rapidly in Great Britain.” The world does not see Iraq as a threat. It has not been for more than a decade. Not even Turkey, which has a common border with Iraq, sees Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as a threat. Turkey, in an unexpected turnabout, will not allow the United States to use its country as a staging area for an attack. Turkey has been a compliant ally of the United States for decades. The attitude of the Bush administration is, at best, reckless. Our posturing at the United Nations is undermining that great institution. This administration’s thirst for war has divided us from our friends in Europe and our closest allies in the Far East. But that deep rift is nothing compared to the feelings of anger and injustice our threat of war is provoking in the Middle East. As an indication of the depth of the rift between the United States and its allies: On March 14 the Bush administration called for the expulsion of Iraqi diplomats from 60 countries. Only Sweden and Romania, according to the Russian Information Agency Novosti, intend to comply. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs found the request unacceptable. The United States is a monolith of military power. No nation on the planet can match our military technology, firepower and weaponry. We can control the seas, the sky, and in limited areas for limited time nearly any land mass. This nation is poised to attack. We have surrounded Iraq with warships, 300,000 combat troops, massive air power and missile emplacements. Iraq is not a military power. The army it once had was crippled during the Gulf War. The containment policies set into place by the UN kept Iraq’s weaponry close to primitive -- especially when compared to the military might of the United States. Americans should ask themselves why the rest of the world sees this war as wrong. Despite assertions by the Bush administration and some media, Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11. Our nation’s intelligence agencies confirm that Iraq was not responsible for the terrorist attacks. If the American people were to view this impending war as if another nation with great military superiority were poised to attack a nearly defenseless nation that poses no direct threat, the antiwar voices in our country would more than double. The people of the nation have always been for the underdog. We have always believed in fairness. Most of us despise bullies. We don’t believe might makes right. Baghdad is the size of Los Angeles with a population of nearly 5 million people -- most of them civilians. A sustained bomb and missile attack on Baghdad will kill tens of thousands, perhaps as many as hundreds of thousands of innocent people. On March 5 the New York Times reported the Pentagon plans to drop 3,000 bombs on Iraq the first two days. However, the real facts and real human damage will never be reported in the American press because that information will be controlled by the Pentagon -- as it has been during military actions since the Vietnam War. If we initiate a war against Iraq, even moderate Muslims may find themselves drawn to revenge and join terrorist networks. There are more than 1-billion Muslims in the world. The Bush administration will have provided fuel for the fire it intended to put out. President Bush talks of establishing democracy in Iraq. Only someone who knows little of the region or the history of Iraq could make such a boast. The President throws out “trigger” words, like democracy, and expects the American public to buy it. And who will rebuild Iraq after the war? We have done nothing for Afghanistan. We have left it savaged. Our threats of war defy overwhelming world opposition. We live in the world. We depend upon trade and good relationships between ourselves and other nations. The United States needs its allies and their trust. Some countries’ leaders must be asking themselves: If the United States will attack Iraq without provocation, what country will be the next target? Two respected, 20-year U.S. diplomats resigned recently because of their opposition to the administration’s stance on Iraq: John Brady Kiesling and John H. Brown. Former diplomat Kiesling’s letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell contains a paragraph that is instructive. “The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.” When we fail to respect international law and alliances, we give up the mantle of a world leader. More importantly, we give up our stature as a beacon of freedom and justice in the world. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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