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http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts48.html
 
Is Iraq a Captive Nation?
by Paul Craig Roberts
by Paul Craig Roberts



The US Dept of Defense has requested an additional $50 billion to continue its 
torture, killing and abuse of Iraqis in the name of "freedom and democracy." The US 
government has a long tradition of wasting borrowed money, but do we really want to 
squander billions of dollars building our war criminal dossier? 

Iraqis have made it clear that they are fed up with American arrogance. They did not 
choose us to remake their society, draft their constitution, pick their leaders, and 
make sure that their religion plays no part in their political life. They certainly 
did not ask us to occupy their country for years to come in order to make certain that 
Iraqis adhere to America�s plan for Iraq. 

There have been ample opportunities for reality to dent the delusional minds of 
President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. But, alas, delusion remains the operational 
principle of Anglo-American Middle Eastern policy. 

On May 17, the head of the Iraqi "Governing Council," a front group for the US which 
governs nothing, was assassinated. The UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said: "What 
this shows is the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are trying to disrupt the peaceful 
transfer of power from the occupiers to the Iraqi people and that these are enemies of 
Iraqi people themselves." 

Foreign secretaries have been known to issue idiotic statements, but Straw�s remark is 
a "10" on the scale of the all-time stupidest. What the assassination shows is that 
Iraqis are not going to permit the US and the UK to impose a puppet government. 
Whoever we install will be assassinated. 

A deluge of delusional statements from the US and British governments further cloud 
the murky understanding of the media. On May 17 the BBC reported, in one breath, that 
Bush and Blair plan to speed up the turnover of sovereignty to Iraq, but UK and US 
troops will remain in Iraq for years! 

Does the US really want to be the Soviet Union of the Middle East? How does "freedom 
and democracy" reconcile with "occupied sovereignty"? When the Soviet Union occupied 
Eastern Europe, the West called the countries "Soviet satellites." Some of the Soviet 
occupied lands even had memberships in international organizations, but the minute 
their governments acted independently, Soviet tanks crushed the sovereign action, as 
in Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia 1968. 

When will Americans realize that the US invasion of Iraq was a political reelection 
strategy that went wrong? September 11 got President Bush off the defensive and gave 
him "the war on terror" with which to bind the country to him. 

Do something big and decisive, Karl Rove advised, and patriotism will protect you from 
the Democrats. This advice fit perfectly with neoconservative plans to make the Middle 
East safe for Israel. No strategy could have done more to enrage Muslims and inspire 
terrorism. 

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and maimed and $200 billion squandered in 
a gratuitous invasion of Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction, no 
reconstituted nuclear weapons, no terrorists links between Saddam Hussein and Osama 
bin Laden. 

All of this was known by the "morally superior" US government prior to the invasion. 
The deception of the American public and the United Nations was unprecedented. Even a 
government as incompetent as the US would not assemble 150,000 troops in a tiny area 
adjacent to Iraq if the country about to be invaded really had weapons of mass 
destruction. One or two weapons of mass destruction and there goes our entire army 
with no troops available to replace them. 

Whether from incompetence or intention, Iraq was invaded under false pretenses. The 
invasion was a crime and a strategic blunder. Unless we hold accountable those who are 
responsible, the US will be no different from the tyrant countries of the 20th century.

May 19, 2004

Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political 
Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate 
editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. 
Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. 

Copyright � 2004 Creators Syndicate


        
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www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
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CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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