British Novelist Le Carre Blasts US "Madness" on Iraq
Agence France-Presse
Thursday 16 January 2003 -- 01:17 AM
Washington is mad to pursue a policy of military action against Iraq which
is not an immediate threat to the Middle East let alone to the US, British
novelist John Le Carre warned.
"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is
the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of
Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam
War," Le Carre wrote in Wednesday's edition of the right-wing Times daily.
"What is at stake is not an 'axis of evil' but oil, money and peoples
lives. Saddams misfortune is to sit on the second biggest oilfield in the
world," wrote Le Carre, novelist and spy expert, referring to Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein.
Last year US President George W. Bush said Iraq, Iran and North Korea
represented an "axis of evil."
Bush wants Iraq's oil "and who helps him get it will receive a piece of the
cake," the Times article said.
"If Saddam didnt have the oil, he could torture his citizens to his hearts
content. Other leaders do it every day," wrote the author, citing Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria and Egypt.
"Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none
to the US or Britain. Saddams weapons of mass destruction, if hes still got
them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could
hurl at him at five minutes notice."
"What is at stake," Le Carre wrote, "is Americas need to demonstrate its
military power to all of us -- to Europe and Russia and China.
As for Britain "the most charitable interpretation of (Prime Minister) Tony
Blairs part in all this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he
could steer it," the article said, referring to US policy on Iraq.
"He cant," Le Carre concluded. "Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy,
and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a
corner, and he cant get out."
http://truthout.com/docs_02/011703D.lecarre.iraq.htm
