The Somoza dynasty, set on the throne by the Marines, lasted half a century before being swept away by popular fury in 1979. Then, president Ronald Reagan got on his horse and set out to rescue the country from the threat of the Sandinista revolution. Among the poorest of the poor, Nicaragua was a country with all of five elevators, and one escalator that didn't work. Nevertheless, Reagan proclaimed that Nicaragua was a menace; and as he spoke, TV screens showed a map of the United States with a red stain spreading from the south to illustrate the course of the imminent invasion. Can president Bush be copying the panic-rousing speeches of his predecessor? Can Bush be saying Iraq where Reagan said Nicaragua?
* * * Newspaper headlines in the run-up to war: "The United States is prepared to resist attack". Record sales of insulating tape, gas masks, radiation pills ... Why is the executioner more afraid than the victim? Is it only this climate of collective hysteria? Or does it tremble at the foreseeable consequences of its actions? And what if Iraqi oil sets fire to the world? Will this war not be just the vitamin shot that international terrorism was looking for? * * * We are told that Saddam Hussein succours the fanatics of Al Qaeda. What is this - his very own viper's nest? Islamic fundamentalists loathe him. Can we say that a country is satanic where people watch Hollywood movies, many schools teach English, the Muslim majority do nothing to prevent Christians walking about sporting crucifixes and it is not uncommon to see women wearing trousers and daring blouses? There were no Iraqis among the terrorists who demolished the twin towers of New York. Almost all of them were from Saudi Arabia, the US's number one client in the world. Another Saudi is Bin Laden, the villain that the satellites track as he flees on horseback across the desert and the first to step forward whenever Bush requires his services as professional ogre. * * * Did you know that in 1953 president Dwight D. Eisenhower said that "preventive war" was invented by Adolf Hitler? He said: "...frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing". * * * The United States makes and sells more arms than any other country in the world. It is also the only nation to have dropped atomic bombs on civilian populations. And traditionally it has always been at war with somebody. Who is it that threatens world peace? Iraq? * * * --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php