Put Up
Or Shut Up
By Charley
Reese
12-19-2
- President George Bush has to put up or shut up. If his
administration has hard evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass
destruction, he has to put that evidence on the table for everyone to
see. Otherwise his credibility and the credibility of the United States
will be zilch.
-
- It's beginning to appear that Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein isn't as stupid as the Bush administration believed him to be.
He has readmitted the inspectors, he's cooperating with them, and he's
made his declaration: We have no weapons of mass destruction; if the
United States and Great Britain have evidence to the contrary, give it
to the international inspectors.
-
- So far, the Bush administration has done nothing but
indulge in name-calling, like some bratty kid on a schoolyard. It's not
enough to keep calling Saddam a liar; it's time to prove it. And if the
United States lacks proof, as I personally believe, then it's time to
shut up or else confess the real motives for wanting to go to war. So
far, the Bush administration's credibility hasn't been that great
itself.
-
- Item: It made much to-do about Iraq having drone
airplanes. The existence of these planes was made public in 1998. The
president even said they could be used in an attack against the United
States, which is patently absurd on its face.
-
- Item: Great Britain recently released a dossier on
human-rights violations in Iraq. Again, it was all old stuff, 10 or 12
years old, and Amnesty International, which had collected the
information in the first place, severely criticized the British
government for misusing a report that the United Kingdom had ignored a
decade ago when it was first issued.
-
- Demonization and name-calling do not constitute
evidence that Iraq is a threat to the United States. The Bush
administration has no hard evidence that Iraq was involved with al-Qaida
or any other kind of international terrorism. It has twisted the truth
about Iraq's involvement with the Palestinians, implying that Saddam
subsidized suicide bombers. The fact is that Saddam was giving a check
to the families of any Palestinian killed in the intifada. That, of
course, included the families of suicide bombers, but the program was
not specifically directed toward them. Don't forget, the Israelis have
killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Unlike most
Arab governments that only pay lip service to the Palestinian struggle
for independence, Saddam has put his money where his mouth is.
-
- If it is true, as Richard Pearle, the chief warmonger
in the Bush administration, has said publicly, that Bush will go to war
against Iraq even if there are no ties to terrorism and no weapons of
mass destruction, the American people had better start raising hell with
the administration. A war without justification can produce catastrophic
consequences.
-
- For one thing, with our economy in the shape it is in,
much better use for $200 billion can be found right here at home than to
waste it on killing Iraqis. For another, the days when we can inflict
death and destruction on other people in other places without paying a
price for it are over. Making war against Iraq without justification and
international support will produce an enormous increase in terrorism
directed at the United States and at Americans everywhere. For still
another, it will alienate allies all over the world.
-
- If genuine, publicly exposed proof can be found that
Iraq is in violation and if the United States goes back to the United
Nations Security Council for a second resolution, then all's well and
good. If the president decides to go it alone based on propaganda, he
will be making the mistake of his life. The trouble is it will be other
innocent lives, both Iraqi and American, that will pay for his
blunder.
-
- � 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
| The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
|
