------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 19, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
THE U.S. BIG LIE: IRAQI "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION" By John Catalinotto The big lie is that the U.S. invaded to destroy Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction." By the end of May and early June this lie began coming back to haunt the Tony Blair government in Britain and then the Bush administration here. WMDs was the main reason George W. Bush gave to Congress last September and October for needing a clear go-ahead for war with Iraq. He told the United Nations on Sept. 12 that, "Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." This falsehood continued up to the eve of the war. In his March 17 talk giving Saddam Hussein two days to leave Iraq, Bush said, "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." Bush also hinted broadly that Iraq was somehow behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. According to polls, some 40 percent of the U.S. population believed Iraq had some responsibility for this attack. Most of the rest of the world knew the "Iraq connection" was fiction. Bush never spelled out this ridiculous charge, but just let it hang in the air. Now, U.S. and British troops have had two months since the seizure of Baghdad to freely look wherever they want within Iraq. They have found no WMDs. Captured al-Qaeda operatives have told the CIA their organization had nothing to do with the Iraqi government. This lack of evidence for the war's alleged main cause has turned into a major scandal for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Here in the U.S. the media have only begun to give it publicity, and have been quite gentle with Bush and Co. WOLFOWITZ ADMITS PLOY In an attempt to deflect criticism over this issue, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz--one of the most outspoken war mongers--has as much as admitted that the WMD charge was an administration ploy. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Wolfowitz said: "The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction, as the core reason." Stories about disagreements between members of the "intelligence community" and the Bush administration have surfaced. These are all pro- imperialist agents who want the U.S. to crush any obstacles in its path. But the agents felt their role was being abused by the Bush administration, which told them in essence, "We need this war. Come up with the intelligence to justify it." The U.S. spies were all anonymous and vague about this. But the United Nations weapons inspectors, whose information wasn't classified, were more frank in their critiques of Bush and Blair. On June 5, chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix, due to retire this June, criticized Britain for "jumping to conclusions" that Iraq posed a serious threat to world security. Bernd Birkicht, a former UN weapons inspector, said he believed the CIA had invented intelligence on WMDs to provide the legal justification for the war. "We received information about a site," he told the British Guardian, "giving the exact geographical coordinates, and when we got there we found nothing. Nothing on the ground. Nothing under the ground. Just desert." The alleged decontamination trucks that Colin Powell showed to the Security Council in satellite photographs turned out to be fire engines, he said. Speaking to Info-radio Berlin-Brandenburg, Birkicht said: "If something should be found now, then I would have the opinion that it was not there before [the war]." (Junge Welt, June 6) On June 8, Bush administration spokespeople were all over the Sunday television news programs trying to talk their way out of the lie. BEHIND THE LIE In the U.S. corporate media, even as they question the WMD excuse, most look for other ways to justify the war. They hope a few weapons are discovered, to give the Bush administration a way out and to give the U.S. a chance to regain some credibility on the world scene. It's no secret now that within days after Sept. 11, 2001, the most aggressive elements in the U.S. ruling class, inside and outside the Bush administration, met privately to activate plans for an invasion of Iraq, which had been their goal for a long time. From the earliest days they demanded that the intelligence services "find" something to pin on Iraq that would justify such a war. Workers World wrote about this "Wolfowitz cabal" in September and October 2001. This grouping was determined to lead the U.S. into war with Iraq. They aimed to slaughter the Iraqi people should they resist. They planned to place young U.S. workers on the front lines of battle where they would risk their lives to expand the empire of the U.S. rich. After "terrorism" and "dictatorship" failed to carry the day as excuses for war, they settled on what Wolfowitz called the bureaucratic compromise of WMDs. It was a "big lie" by committee. It is not the first time Washington has used a big lie to justify a war. >From the provoked sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898 to the Bay of Tonkin incident in 1964, the U.S. has used deception to mobilize popular support. The media now reporting the WMDs as a possible lie could just as easily have questioned it back in September or in March. The only difference now is that the takeover of Iraq--which seemed such a brilliant imperialist success in mid-April--is starting to look more like chaos. The U.S. is unable to set up a stable puppet government. The Iraqis hate Washington so much that the only stable regime would be an anti-U.S. one. Instead of being crushed by the Pentagon's military defeat of the Ba'ath regime, Iraqi resistance has continued. U.S. occupying troops are under fire. U.S. youths, deceived by Bush into thinking they were liberating a country and then going home, are forced to remain as an oppressive police force and a legitimate target of every Iraqi freedom fighter. If the controversy remains confined to the corporate media, the Bush gang will just push its way through to the next war. The next necessary step is for the anti-war movement to use the scandal of the WMD big lie to mobilize for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
