ANSWERING BUSH'S WAR PROPAGANDA

           Bush and the Pentagon are working non-stop to demonize the
victims of their planned attack, while creating  a  credible pretext for
war.

          Working people in the United States, and especially the
youth,  must be able to learn the real causes for the coming conflict
and learn how to respond to the Pentagon's lies. Otherwise people will
be susceptible to the pro-war hype and frenzy that are being
          cynically generated to prepare public opinion for war.

          The main argument used by the White House to scare up
support     for an invasion is that "Saddam Hussein must be prevented
from  acquiring or developing chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons--a.k.a. weapons of mass destruction."

          The White House has focused on this bogus argument because it
has no other. Every effort was made to connect Iraq to the Sept. 11
attack and later to the anthrax attacks in the autumn of  2001.

          But there was no evidence of a connection, so Bush simply
broadened the scope of the "war on terrorism" by proclaiming that Iraq,
Iran, north Korea and other "evil" countries would be considered
terrorist and subject to preemptive military attacks.

          What made them terrorists? Bush said they were "trying to
acquire weapons of mass destruction."

          Iraq certainly did possess and use chemical weapons in the
1980s.  Both Iraq and Iran used such weapons against each other in that
brutal and reactionary war. But these weapons were not "frightening" to
the U.S. at the time of their use.

          Donald Rumsfeld, the current secretary of defense, was meeting
in Baghdad with Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders in December 1983
and March 1984, and improving U.S.-Iraqi relations on behalf of the
Reagan administration when the  allegations concerning chemical weapons
surfaced. But this was when the U.S. was encouraging Iraq's war effort
as part of a strategy to weaken and exhaust the Iranian Revolution.

          During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq did not use chemical or
non-conventional weapons, but the U.S. did. It dropped tons of depleted
uranium weapons all over Iraq.

          It is important to deconstruct the piece of propaganda
regarding "weapons of mass destruction." It is the only pretext
available to the war-makers and it needs to be answered effectively.

          The facts are very crucial to understanding the duplicity of
U.S. strategy. The U.S. is employing a classic Catch-22 public
relations  technique aimed at demonizing Iraq before an uninformed and
unsuspecting public.

          BACKGROUND TO OPERATION DESERT FOX

          Iraq agreed in 1991 to let in UN weapons inspectors--a
condition  imposed by the United States at the end of the Gulf War. The
U.S. insisted that economic sanctions would be lifted only after
inspectors verified that Iraq was free from non-conventional weapons.

          But for the last four years it has been the U.S. government
that has worked hard at manipulating the UN so that there would be no
inspectors in Iraq, thus eliminating any chance of ending sanctions.

          After the U.S.-dominated team carried out 9,000 inspections
over nearly eight years, Iraq demanded in 1998 that the UN/U.S. economic
sanctions be ended. Most governments in the UN favored lifting
sanctions.   The demand to end the sanctions was gaining
irresistible       momentum.  This prompted the Clinton administration
to withdraw the weapons         inspectors on Dec. 12, 1998, on the
pretext that Iraq was not "fully cooperating," creating the impression
that Iraq was leading  inspectors on some wild goose chase or blocking
their path.

          Clinton argued that the U.S. had no choice but to bomb Iraq
because it was blocking meaningful inspections.  In fact, the United
Nations Special Commission--UNSCOM--cited only five "obstructions" to
the 423  inspections conducted between Nov. 18-Dec.12, 1998. One was  a
45-minute delay before allowing access. Another was Iraq's  rebuff to a
demand by a U.S. inspector that she be able to interview all the
undergraduate students in Baghdad
University's Science Department.

          Two other cases of Iraq's alleged non-compliance had to do
with UNSCOM's request to inspect two establishments on Friday--the
Muslim holy day. Since the establishments were closed, Iraq  asserted
that the inspections must be held another day or that an  Iraqi official
would accompany the inspectors--in accordance with  an agreement between
UNSCOM and Iraq regarding Friday inspections.

          Less than 48 hours after the inspectors were withdrawn from
Iraq, the Pentagon began the massive bombing campaign known as Operation
Desert Fox on Dec. 16-19, 1998. U.S. and British  warplanes dropped more
than 1,000 missiles and bombs on the country during those four days.
Two weeks after Operation Desert Fox, U.S. officials publicly admitted
the weapons inspectors were intelligence agents who provided Pentagon
bombing planners with bombing coordinates.
          (New York Times, Jan. 7, 1999)

          Predictably--and justifiably--the Iraqi government announced
that it would no longer cooperate with the UN weapons inspections.
Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Richard
Cheney now routinely bellow that Iraq has denied weapons inspectors
access to the country for four years; Iraq is intransigent and defiant
of UN resolutions.

          And thus, the U.S. has cynically crafted the chief rationale
for the coming invasion.

          IRAQI DIPLOMACY REBUFFED AGAIN

          Bush, Rumsfeld and Co. reveal the depth of their cynicism and
duplicity as they work overtime now to make it nearly ilmpossible for
weapons inspectors to return to Iraq. That would slow down the invasion
plan--their biggest fear of all.

          On Aug. 1, the day the Senate hearings concluded, Iraq's
foreign minister released a letter sent to UN General Secretary Kofi
Annan announcing that Iraq was ready to resume discussions about the
possible re-admission of UN weapons inspectors. Given the experience of
the past, however, when so-called inspectors were actually gathering
coordinates for cruise missile attacks, Iraq wanted discussions first to
set terms.

          Iraq also offered to allow a delegation of U.S. congressional
representatives, accompanied by arms experts of their choice, to tour
sites in Iraq where they suspect weapons of mass destruction  are
hidden.

          Far from defusing the U.S. war drive, however, the Bush
administration immediately dismissed the Iraqi invitation to discuss the
return of the weapons inspectors or the invitation to an arms control
delegation from Congress. Colin Powell, secretary of state, and
frequently portrayed as less hawkish than the other Bushies, made it
clear that the U.S. wouldn't take "yes" for an answer from Iraq.

          "Inspection is not the issue, disarmament is ... we have seen
the  Iraqis fiddle with the inspection system before," Powell said
dismissively while stopping over in the Philippines. (The Observer, Aug.
4)

          Another official, John Bolton, U.S. under-secretary for arms
control, was even more blunt: "Our policy ... insists on regime change
in Baghdad and that policy will not be altered, whether inspectors go in
or not." (British Radio 4 Today show, Aug. 4)

          WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS?

          If the production of weapons of mass destruction is the
criteria to  affix the terrorist label, then clearly George W. Bush
presides over the biggest terrorist enterprise now or at any time in
world history.

          The U.S. has the largest nuclear arsenal--more than 6,000
nuclear missiles and bombs. It has spent $4 trillion on nuclear weapons
since 1945. When it had a monopoly on these weapons it did not hesitate
to use them against civilian centers--up to 200,000 ciivilians
were instantly incinerated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

          Bush is spending hundreds of billions on militarizing outer
space.  The recently-released Pentagon military doctrine includes a
declaration of its right to first use of nuclear weapons
against Iraq,  north Korea, Iran, China and Russia. The U.S. has Trident
submarines and U.S. aircraft carriers carrying nuclear weapons 24 hours
a day as the imperial fleet roams the seven seas.

          The U.S. government used chemical weapons in Vietnam, spraying
Agent Orange over vast parts of that country. Thousands of U.S. GIs and
an unknown number of Vietnamese people died, or live difficult and
painful lives from the after-effects.

          Today, the U.S. government manufactures chemical and
biological  weapons, a fact that was routinely denied and only admitted
after the anthrax attacks of 2001.

          And the U.S. government--led by both Democrats and
Republicans--has knowingly and deliberately killed more than 1 million
Iraqi civilians through the quieter, less dramatic
weapon known as economic sanctions. This weapon that has killed 5,000
children every month for 12 years must be regarded as a weapon of mass
destruction.

          It's time for anti-war activists to begin going to U.S.
military bases  and demanding to see if they have weapons of mass
destruction on their premises, including chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons,  and depleted uranium."

We have to remember that the U.S. refused to sign the international
treaty  on chemical and biological weapons in order to avoid having its
facilities inspected.  It has tried, in mny international matters such
as the world court, to put itself above the law.