Commentary
U.S. War Preparations Against Iraq
It has been reported that high-ranking U.S. military officials are stating that the United States will launch a renewed war against Iraq within a few months, probably no later than September. In preparation for a full-scale military attack on Iraq, the U.S. is busy trying to create a pretext - that Iraq is producing weapons of mass destruction.
This is the pretext under which the U.S. and Britain for the past decade have continued weekly bombing runs against Iraqi installations, and the pretext they have used to oppose the lifting of economic sanctions which have resulted in the death of over one million Iraqi civilians over the past ten years. It is also a pretext which has been proven fraudulent many times over.
Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marines intelligence officer and member of the UN weapons inspection team (UNSCOM) has publically admitted that the weapons inspectors were well aware that by 1995 Iraq was "fundamentally disarmed" and possessed no more weapons of mass destruction. They knew that its missiles had been destroyed and it possessed no chemical, biological of nuclear weapons or the means to produce them. Nevertheless, under orders from the United States, the inspection team regularly reported to the United Nations that Iraq did possess such weapons.
The former American inspector states that the UN inspection team illegally forwarded intelligence information to CIA officials and reports being instructed in early 1998 to deliberately provoke the Iraqis into refusing access to their Ministry of Defence in order to justify U.S.-British bombings before the March 15th start of a Muslim holy period. The confrontation was avoided when Iraq eventually allowed the inspectors access. However, nine months later, in December, 1998 UN inspector Roger Hill provoked a confrontation over demands to inspect the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party. The Iraqis refused and the U.S. used this as justification to launch a major bombing campaign. Prior to the commencement of bombing the UNSCOM team was withdrawn from Iraq. After the bombing, Iraq refused to allow them to re-enter Iraqi territory.
By then, most UN members were convinced that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and that the weapons inspections team was acting as a tool of the U.S., so the refusal by Iraq to permit their re-entry had little or no repercussion. Most European and Middle East countries renewed trade relations with Iraq and only the intransigence of the United States has prevented the complete lifting of the economic embargo against Iraq.
Immediately following the September 11th events in the United States, the Bush administration tried to implicate Iraq in the attacks. When it became clear to everyone that Iraq had nothing to do with those terrorist attacks, the U.S. lost its justification for attacking Iraq. Then anthrax turned up in the U.S. postal system, and Iraq was once again identified as the organizer of terrorist attacks on the U.S.. Unfortunately for the Bush administration, the strain of anthrax utilised proved to originate in U.S. military labs, despite claims that the U.S. does not have a biological weapons program. Soon after the search for the anthrax terrorists dropped off the front pages. The German Green Party published a report that the anthrax attacks were initiated by a high ranking official in the U.S. biological weapons program and claimed that U.S. law enforcement agencies knew who he was. However, no arrests have been made.
Having failed to implicate Iraq in any acts of terrorism against the United States, the Bush administration has decided to dust off the old standby of "weapons of mass destruction" and the refusal by Iraq to allow "weapons inspectors" on its soil. However, that ruse had already worn very thin by the time of the departure of the inspection teams in 1998, and subsequent revelations have further undermined the credibility of the U.S. claims. As a result, most European countries, as well as most U.S. allies in the Middle East, have already rejected such a pretext and are not prepared to agree to another U.S. war against the Iraqi people. If the United States proceeds with its planned war against Iraq, it runs the risk of further isolating itself on the international arena and joining its friend Israel as an international pariah.