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World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Robert Fisk:
What the US President Wants Us to Forget
The Independent of London, 09 October 2002
Each day now, someone says something even more incredible - even more
unimaginable - about President Bush's obsession with war. Yesterday,
George Bush was himself telling an audience in Cincinnati about
"nuclear holy warriors". Forget for a moment that we still can't
prove Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons. Forget that the latest Bush
speech was just a re-hash of all the "ifs" and "mays"
and "coulds" in Tony Blair's flimsy 16 pages of allegations in
his historically dishonest "dossier". Forget that if Osama bin
Laden ever acquired a nuclear weapon, he'd probably use it first on
Saddam. No. We've got to fight "nuclear holy warriors". That's
what we have to do to justify the whole charade through which we are being
taken now by the White House, by Downing Street, by all the decaying
"experts" on terrorism and, alas, far too many journalists.
Forget the 14 Palestinians, including the 12-year-old child, killed by
Israel a few hours before Mr Bush spoke, forget that when his aircraft
killed nine Palestinian children in July, along with one militant, the
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon - a "man of peace" in Mr
Bush's words - described the slaughter as "a great success".
Israel is on our side.
Remember to use the word "terror". Use it about Saddam Hussein,
use it about Osama bin Laden, use it about Yasser Arafat, use it about
anyone who opposes Israel or America. Bush used it in his speech
yesterday, 30 times in half an hour - that's one "terrorism" a
minute.
But now let's list exactly what we really must forget if we are to support
this madness. Most important of all, we absolutely must forget that
President Ronald Reagan dispatched a special envoy to meet Saddam Hussein
in December 1983. It's essential to forget this for three reasons.
Firstly, because the awful Saddam was already using gas against the
Iranians - which is one of the reasons we are now supposed to go to war
with him.
Secondly, because the envoy was sent to Iraq to arrange the re-opening of
the US embassy - in order to secure better trade and economic relations
with the Butcher of Baghdad. Thirdly, because the envoy was - wait for it
- Donald Rumsfeld. Now you might think it strange that Mr Rumsfeld, in the
course of one of his folksy press conferences, hasn't chatted to us about
this interesting tit-bit. You might think he would have wished to
enlighten us about the evil nature of the criminal with whom he so warmly
shook hands. But no.
Strangely, Mr Rumsfeld is silent about this. As he is about his subsequent
and equally friendly meeting with Tariq Aziz - which just happened to take
place on the day in March, 1984, that the UN released its damning report
on Saddam's use of poison gas against Iran. The American media are silent
about this too, of course. Because we must forget.
We must forget, too, that in 1988, as Saddam destroyed the people of
Halabja with gas, along with tens of thousands of other Kurds - when he
"used gas against his own people" in the words of Messrs
Bush/Cheney/Blair/Cook/Straw et al -President Bush senior provided him
with $500m in US government subsidies to buy American farm products. We
must forget that in the following year, after Saddam's genocide was
complete, President Bush senior doubled this subsidy to $1bn, along with
germ seed for anthrax, helicopters, and the notorious "dual-use"
material that could be used for chemical and biological weapons.
And when President Bush junior promises the Iraqi people "an era of
new hope" and democracy after the destruction of Saddam - as he did
last night - we must forget how the Americans promised Pakistan and
Afghanistan a new era of hope after the defeat of the Soviet army in 1980
- and did nothing.
We must forget how President Bush senior urged the Iraqis to rise up
against Saddam in 1991 and - when they obeyed - did nothing. We must
forget how America promised a new era of hope to Somalia in 1993 and then,
after "Black Hawk Down", abandoned the country.
We must forget how President Bush junior promised to "stand by"
Afghanistan before he began his bombings last year - and has left it now
an economic shambles of drug barons, warlords, anarchy and fear. He
boasted yesterday that the people of Afghanistan have been
"liberated" - this after he has failed to catch bin Laden,
failed to catch Mullah Omar, and while his troops are coming under daily
attack. We must forget, as we listen to the need to reinsert arms
inspectors, that the CIA covertly used UN weapons inspectors to spy on
Iraq.
And of course, we must forget about oil. Indeed, oil is the one commodity
- and one of the few things which George Bush junior knows something
about, along with his ex-oil cronies Cheney and Rice and countless others
in the administration - which is never mentioned.
In all of Bush's 30 minutes of anti-Iraq war talk yesterday - pleasantly
leavened with just two minutes of how "I hope this will not require
military action" - there wasn't a single reference to the fact that
Iraq may hold oil reserves larger than those of Saudi Arabia, that
American oil companies stand to gain billions of dollars in the event of a
US invasion, that, once out of power, Bush and his friends could become
multi-billionaires on the spoils of this war. We must ignore all this
before we go to war. We must forget.