SECTION FIVE
sm
COLUMN
SEVENTY-EIGHT,
NOVEMBER
1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)
MURDER FOR PROFIT
t r u t h o
u t | Perspective
Monday, 16
September, 2002
Some will tell
you that the sudden, seemingly inexplicable rush to war with
His Vice
President had gone into hiding to avoid subpoenas that would compel him to spill
the beans about another criminal enterprise, Halliburton, as well as the ways
and means of the back-room corporate dealings that led to the Bush
administration's energy plan. Hovering over it all like the raven was Enron, and
all the winding financial roads that led from Ken Lay to the Oval Office.
If it was and
is all a ruse, it has worked masterfully. The coming mid-term elections, which
had appeared this summer to portend a fantastic wipeout at the polls for the
Republican Party because of all the economic uncertainty, now will likely be all
about Iraq and patriotism. This change in the conversation has been aided and
abetted by the media, which would vastly prefer to report on war while
broadcasting grainy green images of explosions far away.
The economic
stuff was boring and depressing, and people were switching it all off because it
was too much to bear. This change was also aided by Congressional Democrats who
forgot all too easily about Enron and Harken, thus allowing Bush and his people
to frame the conversation in much more comfortable terms. It is all a
smokescreen, and there will be no war.
Others will
tell you that, in fact, there is no ruse. The Bush administration means to make
war on Iraq, and that right soon. The GOP platform for the 2000 election set its
cap for "regime change" before Bush was finished with the primaries.
Bush's challenge to the United Nations, that they must "show some
backbone" in this push or be made irrelevant, demonstrates that America
intends to attack Iraq with or without an international mandate.
American forces
have been augmented in the region, warships have been put to sea and navigated
towards the Persian Gulf, Air Force expeditionary wings have been ordered to
make ready for combat, orders for many new "smart bombs" have been
placed to weapons contractors, medical reservists have been called to active
duty, and divisions of Marines have had their training schedules disrupted to
prepare them for deployment. One does not do all these things lightly and to no
real purpose.
All the while,
administration officials like Dick Cheney have frothed into every microphone
available, beating the war drum with martial vigor. The Bush administration has
invested an incredible amount of political capital into this coming war. The
neo-conservative base Bush enjoys has been whipped into a frenzy. If his
administration fails to attack Saddam Hussein, there will be a wild revolt along
his flank that will make the outrage vented over his signing of the campaign
finance reform bill sound like the squeaking of a mouse by comparison.
It has to be
one or the other, right? Either the whole push towards war in Iraq is a Karl
Rovian ploy to change the conversation and save the GOP from annihilation at the
polls in November, or it is an actual charge into battle for reasons codified in
the Republican Party platform before George W. Bush even became the nominee.
The simple,
monstrous truth of the matter is that both of these scenarios are in play
simultaneously, linked by political opportunism and the desires of empire.
Bush will go to war in Iraq to satisfy the dreams of the neo-conservative hawks in his administration---Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and Cheney to name a few--- who wish more than
'. . .thousands of dead American troops, tens or hundreds of thousands of dead civilians. . .'
anything to
redraw the map of the Middle East and institute "regime changes" in
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. Iraq is merely a starting point, the
"tactical pivot" described in a summer briefing to Perle's Defense
Policy Board by Rand corporation think-tankers, which will open the rest of the
region to attack.
Make no
mistake: These are the men running American foreign policy today, as well as the
War on Terror, and they want "total war" in that region. They have
admitted that they have no idea what will come of it---thousands of dead
American troops, tens or hundreds of thousands of dead civilians, massive
retaliatory terrorism on our shores---but they are more than willing to pay that
price to gain a permanent hold on that strategically vital region.
Bush will also
go to war to satisfy the desires of men like Andrew Card, the
Bush and his
corporate friends have treated the Treasury, and the stock-rooted retirement
dreams of millions of Americans, the way a hammer-wielding thief treats a
jewelry store display case during a smash-and grab robbery. This was a recipe
for disaster come November. War on Iraq has stripped that old, damaged product
from the shelves, replacing it with a martial President surging forth against a
dangerous foe.
The weeks of
hemming and hawing over whether or not to go it alone, salted with vastly
overstated descriptions of the threat posed by Iraq, and culminating with Bush's
appearance before the UN, has changed the national debate completely. Card's new
product is priced to move.
We must face a
wretched truth. George W. Bush has allowed, and will continue to allow, a course
for war to be charted in order to save his party at the polls in November. At
the same time, he has given free rein to the neo-con hawks in his administration
to begin a process of total war in the Middle East in order to secure petroleum
profits for the foreseeable future.
Untold hundreds
or thousands of Americans will die in this process, as will tens of thousands of
innocent civilians. One can only guess the number of American civilians who will
die in their own country at the hands of the terrorists who will doubtlessly
attack America again in response to this program.
This is murder
for profit, a capitol crime meriting the gas chamber for any American convicted
of it in a court of law. Period. ##
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ