United States:
Stop the U.S. War on Iraq

Oct 11, 2002

One year to the day after the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan, Bush spoke via TV to Congress, asking for a blank check to carry out a new war against Iraq. And why? "On any given day" so declared Bush Iraq could attack the U.S. or its allies with chemical or biological weapons launched from Iraq. Moreover, Saddam Hussein was poised and ready to hand over "weapons of mass destruction" to Al- Qaida, whose terrorists Iraq had, again according to Bush, trained in "bomb-making, poisons and deadly gases."

Never mind that such claims had already been refuted by George Tenet, head of the CIA. And even Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair, who is trying so hard to be Bush’s sidekick, hadn’t dared to say such nonsense.

But Bush’s concern is hardly accuracy, much less the truth. He simply was looking for something that Congress would go for to justify a declaration of war. And Congress went for it the more outrageous the lie, the better. They gave Bush everything he wanted.

Outrageous and not simply because Bush was so ready to thumb his nose at the truth, and Congress so willing to help him do it!

It’s outrageous because, while the whole political establishment and the media pretended they were debating whether or not to go to war against Iraq, the U.S. was already carrying out a war, a disastrous war for the Iraqi people. Practically every day, new reports come in of U.S. or British bombing raids over Iraq. The U.S. media may focus on the fact that Iraq tries to shoot down U.S. planes that just shows that the U.S. is sending its high-tech bombing machines to rain down bombs on Iraqi territory.

The U.S., in fact, has carried out a never-ending war against Iraq ever since the bombing and invasion of that country in 1991. While U.S. troops were quickly withdrawn from their furthest excursion into Iraq back across its borders, the bombing has continued to this day sometimes less, sometimes more massively, but always unrelenting.

For the people of Iraq, the war has not stopped, and they continue to pay its horrifying consequences: at least a million and a half Iraqi people are dead, over 80% of them after the so-called end of the Gulf War in 1991. Over half of the dead are children. And they are continuing to die. They die from cholera, typhoid and other various diseases springing from bacteria-ridden water. This was not an unintended consequence of the war. The U.S. leaders targeted water treatment facilities for destruction which could only lead to the spread of disease and germs throughout Iraq. And Bush dares to talk about germ warfare! The Iraqi people are dying a slow death by starvation and disease, produced by the boycott which still limits the import of food and medical supplies, despite claims to the contrary about "humanitarian" shipments. They are wasting away as the result of contact with the depleted uranium-tipped armaments that the U.S. used the same armaments that are believed to have produced the Gulf War syndrome among U.S. veterans.

If Bush, backed up by his accomplices in the U.S. Congress, follows through on his threats, the consequences can only be more horrifying for the people of Iraq.

And not just for the people of Iraq, but for the people of the United States also. An attack on Iraq won’t prevent terrorism in fact, it gives every promise of provoking more terrorist attempts. U.S. military actions around the world against other people have created such a deep reservoir of anger that of course someone like Osama bin Laden can find many recruits eager to attack the U.S. Bush plays with war, but we will pay its price as the victims of the new terrorist attacks his wars will spawn. And the workers of this country are the ones whose blood will be spilled on new battlefields. We are the ones who will be called upon for sacrifices, in the name of any war against Iraq, so that the capitalist class can increase its wealth. We are the ones whom Bush and his cronies will attempt to muzzle if we protest any of this.

This war is not our war. And Bush this college playboy turned corrupt corporate honcho turned corrupt Texas governor turned corrupt president this man does not represent us at all.

"Weapons of mass destruction" listen to Bush bandy words about, this man who today is directing U.S. forces to use real weapons of mass destruction against a defenseless people and why? Because he is using the threat of war against Iraq to draw attention away from the corruption of his own regime and the disastrous situation of the economy.

"A regime change is needed" now that has the ring of truth to it. But the regime that needs to be changed is the one in this country, the very one which Bush himself heads. They are the ones who threaten the people of the world, including the people in the United States of America. Change this whole regime Bush, the bourgeois class whose interests he represents and the state apparatus which sends its armed forces to war to defend U.S. corporate interests overseas toss them all out.