The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Bush’s War on Iraq:
Laying the Groundwork for Terrorism

Nov 11, 2002

Europe’s top intelligence officials and investigators are disputing the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq has ties with terrorists. "We found no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda," said the French judge who has led investigators fighting Al Qaeda’s activities in Europe for several years. "And we are working on 50 cases involving Al Qaeda or radical Islamic cells. I think if there were such links, we would have found them."Nonetheless, Bush continues to assert that Saddam Hussein "has got ties with Al Qaeda." Rumsfeld claimed the administration has "bullet-proof evidence" of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda and the September 11 attacks. Of course, he offers nothing but assertions.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, a German intelligence source called this talk of a connection "nonsense." Britain’s Foreign Secretary said that U.S. allegations of a meeting between one of the September 11 hijackers and an Iraqi intelligence agent have been disproved. Even George Tenet, head of the CIA, issued a statement refuting Bush’s claims.

The issue is not simply whether Bush lies. We already have plenty of evidence attesting to that–his recent claim, for example, that the SEC had fully exonerated him in the Harken Energy scandal, when the SEC did no such thing. It strongly criticized him for filing insider stock sale papers months late.

In any case, the real issue concerning his current pack of lies is that not only won’t a war on Iraq prevent more terrorism–it will provoke more terrorist attacks. Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge involved in the investigations, said, "A war on Iraq will not diminish the terrorist threat. It will probably increase it. It could radicalize the situation in the Middle East ."Bush pretends he is taking the U.S. into war against Iraq in order to prevent terrorism.

In fact, the situation will develop in exactly the opposite way. U.S. threats against Iraq can only reinforce the already deep well of hatred toward the U.S. which exists in countries around the world. It is this hatred which has already spawned terrorist attacks–and which could spawn more.

Bush’We need to oppose the horrible state terrorism the U.S. carries out against people in other countries because of what this humanly means–but also because he puts us at great risk.