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
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
Feb 3, 2003
Ever since September 11, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Pentagon chief Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Powell all have raised the specter of Iraqi nuclear weapons being used to attack people in the United States. In a speech in October, President Bush asserted: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi scientists, a group he calls his ‘nuclear mujahedeen’–his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."
And yet according to the report first given to the United Nations by the International Atomic Energy Agency, inspectors concluded, Iraq has no "nuclear mujahedeen" and no nuclear facilities that are being rebuilt. They just don’t exist. As for the famous "high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment," the inspectors found that they are not used for building nuclear weapons but instead for building short-range rockets that are–by the way–legal under the U.N. accords.
Earlier last week, when the Bush administration was informed of the nuclear inspectors’ findings, it was reported to be "furious"–obviously because the inspectors’ report would not conform to the Bush administration’s lies–and Bush’s henchmen openly vowed to the press that the U.S. would pressure the nuclear inspectors to change their findings.
But in the end, the International Atomic Energy Agency did not alter the report. No problem–it was all but ignored by the press, at least in this country. The news media, which is supposedly so free here, relegated it to the back pages, when it was reported at all. The Democrats, the supposed opposition to the Republicans, did not raise any of the issues that were dealt with by the nuclear inspectors.
Once again, Bush was given a free hand to continue lying to justify a war that can only be described as a potential holocaust. If this holocaust is carried out, it is clearly because the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and the owners of the news media, agree with this war.