EDITORIAL
Carrying on a Fake War (on Terrorism) to Hide the Real War (in Iraq)

Jan 5, 2004

Orange alert! High risk of terrorism!

We were bombarded by this crap whenever we were foolish enough to turn on the radio or the TV during the holidays.

Of course, we do face a risk of terrorism inside this country. And that risk has been made immeasurably worse by the two wars the U.S. is carrying out against other people in Iraq and Afghanistan. The risk of terrorism has been aggravated by U.S. government policies aimed at helping big U.S. corporations to drain wealth from other countries, just like they are pushing to drain out Iraq’s oil wealth today.

So yes, there is a risk of terrorism. But the fake little show of force by the police could not protect us from it.

Just look at the absurdity of what they were doing. Even while telling us that airplanes were at big risk, the government continued to cut back on security screeners at airports. That alone proves they don’t believe their own warnings.

All this talk about terrorism was nothing but a big propaganda campaign.

The Bush administration, which orchestrated the propaganda, certainly had its own reasons for doing so. Bush–who had been photographed wearing a flight suit on May 1, announcing victory in Iraq–planned to use the photo for his re-election campaign. Today, he’s worried that the war will cost him re-election.

The war is not over. The capture of Saddam Hussein did not lead to a lessening of the fighting in Iraq. Just the opposite. The fighting continues with more fervor.

U.S. troop strength in Iraq is not being reduced. Instead, the administration just authorized the call up of 110,000 National Guard for a year and a half.

It’s a real war going on over there in Iraq. That’s what this fake war on terrorism is aimed at hiding.

But Bush does not stand alone in wanting to hide it. And he could not have manipulated the media in such a shameless fashion if the biggest corporations in the country did not stand behind him.

What is their interest in this war? The same interest they have always had in all U.S. wars. They want to be able to hold down wages around the world, and they need an occasional war to show people in other countries who’s the master. And most of the U.S. corporations have an even more immediate interest in this war–oil–whether they profit directly from it, or whether U.S. control over the Middle East’s oil lets them get cheap oil for their production.

The small class that controls and runs these corporations wants this war.

And both political parties recognize this fact. That’s why the Democrats do not really oppose the war–despite the fact that by so doing they could easily win the next election.

Instead, both political parties subscribed to this fake “war on terrorism” carried out in the media.

What the government was doing during the holidays had nothing to do with preventing terrorism, and everything to do with getting us to line up behind these murderous wars and policies.

It’s not in our interest to get behind them. We have every reason to oppose these wars, every reason to oppose U.S. corporations’ attempt to force down wages in other countries.