A Crime, Not a War

[igor@af]

A Crime, Not a War
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Opinion

Sunday 12 January 2003

War is borne of irreconcilable differences between nations. Brazen military aggression is a crime against humanity.

Every crime relies on three primary elements; Means, Motive and Opportunity.

Motive:

Oil, money, power beyond comprehension. Plans for an Iraqi "Regime Change" are not at all -- as the administration would have us believe -- a result of the attacks of September 11th. In fact, plans for an Iraqi regime change, at the behest of Mr. Bush were scripted into the GOP's published platform statement for 2000.

Why? There are heavy connections between the Bush Administration and US oil corporations. The interests of those oil giants are the cornerstone of this Administration's policy. Control of Iraqi oil fields would be worth incalculable profits the very corporations whose former executives permeate the ranks of the Bush Administration. Oil is the Bush family business -- politics is the shield that protects it.

In addition to the oil, the business of militarism itself promises a mountain of gold for those who promote this act of military aggression. At the center of all spending for the administration's "war on terrorism" is the Carlyle Group. Contracts for the construction of military aircraft, artillery, vaccines for small pox, transportation infrastructure - everything a war on terrorism needs - are awarded to companies connected to the Carlyle Group.

Who is the Carlyle group? Essentially they are defense industry investment brokers. The management team includes none other than former US President George Bush Sr., James Baker and Frank Carlucci to name a few. If you want to invest your millions in the defense industry, the smart money goes to the Carlyle Group.

In fact, that is precisely what the family of Osama bin Laden did. They were Carlyle clients in good standing at the time of the attacks, having invested two million dollars through Carlyle in the US defense industry. After the attacks, Carlyle severed relations with the bin Ladens, but not before the family of the worlds most notorious killer pocketed a tidy profit from their dealings. It should be noted that the bin Laden family investment was well timed to capitalize on the wave of US defense spending that would be generated by Oasma's attacks. Carlyle stood ready to assist them. I wonder how FOX News missed that.

Means:

The most powerful military the world has ever known, assembled expressly for the purpose of defending the United States of America, has been commandeered by Bush & Co. for personal equity enhancement.

Opportunity:

The attacks of September 11th. have provided the perfect opportunity, indeed the perfect catalyst. Those attacks can only be described as crimes against humanity. There can no doubt today whom those crimes have benefited most.

"The World Has Spoken With One Voice"

Mr. Bush offers as justification for the coming slaughter unified worldwide opinion. It is true, the world has spoken. The problem is, the Bush Administration refuses to hear what is being said. "The world has said Iraq should not be in possession of weapons of mass destruction; they also said; "Don't launch a full scale military assault aimed at gaining control of the lucrative Iraqi oil fields. And most importantly, work in accordance with the UN Security Council." That last part is routinely omitted by Mr. Bush as he plays the role of war salesman.

At every turn the Bush administration has made false and misleading statements in building their case for war. At every turn the Administration has misstated the support and intentions of our historic allies in a blatant attempt to fan the fires of war. At every turn the Administration undermines attempts by the United Nations Security Council to resolve the issues peacefully.

The continued massing of US assault forces on Iraq's border clearly signals Mr. Bush and his associates have no intention of working with the UN or anyone else. They are men with guns in their hands and gold in their eyes.

Mr. Bush and his associates have repeatedly made a point of derailing and obfuscating the International Criminal Prosecution Process. They have berated and bribed nation after nation for assurances of immunity from International War Crimes prosecution.

For these men, immunity from criminal prosecution will be precious indeed.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

-------

You can send comments to t r u t h o u t Editor Marc Ash at: [email protected]

[Toksin]

"The World Has Spoken With One Voice"

Mr. Bush offers as justification for the coming slaughter unified worldwide opinion. It is true, the world has spoken. The problem is, the Bush Administration refuses to hear what is being said.

Well put.

[Shortbus]

Thats some heavy stuff. Like the part about War Salesman.

[YogsVR4]

The world has NOT spoken with one voice. More member states of the UN want more time to gather evidence one way or the other, but the claim of one voice is invalid.

The bribe and berated of the war ICC is also applicable. To give credence to the ICC would be in violation of our constitution. The US will not be subjected to it. The UN believes its power should supercede any nation on the planet. They are wrong. This article is just more propaganda from institutes that believe the UN should become a governing body.

[BLU CIVIC]

Originally posted by jgillham
Thats some heavy stuff. Like the part about War Salesman.

DITTO....AGREE WITH IT

[taranaki]

Originally posted by YogsVR4
The UN believes its power should supercede any nation on the planet. They are wrong. This article is just more propaganda from institutes that believe the UN should become a governing body.

Bush believes that his authority should supercede the rest of the world.I find that far more disturbing.Anyone remember the 1930's?Instead of 'blame the jews' we're getting 'blame Iraq'

[BLU CIVIC]

Originally posted by taranaki


Bush believes that his authority should supercede the rest of the world.I find that far more disturbing.Anyone remember the 1930's?Instead of 'blame the jews' we're getting 'blame Iraq'

WERE NOT BLAMING IRAQ....WE'RE BLAMING EVERYONE THAT'S NOT "AMERICAN".....I'M HAVING A HARD TIME WITH THAT B/C I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT AN AMERICAN IS....IF IT'S SOMEONE WHO'S BEEN IN THE STATES FOR 5+ YRS, WELL WE'RE IN THE PROCESS OG TRYING TO DEPORT PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN IN THE STATE FOR 10+ YRS.....I DON'T UNDERSTAND.....HOW DID WE GET FROM OSAMA BIN LADEN TO IRAQ?? OH YEAH I FORGOT.....BUSH MADE THE STATEMENT THAT SUMS UP THIS WHOLE IRAQ AFAIR....."HE TRIED TO KILL MY DADDY"....

[slave]

Originally posted by taranaki


Bush believes that his authority should supercede the rest of the world.I find that far more disturbing.Anyone remember the 1930's?Instead of 'blame the jews' we're getting 'blame Iraq'

But when did the jews invade another country with force? or make bio weapons? or laugh when the twin towers were destroyed? Or play Anti-Western propoganda over PA systems in their towns? Or give women and children AK47's to shoot the white people when the wars on?

[BLU CIVIC]

Originally posted by slave


But when did the jews invade another country with force? or make bio weapons? or laugh when the twin towers were destroyed? Or play Anti-Western propoganda over PA systems in their towns? Or give women and children AK47's to shoot the white people when the wars on?

you don't remember neither do i

[Moppie]

Mr T was refering to the Genocide commited by the Nazi's during WWII, and the blame the jews for everything propganda that led up to it during the 1930s.


He's making a comparison between Hitler and his irational attitude towards the Jews, and George Bush and his irational attitude towards Muslims and Iraq.
Its possibly a bit unfair, but Bush has called for a Crusade, which is quite simply a Genocide of anyone of the Islamic Faith.

[slave]

I got mr T's point, and I just made the comment that you cant compare the 2, one of the groups was hardly threatening anothers way of life by possible and attempted destruction.

[Moppie]

America is threatening to invade Iraq, I think that counts as "threatening anothers way of life by possible and attempted destruction"

Mr Bush has a somewhat ignorant view of Muslims, and sadly its been passed on to many Americans.

[Darth Cypher]

Ok, people want to think its about oil (even though we had the perfect chance to "take over" Iraq before), fine. The ONLY link between al-quada and Iraq was the video tape of that meeting between the al-quada and the Iraq Intelligence officer. Other than that, the issue really wasn't pressed.

Iraq played a propoganda game (saying the UN inspectors were spies, etc) to get them kicked out. Bush got them back in and this threat of invasion is what is needed to keep them on the straight and narrow. They know what happened last time they called our bluff. But hey, we all believe what we want to believe.

But this crap about some "crusade" against Muslims is really stretching it. It is not a war against Muslims otherwise we would simply kick Saudis ass, take complete control of thier oil, use thier land as a foothold against the rest of the Middle East. Or something like that anyhow.

Plus, when we started to attack the al-quada/taliban last year there was a rash of hatred running through the US targeted at people of Muslim faith and Arabic descent. Bush made a speach at a Mosque (sp?) telling the American people to cease it. Eventually it did. These actions don't seem to be that of someone who is "calling for the Crusades 2000".

[Cbass]

My words won't convince you people who believe what they run on the mainstream media in the United States of America, but isn't it possible you are being propagandized? If you consider the very people who have the means to do it have the most to gain by lying to you, don't you think they would?

In my humble opinion, and in the opinion of almost every non American person I know, the "stories" they run on CNN are absolute propaganda!

I think it's much more likely that Americans are being fed American propaganda than it is everyone else in the world is being fed anti-American propaganda.

Seriously, I get the same cable channels as Americans do, but I just can't believe the lies they try to feed me like soup! The mainstream news channels and programs have become a joke in the US, becoming a mix of bland filler, sensationalism, and the carefully crafted "truth" that certain interests in the media want you to believe so faithfully. The thing that scares me the most, is that so many people are not only willing to believe it, they are willing to fanatically defend it, in the face of all reason and evidence.

Really, Iraq has never threatened the US, except in retaliation to the US betrayal of his country, and subsequent embargo and bombing campaigns that have cost the lives of over 1 million Iraqi civilians over the last decade.

Weapons inspectors left Iraq not because they were expelled, or forced to leave, but because they were not finding anything, and many were proven to actually BE SPIES! This is internationally accepted, even by the British press, who are the most sympathetic to the US government. We are being told that we must invade Iraq because they have weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical, biological, or nuclear. The fact that not one of these alleged weapons has been found is not proof that there are none, it is proof that they have hidden them well, or so we are informed. The "smoking gun" so far has been a few empy warheads that could have been used to contain chemical weapons, that were not noted in Iraqs declaration of their program. This is the very same declaration that was intercepted and taken by members of the Bush administration before it was presented to the United Nations, who were to be the recipients. It was spirited away to Washington DC, under the pretense that they had better photocopying facilities there. I don't mean to insult anyone, but if you believe that, then you are an absolute fool.

Thank you for anyone who actually bothered to read that entire statement... if anyone disputes anything I have said there, please respond so we can discuss it, and I hope no one will flame me for this...

[Darth Cypher]

First off, this isn't flaming. But seriously, there are plenty of "anti-US" propoganda lies too. Plenty of it. Everyone says that CNN is biased, telling lies, controlled by so and so. Ok, fine, I believe it to an extent. But when someone posts another source it immediately becomes "biased" too. This is from other discussions I have had in other boards. So where do we draw the line?

I mean everyone likes to say that our bombing campaigns are killing millions upon millions of "civilians". Now since when do "civilians" start working in anti-aircraft facilities that are firing upon the US and UK warplanes in the no-fly zones.

Let's not forget that even though we have the most advanced tech in smart bombs it is still not perfect. And one little error due to weather, humidity, dust, whatever can and will throw the laser off and people like Iraq (and anti-war peace activist type people) are all over it like white on rice and blowing it all out of proportion.

Example: That wedding incident in Afganistan. Yeah, people like to only say that one of our aircraft mindlessly opened fire on some civilians in a wedding celebration. What they don't know is that AA fire was reported by ground forces and later on an AC-130 was dispatched to investigate. They didn't find any AA guns but they did see ground fire coming from the ground and directed at them. They weren't low enough to distinguish between adult or child much less military and civilian (not like they have uniforms anyhow). They reported it and were authorized to return fire. The rest is history. In the aftermath they found among the bodies several automatic, military grade machine guns like AK-47s (can't remember the other types). Of course our wonderful media would love to have a field day with this and make reports and others making a mountain out of a molehile with this. They decide to do this despite that we have investigations for these things (which exonorated the aircrew of the AC-130).

Another is that friendly fire incident with the four Canadians on the ground. Though this is still in court it was found that the Canadians didn't mark thier training grounds with red lights which signal that friendly forces are in the area. This was found when thier commander was cross examined on the stand.

Another thing is the effect that our embargos are killing "millions of Iraqi children". Ok, we only need common sense to debunk this one. Why is it only the children are starving?

Propoganda is an ugly game and makes it difficult to find the truth (if it's even possible with all these games). Still though, I doubt that we are out to take over the world. Yeah, we will obviously look out for our own best interests. Any smart country would do the same. Still, there are plenty of times that we helped out when we had nothing to gain. There is no oil in the Balkans that I know of for example.