Things that make you go *Gulp*

[alixandrea]

AMERICAN WET DREAM

On Tuesday the UN Security Council unanimously voted to overhaul the
economic sanctions against Iraq - a move so radical it was immediately
condemned by the sanctions-busting group Voices in the Wilderness, four
of whom are currently in Iraq distributing medical supplies. They called
the resolution "a deadly fraud that will do little to alleviate the
ongoing humanitarian crisis."

Forget the cruel tyrant Saddam Hussein (once supported by the West when
he towed their line), what about the ordinary people of Iraq? Who,
thanks to these economic sanctions imposed on them by the West for
nearly 12 years have seen 500,000 of their children die. Denis Halliday
and Hans Von Sponeck, who were both at one time responsible for the UN's
humanitarian programme in Iraq, both resigned in protest at what the
sanctions were doing. Last year they wrote, "The death of 5-6,000
children a month is mostly due to contaminated water, lack of medicines
and malnutrition."

And it will be the ordinary Iraqi people who wil again be suffering if
President Bush and his cronies use their so-called war on terrorism to
start bombing a country, that has already been bombed back to the dark
ages. The Pentagon's 'medium case scenario' is that a war on Iraq could
condemn to death more than 10,000 civilians. But this could be even
worse if, as journalist John Pilger puts it, the Americans "implement
their current strategy of 'total war' and target Iraq's electricity and
water."

Not that we should forget that American and British aircraft have, in a
largely forgotten war, been bombing Iraq week-in week-out, for more than
four years. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US and Britain
faced a "dilemma" because "few targets remain." "We're down to the last
outhouse" bemoaned a Pentagon official.

Still, the US insists that action is necessary because Iraq has been
defying United Nations resolutions and represents an imminent threat to
the world, and to the U.S. in particular. Excuse us, but defying UN
resolutions and ignoring international treaties is what the Bush
administration does best, with Bush making it clear that he will not
honour any treaty if he reckons it might harm U.S. interests. In fact
just last week Bush pulled out of the International Criminal Court - you
know that radical idea to create the world's first permanent tribunal to
prosecute people for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against
humanity (see SchNEWS 326).

Bush and his militaristic government argue that they have to bomb Iraq
because Saddam won't comply with United Nations weapons inspectors. So
best forget that the Bush administration denied international inspectors
access to U.S. chemical and biological weapons-related facilities
because it might violate "commercial interests".

Still the truth slipped out earlier this month when US Secretary of
State Colin Powell said "regardless of what the inspectors do, the
people of Iraq and the people of the region would be better off with a
different regime in Baghdad." Not that SchNEWS could disagree with that
- a lot of countries would be better off without dictators and corrupt
governments - it's just the US wants another Saddam Hussein, but this
time one who'll do what they say.

Meanwhile Cuba is now being added to the US hit list, because hey the US
right has always hated Cuba. In a speech entitled 'Beyond the Axis of
Evil', Under Secretary of State John Bolton pointed the finger at Cuba
because of the country's advanced biomedical industry. Forget that
Cuba's advance biomedics has more do with their better-than-the-US
Health Service and their policy of sending doctors to help third world
countries (so hey, let's add them to the list). Plus Castro's visits
last year to three "rogue states" accused by the US state department of
sponsoring terrorism: Iraq, Syria and Libya. "States that renounce
terror and abandon WMD [weapons of mass destruction] can become part of
our effort," Mr Bolton said. "But those that do not can expect to become
our targets."

So it's back to that old "you are either with us or against us" mantra.
Each new stage of the war against terrorism makes it clearer that the
real aim has little to do with what happened on September 11th and more
to do with what the American military describes as "full spectrum
dominance". A document from the US Space Command spells it out "The
United States will remain a global power and exert global
leadership.Widespread communications will highlight disparities in
resources and quality of life - contributing to unrest in developing
countries.." So while everyone else must abandon those weapons of mass
destruction the US this week got the green light from Russia this week
to go ahead with its plan for the National Missile Defence Project or
Star Wars II to keep us all in check (SchNEWS 307).

Rotten Apple Pie

When it comes to Israel of course then it's a different tune. Israel has
been defying U.N. resolutions for more than 30 years. No action has been
taken against their bloody and illegal rampage through Palestine. Hey,
they were after terrorists. They face no sanctions for blocking a United
Nations fact-finding mission into military action at the Jenin refugee
camp. In fact their two fingers to the world earned them a serious
reprimand in the US Senate who er. voted for an increase in military aid
to Israel.

Is this because the Palestinian civilians, just like the Iraqis and the
five thousand Afghani civilians killed in the last holy war against
terror, are what John Pilger calls the Unpeople. "The killing of Iraqi
infants, like the killing of Chechens, like the killing of Afghan
civilians, is rated less morally abhorrent than the killing of
Americans."

America's war on terrorism is just another word for imperialism - and
Iraq is currently head of its wish list of countries where a new head of
state needs to be put in place, one that will be a lot more open to
Uncle Sam's way of doing things.