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para la versión española The Big Lie
by David Krieger*, June 6, 2003
Bush administration officials, including the president,
repeatedly told the American people that war against Iraq was
necessary because Saddam Hussein was lying about not having weapons
of mass destruction. We were told that Saddam Hussein not only
had weapons of mass destruction, but that they were an imminent
threat to the United States. We were told that our government
knew where those weapons of mass destruction were located. Now,
after yet another brutal war in which thousands of innocent Iraqi
civilians and numerous young soldiers on both sides were killed,
maimed and traumatized, the Bush Administration can produce no
evidence that Saddam Hussein had the weapons of mass destruction.
Prior to the war, the Bush administration offered
detailed descriptions of Iraq’s weapons programs, including
the claims famously made by Colin Powell before the UN Security
Council. Bush administration claims included assertions that Iraq
had a program for enriching uranium, that it had weaponized thousands
of liters of biological weapons, including anthrax and botulism,
and that Iraq could launch these weapons on very short notice.
Prior to the war, when Saddam Hussein opened his
palaces to UN inspectors, destroyed missiles with ranges barely
longer than UN restrictions and allowed the US to send U-2 spy
planes over Iraq, the Bush Administration said it was too little,
too late.
Prior to the war, when the Chief UN Weapons Inspector,
Hans Blix, said that the inspectors were receiving increased cooperation
from the Iraqis and pleaded for more time to continue their work,
George Bush said he was growing impatient.
Prior to the war, when members of the Security
Council of the United Nations said they were not ready to support
the use of force against Iraq, George Bush demonstrated his disdain
for international law and the Security Council of the United Nations
by launching a preventive war against Iraq.
The failure to find weapons of mass destruction
after the war is causing widespread skepticism throughout the
world about the justification for going to war. It has become
a major political scandal in the UK, where prior to the war Tony
Blair echoed the Bush administration’s claims of Iraq possessing
weapons of mass destruction.
In the UK, Robin Cook, who resigned in protest
from Tony Blair’s cabinet over the war in Iraq, has written:
“Britain was conned into a war to disarm a phantom threat
in which not even our major ally really believed. The truth is
that the US chose to attack Iraq not because it posed a threat,
but because they knew it was weak and expected its military to
collapse. It is a truth that leaves the British government in
an uncomfortable position.”
It is a truth that also leaves the American people
in an uncomfortable position. It would seem that we were also
“conned into a war” by Mr. Bush and his administration.
In a war that was sold to the American people and
the Congress on the basis of misrepresentations by the Bush administration,
more than 170 American soldiers were killed, more than 5,000 innocent
civilians lost their lives, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers were
slaughtered.
In the aftermath of the war, US soldiers continue
to be targets of Iraqi dissatisfaction. Eleven US soldiers were
killed in the past week. Iraq remains a dangerous place, but not
because of weapons of mass destruction.
When the US and British forces invaded Iraq, one
might have expected Saddam Hussein to use weapons of mass destruction
if he had them. Rather, the Bush administration would have us
believe that Saddam Hussein, while preparing for the US invasion
or during the US attack, was busy destroying his weapons of mass
destruction or moving them into another country.
Rather than show any contrition for leading the
American people into war under false pretenses, President Bush
has claimed that weapons of mass destruction have been found.
He makes this claim on the basis of the discovery of two mobile
laboratories, argued by some to be meant for making biological
weapons, but which contain no evidence, according to the CIA,
that weapons were actually made.
Far more honest is Lt. General James Conway, the
commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, who stated to
reporters, “It was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise
to me now, that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in
some of the forward dispersal areas. Believe me, it’s not
for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition
supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re
simply not there.”
Also more honest, but unapologetic, is Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who said in an interview after the
war with Vanity Fair, “The truth is that for reasons that
have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled
on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons
of mass destruction as the core reason….”
The US Congress owes the American people a thorough
investigation of the “credibility gap” between the
Bush administration’s claims regarding Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction as a pretext for war and the failure to locate
these weapons in the aftermath of the war. These claims cannot
be dismissed, as some members of Congress would do, as simple
exaggerations. They appear to be serious misrepresentations to
the American people and the people of the world.
The Bush administration has much to account for
regarding its highly publicized claims prior to the war that Iraq
had weapons of mass destruction. While it is appropriate to acknowledge
the tyrannical nature of Saddam Hussein’s regime, concern
for the human rights of the Iraqi people was not the justification
of the Bush administration for initiating a preventive war. Their
justification, stated repeatedly, was the imminent threat of Iraq’s
weapons of mass destruction, and it was on this basis that the
Bush administration defied international law and the Security
Council of the United Nations.
The buck stops with Mr. Bush. Lying about the reasons
for war and misleading the American people into supporting a war
has the look and feel of “high crimes and misdemeanors,”
for which the Constitution provides impeachment as the remedy.
*David Krieger is president
of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). He
is the editor of Hope in a Dark Time, Reflections on Humanity’s
Future (Capra Press, 2003).
Readers Comments
If you'd like to send us your comments please e-mail
us at: letters@napf.org
(Please include the name of the article in the subject line)
I have been waiting for some time for Georgie
to plant weapons to be brilliantly discovered by crack teams of
weapons discoverers who are paid large salaries to discover planted
weapons...like a pathetic sitcom...which they all are....Here
is a statistic I will share, that I learned while being interrupted
from this email...amongst other human statistics...a women just
told me, autism is of epidemic proportions is the states...I wonder
if this is due to such a peaceful, humane, friendly environment
we grown up in...where everyone loves everyone...there is no ruthless
competition, everyone is honest and says nice things to hear....teenage
suicide is on the increase again...teenage pregnancies, sexually
transmitted disorders among teenagers.....
-Joseph, Maine, USA
I agree. I truly believe that we should all focus on Ramsey Clark's
VoteToImpeach.org
No one seems to be talking about this anymore.
But impeachment really is the only solution to saving our planet.
THe onslaught of daily attacks on the fabric of our society is
overwhelming. If we unite we can impeach this Administration.
It's our only chance.
- Bob, USA
I suspect that the Bush administration, which says the WMD "WILL
BE FOUND" is going to plant them. How about an article that
tells people that ANY WMD found WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF UN INSPECTORS
will not be considered a valid find? The US will do anything to
protect itself, planting a few fake weapons is easy, getting a
few Iraqi's to lie about it is easy, fooling everybody is easy.
So actually for you to make such a big deal out of whether we
find WMD could be playing right into Bush's hand, and instead
of turning up the heat you set the stage for yet another bogus
offering by this corrupt administration. I would love to see an
article preparing people for the 'discovery' of PLANTED WMD and
telling the world to accept NO CLAIMS OF WMD that are not witnessed
by the UN IMMEDIATELY WITH NO TAMPERING by anybody.
- Mike, USA
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