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1. “Our principals and our security
are challenged today by outlaw
groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and have no limit to their violent ambitions.”
• Conservative commentator Samuel Huntington has pointed out that many people worldwide consider the U.S. to be “the single greatest external threat to their societies” (Foreign Affairs, 1999).
• Under Bush, the U.S. stands in violation of international law for its bombing of Afghanistan and ongoing bombing of Iraq (violating Article 51 of the UN Charter); its treatment of the Guantánamo Bay prisoners (violating the Geneva Convention); and for its “first strike” nuclear weapons doctrine (violating the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Bush has declared his willingness to commit another grave breach of international law by bombing Iraq without authorization from the Security Council.
• The Bush Administration has also undermined the U.S. Constitution by declaring the War Powers Act (requiring Congressional authorization to launch a war) irrelevant.
• As for “violent ambitions,” Bush’s are indeed limitless. In June 2002, he described his doctrine of “pre-emption:” “the military must be ready to strike at a moment’s notice in any dark corner of the world.” Who are the targets? “All nations that decide for aggression and terror.”
• And the U.S. has the power to back up its threats. Its military budget dwarfs that of all other countries combined; and US troops are stationed in 148 of the world’s 180 countries.
2. “…sanctions were maintained after the war to compel the regime’s compliance with Security Council Resolutions.”
• Every U.S. administration since the Gulf War has stated that sanctions would be maintained even if Iraq cooperates with the UN: “Iraqis will be made to pay the price while Saddam Hussein’s in power. Any easing of the sanctions will be considered only when there is a new government” (Robert Gates, National Security Advisor to Bush I).
• The U.S. position actually undermines Security Council resolutions by nullifying any incentive for Iraqi compliance.
3. “By refusing to comply with his own agreements, [Saddam Hussein] bears full guilt for the hunger and misery of innocent Iraqi citizens.”
• According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq have killed over one million people, half of them children under five.
• In 1991, the U.S. bombed the civilian infrastructure of Iraq, including bridges, roads and facilities that protected the water supply for Iraq’s 22 million people.
4. “Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents … the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons.”
• The keyword is “likely.” Credible analysts such as former chief UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter maintain that the military threat from Iraq is exaggerated. They point out that since the Gulf War, Iraq has been largely disarmed and that it lacks the delivery systems (e.g., long-range missiles and rocket launchers) to turn chemical agents into “weapons of mass destruction.”
• Iraq’s possible stores of chemical and biological agents are courtesy of the US, which supplied Baghdad with stock for anthrax, botulism, E. coli and other deadly diseases throughout the 1980s.
• If Bush is concerned about chemical and biological weapons, he should stop manufacturing and selling them. The U.S. still has much larger stockpiles of such weapons than Iraq or any other country.
• Bush has rejected a UN draft agreement to enforce a biological weapons ban, refused to sign the chemical weapons treaty and (like Saddam Hussein) refused to grant UN chemical weapons inspectors full access to US laboratories.
5. “[Iraq] retains physical infrastructure needed to build a nuclear weapon … And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September 11 would be a prelude to far greater horrors.”
• Retaining the infrastructure “needed to build” a nuclear weapon is not the same thing as building it. None of Bush’s references to Iraqi nuclear capability demonstrate that Iraq possesses or plans to use nuclear weapons.
• By contrast, George Bush has ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for dropping nuclear bombs on seven countries. The US is the world’s leading producer of nuclear weapons and the only country in the world to ever drop a nuclear bomb.
• Raising the specter of Iraqi cooperation with “terrorists” is a cynical scare tactic. Attempts by U.S. intelligence agencies to link Baghdad to al-Qaeda in the wake of 9/11 quickly proved groundless. There remains no evidence of Iraqi collusion with international terrorism.
To read the complete list of eleven “great quotes” check out the website: www.madre.org/. MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization demanding human rights for women and families.
• Conservative commentator Samuel Huntington has pointed out that many people worldwide consider the U.S. to be “the single greatest external threat to their societies” (Foreign Affairs, 1999).
• Under Bush, the U.S. stands in violation of international law for its bombing of Afghanistan and ongoing bombing of Iraq (violating Article 51 of the UN Charter); its treatment of the Guantánamo Bay prisoners (violating the Geneva Convention); and for its “first strike” nuclear weapons doctrine (violating the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Bush has declared his willingness to commit another grave breach of international law by bombing Iraq without authorization from the Security Council.
• The Bush Administration has also undermined the U.S. Constitution by declaring the War Powers Act (requiring Congressional authorization to launch a war) irrelevant.
• As for “violent ambitions,” Bush’s are indeed limitless. In June 2002, he described his doctrine of “pre-emption:” “the military must be ready to strike at a moment’s notice in any dark corner of the world.” Who are the targets? “All nations that decide for aggression and terror.”
• And the U.S. has the power to back up its threats. Its military budget dwarfs that of all other countries combined; and US troops are stationed in 148 of the world’s 180 countries.
2. “…sanctions were maintained after the war to compel the regime’s compliance with Security Council Resolutions.”
• Every U.S. administration since the Gulf War has stated that sanctions would be maintained even if Iraq cooperates with the UN: “Iraqis will be made to pay the price while Saddam Hussein’s in power. Any easing of the sanctions will be considered only when there is a new government” (Robert Gates, National Security Advisor to Bush I).
• The U.S. position actually undermines Security Council resolutions by nullifying any incentive for Iraqi compliance.
3. “By refusing to comply with his own agreements, [Saddam Hussein] bears full guilt for the hunger and misery of innocent Iraqi citizens.”
• According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq have killed over one million people, half of them children under five.
• In 1991, the U.S. bombed the civilian infrastructure of Iraq, including bridges, roads and facilities that protected the water supply for Iraq’s 22 million people.
4. “Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents … the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons.”
• The keyword is “likely.” Credible analysts such as former chief UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter maintain that the military threat from Iraq is exaggerated. They point out that since the Gulf War, Iraq has been largely disarmed and that it lacks the delivery systems (e.g., long-range missiles and rocket launchers) to turn chemical agents into “weapons of mass destruction.”
• Iraq’s possible stores of chemical and biological agents are courtesy of the US, which supplied Baghdad with stock for anthrax, botulism, E. coli and other deadly diseases throughout the 1980s.
• If Bush is concerned about chemical and biological weapons, he should stop manufacturing and selling them. The U.S. still has much larger stockpiles of such weapons than Iraq or any other country.
• Bush has rejected a UN draft agreement to enforce a biological weapons ban, refused to sign the chemical weapons treaty and (like Saddam Hussein) refused to grant UN chemical weapons inspectors full access to US laboratories.
5. “[Iraq] retains physical infrastructure needed to build a nuclear weapon … And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September 11 would be a prelude to far greater horrors.”
• Retaining the infrastructure “needed to build” a nuclear weapon is not the same thing as building it. None of Bush’s references to Iraqi nuclear capability demonstrate that Iraq possesses or plans to use nuclear weapons.
• By contrast, George Bush has ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for dropping nuclear bombs on seven countries. The US is the world’s leading producer of nuclear weapons and the only country in the world to ever drop a nuclear bomb.
• Raising the specter of Iraqi cooperation with “terrorists” is a cynical scare tactic. Attempts by U.S. intelligence agencies to link Baghdad to al-Qaeda in the wake of 9/11 quickly proved groundless. There remains no evidence of Iraqi collusion with international terrorism.
To read the complete list of eleven “great quotes” check out the website: www.madre.org/. MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization demanding human rights for women and families.