THE POPE AND CHOMSKY
MID-EAST REALITIES - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/16/2003: The world's most senior religious and intellectual leaders have made one desperate appeal after another for the American Empire to reconsider and to abandon its unilateral crusading course. The U.N. Security Council has finally stood up to the American empire, desperately attempting to alter the potentially cataclysmic policies the U.S. is pursuing. But pushed on by the Israelis and their powerful Israeli/Jewish lobby, which has successfully infiltrated many of the institutions of government and the media in the United States today, the modern-day Christian/Jewish, US/Israeli, 'New World Order' crusade is about to be much more massively unleashed -- and then there will then be no way back. For the locations of the 7pm Sunday Gobal Vigils in cities around the world tonight go to: www.globalvigil.org
POPE ISSUES STRONG APPEAL AGAINST WAR
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
VATICAN CITY (AP - 15 March) - Pope John Paul II, in one of his strongest
appeals yet against war in Iraq, implored Saddam Hussein Sunday to avoid
giving the West reason to attack and warned the U.N. Security Council that
military intervention could trigger an explosion of extremism.
John Paul made his plea a few hours before a summit in the Azores among
President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Maria Aznar.
The pontiff's remarks, delivered from his studio window overlooking St.
Peter's Square, reflected the urgency of the next few days, as the White
House presses for a decision on Iraq, which is under U.N. orders to rid
itself of weapons of mass destruction.
``The next days will be decisive for the outcome of the Iraq crisis,'' said
the pope, who prayed that ``leaders on all sides be inspired with courage and
long-range vision.''
``Certainly, the leaders of Baghdad have the urgent duty to collaborate fully
with the international community, to eliminate any reason for an armed
intervention,'' the pope said.
``To them I direct my pressing appeal: the fate of your fellow citizens
always has priority!''
John Paul also said he wanted to remind U.N. member countries, and especially
those which make up the Security Council, that ``the use of force represents
the last resort, after having exhausted every other peaceful solution,
according to the well-known principles of the U.N. Charter.''
``That is why, in the face of the tremendous consequences that an
international military operation would have for the population of Iraq and
for the equilibrium of the entire Middle East reason, already so tried, as
well as for the extremism which could stem from it, I say to all: There is
still time to negotiate; there is still room for peace.''
The pontiff continued: ``It is never too late to understand one another and
to continue to deal with each other.''
Abandoning his prepared remarks, the pontiff, who was in his 20s and studying
clandestinely for the priesthood during the German occupation of his native
Poland during World War II, added a personal reflection.
``I must say that I belong to the generation which remembers well, which
lived through World War II, and which, thanks to God, survived World War
II,'' John Paul said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis.
``That is why I also have the duty to remind all these young people, those
younger (than me), who didn't have that experience, to remember, and to say,
'never again war' as (Pope) Paul VI said in his first visit to the United
Nations.''
The slogan ``no war, not if and not ever,'' has galvanized protesters
throughout Italy, including hundreds of thousands who joined peace marches in
the last few weeks.
``We must do all we can. We know well that it's not possible to ask for peace
at any cost, but we all know how great, how very great, is the responsibility
for this decision'' on whether to wage war, the pontiff added in his
off-the-cuff remarks.
The Vatican's anti-war campaign has seen both impassioned pleas by the pope
as well as top-level diplomacy. John Paul dispatched one cardinal to meet
with Saddam Hussein and another with Bush in the last few weeks, and he
himself met privately with Iraq's deputy premier.
``To reflect on one's duties, to be engaged in negotiations doesn't mean to
be humiliated but to work responsibility for peace,'' the pontiff said.
John Paul has said war against Iraq would be a ``defeat for humanity'' and
has expressed worry that the Muslim world will see any Western-led attack as
a Christian crusade against Islam.
THE CASE AGAINST U.S. ADVENTURISM IN IRAQ
By Noam Chomsky
The most powerful state in history has proclaimed that
it intends to control the world by force, the dimension
in which it reigns supreme.
President Bush and his cohorts evidently believe that
the means of violence in their hands are so
extraordinary that they can dismiss anyone who stands in
their way.
The consequences could be catastrophic in Iraq and
around the world. The United States may reap a whirlwind
of terrorist retaliation -- and step up the possibility
of nuclear Armageddon.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and company are
committed to an "imperial ambition," as G. John
Ikenberry wrote in the September/October issue of
Foreign Affairs -- "a unipolar world in which the United
States has no peer competitor" and in which "no state or
coalition could ever challenge it as global leader,
protector and enforcer."
That ambition surely includes much expanded control over
Persian Gulf resources and military bases to impose a
preferred form of order in the region.
Even before the administration began beating the war
drums against Iraq, there were plenty of warnings that
U.S. adventurism would lead to proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, as well as terror, for deterrence
or revenge.
Right now, Washington is teaching the world a dangerous
lesson: If you want to defend yourself from us, you had
better mimic North Korea and pose a credible threat.
Otherwise we will demolish you.
There is good reason to believe that the war with Iraq
is intended, in part, to demonstrate what lies ahead
when the empire decides to strike a blow -- though "war"
is hardly the proper term, given the gross mismatch of
forces.
A flood of propaganda warns that if we do not stop
Saddam Hussein today he will destroy us tomorrow.
Last October, when Congress granted the president the
authority to go to war, it was "to defend the national
security of the United States against the continuing
threat posed by Iraq."
But no country in Iraq's neighborhood seems overly
concerned about Saddam, much as they may hate the
murderous tyrant.
Perhaps that is because the neighbors know that Iraq's
people are at the edge of survival. Iraq has become one
of the weakest states in the region. As a report from
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences points out,
Iraq's economy and military expenditures are a fraction
of some of its neighbors'.
Indeed, in recent years, countries nearby have sought to
reintegrate Iraq into the region, including Iran and
Kuwait, both invaded by Iraq.
Saddam benefited from U.S. support through the war with
Iran and beyond, up to the day of the invasion of
Kuwait. Those responsible are largely back at the helm
in Washington today.
President Ronald Reagan and the previous Bush
administration provided aid to Saddam, along with the
means to develop weapons of mass destruction, back when
he was far more dangerous than he is now, and had
already committed his worst crimes, like murdering
thousands of Kurds with poison gas.
An end to Saddam's rule would lift a horrible burden
from the people of Iraq. There is good reason to believe
that he would suffer the fate of Nicolae Ceausescu and
other vicious tyrants if Iraqi society were not
devastated by harsh sanctions that force the population
to rely on Saddam for survival while strengthening him
and his clique.
Saddam remains a terrible threat to those within his
reach. Today, his reach does not extend beyond his own
domains, though it is likely that U.S. aggression could
inspire a new generation of terrorists bent on revenge,
and might induce Iraq to carry out terrorist actions
suspected to be already in place.
Right now Saddam has every reason to keep under tight
control any chemical and biological weapons that Iraq
may have. He wouldn't provide such weapons to the Osama
bin Ladens of the world, who represent a terrible threat
to Saddam himself.
And administration hawks understand that, except as a
last resort if attacked, Iraq is highly unlikely to use
any weapons of mass destruction that it has -- and risk
instant incineration.
Under attack, however, Iraqi society would collapse,
including the controls over the weapons of mass
destruction. These could be "privatized," as
international security specialist Daniel Benjamin warns,
and offered to the huge "market for unconventional
weapons, where they will have no trouble finding
buyers." That really is "a nightmare scenario," he says.
As for the fate of the people of Iraq in war, no one can
predict with any confidence: not the CIA, not Rumsfeld,
not those who claim to be experts on Iraq, no one.
But international relief agencies are preparing for the
worst.
Studies by respected medical organizations estimate that
the death toll could rise to the hundreds of thousands.
Confidential U.N. documents warn that a war could
trigger a "humanitarian emergency of exceptional scale"
-- including the possibility that 30 percent of Iraqi
children could die from malnutrition.
Today the administration doesn't seem to be heeding the
international relief agency warnings about an attack's
horrendous aftermath.
The potential disasters are among the many reasons why
decent human beings do not contemplate the threat or use
of violence, whether in personal life or international
affairs, unless reasons have been offered that have
overwhelming force. And surely nothing remotely like
that justification has come forward.
* Noam Chomsky is a political activist, professor of
linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and author of the bestseller "9-11."
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