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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (37188)	2/6/2004 12:33:32 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

The war in Iraq: Sticking to the facts mlive.com Friday, February 6, 2004 By Ron Kramer In her recent Viewpoint on the Iraq war, Susan Crouse stated that political discourse should be civil and grounded in facts. I agree completely. Unfortunately, several of her facts were wrong. She claimed that the United Nations proved itself unable to take a decisive stand on any matter pertaining to Iraq. That is not true. After the first Iraq war, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 687 which set up the UNSCOM inspection process that was in operation from 1991 to 1998. Scott Ritter, UNSCOM's chief weapons inspector, has testified that 95 percent of Iraq's weapons were accounted for or destroyed during this process. In the fall of 2002, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1441 which sent a second inspection agency, UNMOVIC, back to Iraq for an even more intrusive search for banned Iraqi weapons. UNMOVIC found no weapons of mass destruction and was actively engaged in the search process when the Bush administration invaded Iraq. The results of these U.N. inspections speak to another claim Crouse made. She wrote that, "A year ago it was undisputed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction." This is not true, either. Millions of people around the world disputed that claim. As I noted above, the two U.N. inspections cast doubt on the charge that Iraq currently had weapons of mass destruction. In addition, an Iraqi defector, Hussein Kamel, who was Saddam's son-in-law and the director of a previous WMD program in Iraq, told the United States that "after the Gulf War (of 1991), Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and missiles to deliver them." (They never had nuclear weapons at any time.) The Bush administration claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that threatened the United States were a complete fabrication. Even Bush's own weapons inspector, David Kay, said recently that he did not believe that Iraq had any large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons. This testimony comes after months of intense searching. Since Crouse and I agree that we should deal in facts concerning the war in Iraq, I would ask her to consider these fully documented facts: It is a fact that the Bush administration convinced the American people to support this war on the basis of demonstrable lies and distortions. It is a fact that Iraq did not have any weapons that posed a threat to the United States. It is a fact that Iraq had no involvement with the 9-11 terrorist attack or al-Qaida. It is a fact that the real reasons behind the war were not to liberate and democratize Iraq, but to advance the neo-conservative's strategy of projecting American power, establish permanent military bases in Iraq, reshape the Middle East, control Iraqi oil and open Iraq up to American corporations like Halliburton. It is a fact that the invasion of Iraq was an act of aggression that violated the U.N. Charter and other international laws. No nation has the legal right to bring about regime change in another nation through military force. It is a fact that as a result of this illegal and unnecessary war, more than 500 American soldiers have died and more die every week. It is a fact that as a result of this invasion and occupation, close to 10,000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. It is a fact that this arrogant and destructive war has stirred up great anger and resentment against the United States throughout the Arab world that ,in the long run, will create more terrorists and make us less secure. It is a fact that Americans who get their news from the "fair and balanced" corporate media do not know these facts. And while it may not be civil to say so, my hope is that the people who do know these facts and are outraged by Bush's dishonesty and irresponsible actions will work hard throughout this year to bring about regime change here at home this November. _________________________ Ron Kramer of Kalamazoo is a professor of sociology at Western Michigan University and a founding member of Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War.