Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war

The Wolfowitz gang's triumph

by Himself March 18, 2003
PACIFIC NORTHWEST, USA - In issuing his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, the illegitimate president George W. Bush has declared the United States above international law. Having painted himself into a corner with his miserable diplomatic failure in making his case for war to the international community, he now declares international law irrelevant.
     Bush's sniveling sycophant Tony Blair, in an act of political suicide, has declared that after all this bluster, it's simply inconceivable to back down. So far, three Labour ministers from his government, led by the veteran Robin Cook, have stepped down and issued stinging rebukes.
     Cook pointed out that "Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term," and that what it does have, it has had "since the 1980s when US companies sold Saddam anthrax agents...." He went on to ask the critical question: "Why is it so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create?"
     The leaders of a majority of the world's population, including China, Russia, France and Germany have declared that Bush's impending war is unjustified and illegal. The pope has declared it immoral. Millions of people around the globe have held unprecedented simultaneous demonstrations against the war.
     What the hell is going in here? Are Bush and Blair really that stupid?
     There has been a quiet coup d'etat in the United States, led by the number two man at the Pentagon and a cabal of neo-conservatives and veteran cold warriors. Even before candidate Bush won his party's nod, he was being courted by two schools of foreign policy: the hawks, led by Paul Wolfowitz, and the doves, led by Colin Powell.
     Since September 11, 2001, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has won increasing influence in the war within the White House, and convinced president George Bush to adopt his policy of pre-emptive military action. His designs on Iraq were first articulated following the Gulf War in 1992, and his policy has now been adopted almost verbatim as the "Bush Doctrine". Wolfowitz was then Deputy Secretary of Defense under Dick Cheney.
     Wolfowitz and his cronies urged Clinton to invade Iraq in 1998, and urged Bush to do the same immediately after 9/11. Now, finally, they are fully in the driver's seat. Powell, undermined by his thuggish Deputy Secretary of State and Wolfowitz ally Richard Armitage, has been beaten into submission and now marches in demure lock step. With Bush's declaration of an "axis of evil", the Wolfowitz school of thought became the Bush Doctrine.
     The Wolfowitz cabal has won the hearts and minds of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford) and Vice President Dick Cheney (Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush), not to mention President George W. Bush. This small cadre of arch-conservative idealogues now dictates the foreign policy of the world's lone superpower, and are pushing a policy that is in direct violation of international law as set out in the U.N. charter.
     The fact that this doctrine was laid out almost ten years before the terrorist attacks of 2001 expose the lie that this war has anything at all to do with the "war on terrorism". This is, plain and simple, an old fashioned war of colonialism, a last mad grasp for power by neo-cons and obsolete cold warriors yearning for the good old days of "us and them".
     Unless some miracle occurs, we are about to launch a war not only on Iraq, but on the rule of international law. With the UN and global public will declared irrelevant, this group of hawks will likely feel empowered to continue rolling with their war plans in Iran and North Korea, and ultimately try to roll across the rest of the middle east, including Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
     Any hope of a just settlement for the Palestinians is all but ruled out in this new world order. Terrorism is sure to increase all around the world, aimed explicitly at Americans and American interests.
     Public demonstrations are sure to continue and grow if and when the shooting starts. The leaders who are defying their people must be held accountable and shown that they will pay with their careers. But the damage to the credibility of the international community will be almost irreparable.
     What we are dealing with a regime that flouts the United Nations Security Council, has the largest stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons on the planet, and the only nation to have used nuclear weapons against another nation. This regime must be stopped at all cost, in the name of global peace.
     The United Nations was created to prevent wars of aggression. With this unnecessary, illegal and unjustified war, the Bush regime is seeking to supersede that international body and achieve true, unchallenged global hegemony. The people of the world must stand up and unequivocally say "No!" to this illegitimate, illegal cabal.