If ever any president of the United States and his administration were guilty of malfeasance in office, it is Bush and his administration. They have lied to the American people; they have stolen taxpayers’ money by doling out billions to Big Business, the “War Department” and the new Homeland Security Department.
They are guilty of allowing terrorists to get away with the murder of 3,000 people who lost their lives at the World Trade Center by not alerting the FBI to apprehend these killers when they were fully aware of the impending attacks.
They have completely ignored their sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution by threatening to attack Iraq without the will of the American people or the Congress.
With the truth emerging about Bush, Cheney and others in this administration who scooped up millions of dollars in dishonest stock sales with their attachments to corporations like Enron and Halliburton, it makes the GOP very vulnerable. According to a poll from Pew Research, 40 percent of the American people “disapprove of the way Bush is handling the greed problem.”
So the strategy by Bush and Co. is to divert the attention of the American people with another huge scam: A war with Iraq.
It is ironic that the Bush administration, some of our Congresspeople and the majority of our media think it is okay for the United States to have an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction – from poison gas to biological and nuclear weapons – without international oversight. The peace movement wants all countries to get rid of these weapons.
Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that “inspection of arms in Iraq is not the question, it is disarmament.” If it is disarmament, why, then, doesn’t the United States lead by example and pursue a program of disarmament?
Bush said on August 3, in Maine at his father’s home, “nothing’s changed,” referring to their war plans, even though Iraq finally invited weapons inspectors.
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton (the same person who accused Cuba of producing biological weapons but was proven a liar by former President Jimmy Carter) told the British Broadcasting Company that “Washington had not altered its ultimate goal of removing Saddam from power.”
So is it disarmament or removing Hussein from power?
Bush would also like to remove Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. It wasn’t too long ago when American imperialism removed other democratically elected leaders from power in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Iran and the Congo. For 43 years they also tried to remove Fidel Castro from power, but the solidarity of the Cuban people thwarted them. Their greatest defeat to prevent democratic rule by the people was Vietnam and Indo-China.
Both parties, unfortunately, have their share of war hawks. The Democratic Party has Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) stating, “War with Iraq is a foregone conclusion.” Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) is the most vicious in his attacks against Iraq and repeats the lies that Iraq has nuclear weapons, poison gas and weapons of germ warfare. They are lies because no proof has come forward from any source confirming his charges.
These Democratic Party hawks risk losing their party’s chance of winning back the House and retention of the Senate.
Yet there are Democrats raising questions about the war. Most notably is a Democratic Party group called Democrats.com, which is waging a petition campaign opposing a war on Iraq. They state that Bush is out to wage war to raise his political stature and “engineer a Republican victory in the November elections …”
The ruling class is split on this policy for many reasons. An American attack on Iraq would profoundly affect the American economy, said Kim Wallace, a political analyst for Lehman Brothers. He also stated, “I think a good case can be made that voters will want to understand the case for a war or any kind of extended military action better than they do now because the economic considerations are considerable.”
With all of the jingoism flying around in the corporate media, little or nothing is heard of the role of the United Nations purpose in settling disputes. The Bush administration and other pro-war politicians brushed aside Iraq’s invitation for U.N. weapons inspectors. These hawks and unilateralists have no respect for the United Nations and other international bodies.
Now is the time for all progressives, the labor movement, the racially and nationally oppressed communities, women, youth, students and seniors to close ranks and unite to defeat the “evil ones” of pro-corporate, right-wing reaction in November. This can be done by winning public opinion through exposing their corporate and ideological ties to policies of war, inequality and exploitation – the real axis of evil.
John Gilman is active in the Wisconsin Committee for Peace and Justice in Milwaukee and a long-time contributor to the People’s Weekly World.
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