| FROM
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FEBRUARY 13, 2004
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS
By Patrisia
Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
Seeking the Root of the Truth: Part II
In the wake of David Kay's revelations
and resignation, one would think the
White House had hired former Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammad Saeed
al-Sahaf as special media adviser.
Remember him? The tragicomic King of Da
Nile?
What else could explain the
administration's (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice, Powell)
delusional notions that it never claimed Iraq
was an imminent threat and that an Iraq
without WMDs was even more dangerous than
an Iraq with WMDs? Or its attempts to
blame the intelligence services? How else
to explain the presidentially appointed
commission that won't conclude its work
before November? Mad cow disease?
The truth can't be uncovered unless the
commission is legitimately constituted
and asks the right questions. Nor can it
operate from that place of denial. It
must be able to investigate the
administration's purported use/abuse of
intelligence and the war's legitimacy
itself. And it must ask: Did Iraq pose a
genuine threat to history's most powerful
nation? And is the current threat so
great as to warrant a permanent state of
war and the surrender of our
Constitutionally protected privacy,
rights, liberties and freedoms?
While Kay revealed that Iraq was but a
paper tiger, truthfully, Iraq's WMDs were
never the principal issue. Frankly, Iraq
wasn't a threat to Israel, much less to Europe
and certainly not the United States. Yet
that didn't stop the president from
rushing to war and berating everyone
(labeling his critics disloyal or
appeasers) who dared question his wisdom.
(Ironically, he can't see the tragicomedy
in labeling himself the "war
president.")
Despite that, the United Nations and the
UN Security Council resisted the
president's urgent "you're either
with us or against us" call to war.
It remained satisfied that Iraq was in
check, due to U.N. sanctions, inspectors,
and the U.S. and British aerial
bombardment.
The proof of a lack of imminent threat
comes not from "deep throat"
sources (though there are plenty of
those), but from the administration
itself. The war cabinet continually
stated that its case for war was not
triggered by new Iraqi developments or
intelligence. Instead, they noted that as
a result of 9/11, they began to view Iraq
through a new prism.
This has been contradicted by former
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's
account, that plans for toppling Saddam
Hussein began at President Bush's first
Cabinet meeting. Sept. 11 simply gave him
cover. This transparency -- which
involved the U.S. blackmailing nations to
support the war and to exempt it from an
international war crimes tribunal -- is
what caused the United Nations to balk.
Worth noting is that during this critical
period, Congress surrendered its
constitutional duties, the intelligence
services buckled (CIA Director George
Tenet could have resigned), the courts
gave (and continue to give) the
president a pass, and
mainstream/corporate media were reduced
to cheerleading as it abandoned its
governmental watchdog function.
The president's moves against the
tribunal are key because his objective,
as clearly enunciated in his 2002
doctrine, is U.S. world dominance. This
requires a massive arms buildup, global
militarization and a permanent state of
war. Through the skillful manipulation of
fear and patriotism, his promise is
eternal peace and prosperity through
pre-emptive war. Such a policy is both
immoral and illegal by international
standards. This might explain his
insistence upon U.S. exemption from that
tribunal and ensuring that the public be
kept in the dark until long after the
elections.
This crisis isn't about intelligence
failures or the misreading of
intelligence, but rather about the
deliberate and premeditated march toward
war. Neither is it about the lack of
leadership; he's actually shown forceful
leadership, if pre-emptive war against
"pre-imminent" threats is the
objective. Of course, that doctrine (and
its architects) has now been thoroughly
discredited. What's in question is wise
leadership.
The president's actions have unleashed
not peace, but the gates of hell in Iraq
and the greater Middle East, at a
tremendous human and financial cost. In
November, regardless of the commission's
work, voters will render their own early
verdict. The failure of the commission to
assert its independence early on and to
report by election time will most
assuredly erode the little credibility
and moral authority that the president
now enjoys. If he is re-elected, it could
also invite early impeachment proceedings
(or even proceedings from that same
tribunal he's demanded exemption from)
and the continual, needless shedding of
blood. What's indisputable is that he's
guilty of very bad planning and atrocious
miscalculation. Nothing that is happening
in Iraq today was not forseeable.
A commission is not needed to search for
the root of the truth (nor should we
expect it from the president's
forthcoming $100 million reelection ad
campaign). What's needed is an
investigation to see if the president and
his administration is using the same
dictionary as the rest of us.
_______________________________________
COPYRIGHT 2004 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
* If you would like to see Column of the Americas
in your newspaper, please
call/write your local editor.
Also, contact our editor, Greg
Melvin at Universal Press Syndicate GMelvin@uexpress.com
or 1-800-255-6734. Column of the Americas
is available at Universal's website every
Friday at: http://www.uexpress.com/columnoftheamericas/
Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached
at 608-238-3161or XColumn@aol.com
-- PO BOX 5093,
Madison, WI 53705. For speaking
availability, bios, publications and
other info, call/write us or visit: http://hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/index.html
* Gonzales is the author of The Mud
People: Chronicles, Testimonios &
Rembrances ($19.95, Chusma House,
ISBN: 1-891823-05-1). For ordering
info, go to: www.chusmahouse.com
or email: chusmahouse@earthlink.net
She can be reached at: patigonzaj@aol.com
Rodriguez is the author of Justice:
A Question of Race - Bilingual
Review Press (http://www.asu.edu/brp/backlist/bio/RRod1j.html)
. He is also the author of the E-books The
X in La Raza and Codex Tamuanchan: On
Becoming Human (http://www.mexica.net/literat/roberto/).
Both are coeditors of Cantos Al
Sexto Sol - Wings Press (http://www.wingspress.com/
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