Two questions; If the Congress was "tricked" it is in their power to vote
for the end of the War On Terrorism, why not take a vote to end it ? Why did
this artical need to be translated ?
"kenadian" <kenadian@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:0qCSb.36649$7x.1688@nntp-post.primus.ca...
http://truthout.org/docs_04/012804H.shtml
Iraq: "The Deception"
Le Monde Editorial
Monday 26 January 2004
In his State of the Union Address a year ago, President George W. Bush
didn't have a sufficiently alarming formula to describe the immediate
danger
that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed for the United States.
The following February 5th, in front of the U.N. Security Council,
Secretary
of State Colin Powell claimed to put forward absolute proof of the
existence
of such a threat.
A few weeks later, evoking weather constraints, President Bush launched
the war. There was no question of waiting longer: the danger was too
great.
It wasn't possible to allow the U.N. disarmament inspectors to do their
work
on the ground: that would take months, with people incapable of finding
anything whatsoever. In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair held forth the
same language: not only did the Iraqis have WMD at their disposition, but
they were in a position to use them to attack within 45 minutes.
Close to a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the head of
the
American inspection mission in Iraq has just delivered his conclusions. He
worked with hundreds of men. He operated in a favorable environment in a
country administered by the United States. David Kay is unequivocal: the
WMD
did not exist. This man, named to his post by the CIA, unsuspected of some
blissful pacifism, favors one theory: under pressure from U.N. disarmament
inspectors- the same so reviled by the Bush administration-, Iraq got rid
of
its WMD arsenal after 1991 and never reconstituted it-even if Hussein
allowed the opposite to be understood for reasons both of domestic
prestige
and regional leadership.
The Bush government indulged in an operation of "deception" to go to
war,
Senator John Kerry, running for nomination as Democratic Party
Presidential
candidate, thundered this weekend. The word is a euphemism. It has been
taken up by a number of Democratic congressmen, who, like Mr. Kerry, feel
they have been tricked by the White House, when, believing in the threat
that it projected, they voted in favor of the war.
"Deception" because this WMD arsenal was really the main argument Mr.
Bush
put forward to justify "a preventative war" conducted in the name of
legitimate self-defense against an "immediate danger". Saddam Hussein was
a
danger- recognized for a long time, alas- for Iraqis, not for the United
States. And George W. Bush wanted this war for a cocktail of complicated
reasons, dominated by a desire to break the strategic status quo in the
Middle East.
Normally, his political and moral credibility should have been torn to
shreds by Mr. Kay's conclusions. That hasn't happened at all: a majority
of
Americans continue to approve of the war. That's because there was another
manipulation: a similar majority of Americans still believe that Saddam
Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks. Nothing, absolutely
nothing, proves it. But the administration has played on the confusion of
public opinion, adding one "deception" on top of another.
-------
Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.
.
