Iraq has accepted a United Nations Security Council Resolution giving weapons inspectors sweeping new rights but allows many pretexts for the Bush administration to provoke a war. The resolution warns Iraq of “serious consequences” if it doesn’t comply – and the White House has made clear that anything it defines as a material breach will almost certainly mean a new war.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accepted the resolution’s terms on Nov. 13.

In a letter, Iraq’s UN ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said Iraq would accept the resolution with “no conditions, no reservations.”

Hussein’s eldest son, Odai, also a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, had urged its acceptance as long as Arab experts were part of the inspections team. The team will be led by UN chief inspector Hans Blix, who is in charge of biological and chemical inspections, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is in charge of nuclear inspections. El Baradei said the IAEA in the past had “many inspectors from many Arab countries” and this was not a problem. Weapons inspectors are due to travel to Baghdad on Nov. 18.

Even though Iraq accepted the UN resolution there is great concern that the Bush administration is bent on pursuing war. Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General and former chief of the UN’s food-for-oil program in Iraq, warned that resolution sets a double standard that applies to Iraq but not to other countries.

“It’s likely that at some point [U.S. ambassador to the UN] Negroponte will use confused wording to argue that Iraq is in material breach and the U.S. will say one thing and the rest of the world another,” Halliday said. “Many paragraphs of this new resolution are simply dripping with double standards – much in this resolution should apply to all states in the region violating Security Council resolutions and possessing weapons of mass destruction.”

Halliday, in a phone interview with the World, said the Bush administration has made clear it has no confidence in the inspections process. “Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney are war-mongers and just can’t wait to go to war,” he said, warning that the military build-up is happening right now. “I bumped into several hundred U.S. soldiers at Shannon Airport on their way to Kuwait,” he noted.

Halliday said the Security Council resolution is in breach of its own charter and international law by allowing the possibility of war.

“There is no law that allows that. There will be horrendous civilian casualties. Nobody worries about the Iraqi lives, the infrastructure. They are planning crimes against humanity.”

The Bush administration, somewhat concerned about the growing peace sentiment in the U.S., has set up a new group, the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), whose purpose is to sell war on Iraq, along with “regime change,” to the American public. The Washington Post quotes a White House spokesman describing the CLI as a “new phase” in the administration’s attempts to build fresh public support for war on Iraq.

The CLI is a “who’s who” of corporate executives and other hawks with an interest in war. Chaired by Bruce Johnson, a former director of international development for Lockheed Martin, CLI’s other members include former Secretary of State George Shultz, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former senator Bob Kerry, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and deputy advisor Stephen Hadley.

More Americans are seeing the danger of Bush’s war plans and expressing opposition, Halliday believes. There is no threat from Iraq, and it is clear this is a war about the control of Iraqi oil, and nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Halliday urged loyal Americans to stand up for peace and contact their Congressional representatives. This administration has to understand people “will not tolerate another war for oil and gas,” he said.

World opinion has been consistently against the war. Most recently, one of the largest anti-war demonstrations yet was held in Italy, Nov. 9, where organizers reported a million people converged on Florence to peacefully protest against any war on Iraq.

Reuters reported the demonstration was “multi-generational with university age students, older political activists, thousands of trade unionists, World War II partisans and a U.S. Vietnam war veteran who marched in the first row of the crowd.” People came from all over Europe, and parents brought their children. Florence residents greeted the demonstrators. One 12-year-old, watching with her family from the side of the road, told reporters, “This is amazing, it’s so impressive. I’m happy and proud that my city is holding this.”

The demonstration, planned in advance of the Security Council vote, gained added relevance because it took place a day after the UN action. Demonstrators made clear their demand was no war with Iraq, with or without the Security Council’s approval.

The author can be reached at talbano@pww.org

Download PDF version of "Iraq okays UN terms, Bush pushes war" in English and Spanish



Originally published by the People’s Weekly World

www.pww.org

Yer a jerk, Bush Admirer. I'm just gonna come out and say it. Yet again, you mock but refute nothing. Nada. You have to have some credibility for people to respect your mocking stuff, but you have none. None! The only thing sillier than the US Communist party is a right winger trying to engage in actual intelligent debate. Go away! You suck!

discussion about Bush Admirer etc.:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2002/11/22024.php

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2002/11/21906_comment.php#22294

Y'know . . . I've noticed over time here at IndyMedia, that these trolls come and go like a fart in a whirlwind. You can ignore them, or debate them, eventually they will lose interest and go back to other forms of masturbation. But the fact remains for me . . . I hate them. They are disturbed individuals, selfish, and above all willfully ignorant. I mean, to be on the internet and have all this information at your finger tips, and to still be a propagandized fool really takes tremendous effort. That sort of stupidity really really bothers me. I hate the right wing. The greedy fuckers have yet again hijacked our country, and yet again the citizens are gonna have to go out into the street and raise hell. The idiots are yet again turning the government into such a cesspool of crime, arrogance, and violence that we can look forward to years of unrest. The right wing needs to be smashed and a stake driven through its heart for good, not just for our sakes, but for the worlds as well. The really are a bunch of fuckers, I'm sorry, and I will attack them and point out their stupidity and lies every chance I get. Lefties are alway saying: "Take the high ground or you're just like them." Meanwhile they have taken over. Lefties complain how stupid GW is, meanwhile he has the power. Lefties need to quit complaining and trying to hold the moral high ground and start kicking some ass.

That's my rant. Can I get an amen from the back?

Talk about kool-aid indoctrination. You are a moron. I'm not a partisan hack like you. I condemned Clinton's corruption as well. You see, I do this strange thing, it's called thinking for myself. Some people let the DNC think for them, you let Limbaugh and the RNC think for you. Cllinton whored himself for the coporate dollars, but at least he worked his way up to it. Bush and his family have been whores for generations. Go ahead, continue to tear down the institutions and safe guards put in place down through the centuries of our republic and see where it gets us. But you won't see, cause you're a fucking moron.

Tearing down Clinton doesn't make Bush any better. That's like saying Hitler was a swell guy because Stalin actually killed more people. BA, I cannot understand how someone so apparently intelligent such as yourself can behave so foolishly. Don't you get it? People don't like politicians, slick hogs feeding greedily at the public trough. Get used to it, and open your eyes.

It's OK to ride a horse if you know where the saddle and sturrups go and how to direct him. The right has the horse by the reigns. We know where we're going and it's nowhere you suspect. All of your "suspecions" are wrong. We try to tell you, but you'd rather listen to your own fears, the same fears that caused you not to be in control of the horse. The same fear that causes you to make the statements that you do. But we're moving forward towards a better tomorrow with or without you.

 

 

The world knows this picture of the President George Bush. Countless accurate and genuine photographs are at the disposal of anyone who wants to see them. We all know this face: serious or cheerful-it is always good-natured and full of strength.     America's enemies, who hate our freedoms, know that as well. They should know that lies, particularly doctored photographs, are quickly exposed. But that does not stop these professional liars.

This is how they think the President should look. This is how they see him. This is how they portray him. Every pixel in this image is a lie. Every detail is invented. The blind, stupid hate of intellectual weaklings speaks from this "photo". Calvin - How They Lie

 

Yeah. Right. Whatever.

L, he's being sarcastic. Click on the link he provided and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's a logic trap for conservatives.

err. the links (plural), I meant. Particularly the latter one.

The photo on the right is an undoctored image of Bush--unlike the one on the left from the Citizen Patrol website that has been altered to feign benevolence and wisdom (much like the photo of Adolf in the original proaganda at Calvin).



--those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

--those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

--those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

--those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

The doctoring of images is not the point. Click on the link titled "Calvin" if you want to see what the point is.

I should know what the point was - I wrote the bloody thing!

The parody was intended to demonstrate the use of propaganda by Nazis old and new. The doctored image at citizencorps and the doctored image in the original Nazi material at Calvin were most relevant in terms of irony.

=========================

Is America actually in danger of becoming a fascist state? For most of us, fascism is like pornography: We know it when we see it. Roger Griffin, author of International Fascism, has boiled the definition down to an ambitiously simple phrase: It is a "palingenetic populist ultra-nationalism." Meaning, real-deal fascism is a broad movement rooted in nationalism or ethnic identity and promising salvation through apocalyptic rebirth.

Such movements often are the result of tremendous insecurity or response to a real or perceived threat. They often target immigrant groups for persecution. They are obsessed with maintaining the integrity of the "homeland." Individual rights often are suspended in favor of collective security: Privacy is compromised by increased surveillance, military spending, and police powers. Patriotism and moral values are emphasized as an alternative to the decadent ways of the present. A millenarian model is adopted, promising a new order that will cleanse the nation once and for all. Fascist regimes are careful collaborations between one dominant political party, business, and the military. Sometimes, gaining or maintaining power necessitates a circumvention of the democratic process, such as stealing an election.

Anything sound familiar?

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0247/news-berger.shtml

===========================

"a logic trap for conservatives."

.........,

No such thing. I think circles around you with half my brain tied behind my back and the other half laying on a beach in Hawaii.

Well, you do think in circles, that's a fact.



It's hard to miss the resemblance to a small gnat, as well.

And trying to keep up with me will make you awful dizzy. Best you just lie down so you don't keep falling. But I can't prop your ass up forever. At some point you gotta start standing on your own two feet.

No one even talked about the substance of the article. And here we are a year plus later. Bush still lied. We are in a quagmire. But still no one wants to take on the roots of people's ideas. Bush admirer likes to get off on rocking progressives. But instead of progressives slam dunking his arguments - like easily proving Bush lied on Iraq - IMC writers either go the scoundrels' way with anti-communism or just name call like the right wing does. Can't we take on ideological arguments in an up beat way. How about saying, for example, - Bush's foreign policy is about "shoot first, ask questions later."