A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S NATIONAL TELEVISION ADDRESS OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2003

President Bush's illegal war and occupation of Iraq has left the Administration in a position of extreme political vulnerability. He now wants the United Nations and U.S. taxpayers to bail him out. Having defied U.S. and world public opinion - which preemptively opposed his planned, illegal invasion of Iraq - the Bush administration wants to internationalize responsibility for the U.S. quagmire in Iraq. With U.S. casualties mounting daily he wants the soldiers of other countries to do more of the dying to take the heat off himself at home. And in the name of fighting international terrorism he wants the already suffering working class, poor and middle class communities to foot the bill to the tune of another $87 billion (triple what they had projected). Having had his public rationale(s) for the war exposed in recent weeks as a complete fraud, Bush shamelessly reverts to the time-tested tactic of trying to scare the hell out of people.

President Bush's conduct on Iraq - before, during and now after the Iraq war - has made the old cliché about truth being the "first casualty in war" to be a grand understatement. Everything about this "pre-emptive war" is premised on deceit. Even in the realm of ever duplicitous "world politics," the Administration's pattern of cynical deception was and remains breathtaking. Tonight's nationally televised address conforms to this pattern of endless deceit.

1) Bush lied before the war. Iraq never posed a grave and imminent danger to the United States. Iraq had nothing to do with September 11th. Iraq never possessed nuclear weapons. Iraq was not rapidly trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. This was a war of aggression against the second-largest oil producer on the planet that had been weakened by a decade of economic sanctions and political isolation.

2) Bush lied during the war. This was not liberation. The Iraqi people did not welcome the U.S. armed forces as liberators but as occupiers. Their lives did not become better. On the contrary, this culturally rich society has been torn apart, deprived of necessary services to sustain civilian society and on the brink of internal collapse.

3) Bush is lying now. Iraq is not the battlefield between "international terrorism" and the forces of so-called "freedom" and "civilization." The growing resistance to U.S. occupation is the consequence of an angry and proud people in Iraq who insist on reclaiming their own sovereignty. Having killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in an illegal invasion - and a growing number of dead and maimed U.S. soldiers - the Bush team wants U.S. taxpayers to spend at least another $87 billion on the occupation of Iraq. The vast majority sentiment in Iraq wants the U.S. soldiers to leave and the U.S. GIs want to go home. The Iraqi people's call to end the occupation is not a call for even more foreign nations to occupy it and to take a share in the looting of Iraq's natural resources. The truth is that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is viewed by the people of the Middle East as an act of "international terrorism" and as such it can only lead to a dangerous escalation in the cycle of violence.

Why did Bush address the nation tonight? He, like Nixon a generation ago, fears that the people of the United States are turning against this criminal war. During his administration, Bush has only rarely felt that he must address the people, and does so when he fears that a sentiment is growing strong enough to challenge his illegal actions. He must then lie more to convince the people of the U.S. to support his criminal endeavors, or at least acquiesce in them. His shameful "top gun" act aboard the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Lincoln, in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, was an effort to tell people in the United States and around the world that the war was over and that no more critical attention need be focused on Iraq. Tonight, with that lie laid bare, he is seeking to go a new route, to convince people that far from being over, the war is a high stakes game to save "civilization" and "freedom" and that it requires endless sacrifice in human life and vitally needed resources.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition calls on people in the United States to join together for a massive demonstration in Washington DC on October 25th to demand "Bring the Troops Home Now, End the Occupation of Iraq." Tens of thousands will be in the streets that day as the antiwar movement picks up new momentum. For information about transportation to Washington DC or to get literature go to http://www.internationalanswer.org