“Call to Washington”
Stonewall Bush
by Josh Frank
Dissident Voice
February 14, 2003
On Valentine’s Day
morning Saddam Hussein released a decree calling for a ban on the importation
of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and of all materials that are used
to produce them.
The United Nations has
sought such a ban for over 10 years, and Saddam’s timing could not be more
pertinent for calling on the UN to continue with its inspections. Questions must now be raised as to why the
Bush administration is so adamant to strike before all diplomatic means have
been exhausted.
Apparently the White
House is attempting to downplay such a call to stop importation and production
of WMDs, as Ari Fleischer noted, “if one would want to make believe and pretend
that Iraq is a democracy that could pass meaningful laws, it would be 12 years
late.”
If I were a betting
man, I would have to bet this war has been a go for months. The UN has become an irrelevant institution
when up against the goals this administration is propagating. NATO may soon be irrelevant as well, with
three member countries detesting a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.
Several hours after
Saddam produced his cry to stop weapons importation and production, Hans Blix
and nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei explained to the UN Security Council that
they had found “no evidence Iraq had resumed its nuclear weapons program.” But apparently the hawks in Washington don’t
need UN evidence, or international support to proceed with such an attack.
Currently the United
States and Britain have over 200,000 troops in and around the Gulf region, and
next week they expect to produce their own resolution- authorizing a military
strike with the backing of the few remaining ally countries. NATO will be disregarded, as well as any
authorization the UN could earmark. The
inspections that have been going on since November will be rendered
meaningless.
Dissent over the
weekend is expected to be on display worldwide, with the largest protests in a
decade expected in New York and San Francisco.
The world is crying for a peaceful response to the Bush Administration’s
unyielding attempts to force Saddam out.
But the war movement
must be prepared to counter Bush once his bombs begin to fall on Baghdad. Election season is approaching quickly and
anti-war activists must rally Washington politicians who oppose this attack to
start speaking out. They must take
after US Senator Robert Byrd’s speech displayed last week, in which he stated
that this administration “has turned the patient art of diplomacy into threats,
labeling, and name calling…..which will have consequences for years to
come.” We need a broad coalition of
politicians in DC to begin their own rants and questions about this war.
The attack on Iraq now
seems imminent, opposition among citizens is mounting, and dissent among the
international community is soaring. It
is way past due for more opponents in Washington to begin stonewalling Bush-
forcing the administration to allow more time for UN inspectors to work.
The loose cannons in the White House can no longer afford
more division on the Iraq issue; Bush’s mastermind Karl Rove is losing his
footing among supporters- this only means as dissidents we have to stay
vigilant- we can still win this.
Josh Frank is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com