See. I told you so! There is often a smug feeling of satisfaction when this titular phrase is used. But no self-indulgent pleasure can be derived when we speak of the regretful situation in Iraq. It defines the continuing immorality against humans and was conveyed by none other than the president of the United States of America.
Today, as more and more information on the pre-planning and thinking behind this heinous crime is filtering to the surface, our reservations three years ago on the subject of an illegal invasion and occupation are being substantiated. In a campaign based on lies, greed, and the wiles of Ariel Sharon of Israel, Bush’s military adventurism into Iraq has produced none of those lofty results that he had promised his people.
It is now documented that the planned invasion of Iraq began long before the events of Sept. 11. There have been reports from US federal agencies that the White House chose to ignore warnings on possible terrorist attacks on American soil, perhaps to bring together the impetus needed to garner world sympathy and license these “democratic lawmakers” to pursue their diabolical objectives.
To manipulate his own constituents into a state of fear, in a State of the Union address back in January 2003, Bush stated “Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent...US intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents...We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas.”
And to tie Al-Qaeda in this whole scheme, some more fabrication was needed. “Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al-Qaeda,” stated Bush. All these statements today have proved to be false.
A couple of months later, oil hungry Vice President Dick Cheney on “Meet the Press” stated: “We know he’s been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
We all know what happened next. Following the “shock and awe” display of power boasted by Rumsfeld, there were no garlands of flowers, no rejoicing in the streets. Instead there were rising US body counts and coercion by the US military against Iraqi doctors who were brave enough to tell the world of the “other” unreported body counts, that of Iraqi civilians.
There were indiscriminate killings, and some with more intent. The bombings of Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad and the murder of one of their correspondents were not in error. They were simply following a similar pattern of when the US bombed the Kabul offices of Al-Jazeera just before the Northern Alliance entered the city. The attempted killing of an Italian journalist, shocked at the atrocities she had witnessed firsthand at Fallujah, took place at a US military checkpoint soon after. To top it off, the Commander in Chief himself made clear to Tony Blair of the UK that he wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere.
Lame or feeble attempts by some naïve columnists cannot diminish the sinister attempts by this administration to silence the truth at any cost. So long as the simple folks back home don’t know the real story, everything shall be hunky dory.
Guantanamo, Abu Ghuraib, and scores of secret torture chambers spread out in eastern European countries marks the underhandedness of this administration. The use of outlawed weaponry and chemical warfare used against civilians in Fallujah and elsewhere is a despicable affront to humanity. There is enough hard evidence to reveal that white phosphorus was deployed as a weapon in Fallujah. US infantry officers confessed that they had used it.
White phosphorus burns people, and is both incendiary and toxic. The gas it produces attacks the mucous membranes, the eyes and the lungs. The US Army knows that its use as a weapon is illegal, but yet there were no attempts by Bush and company to forbid its use. Talk about chemical warfare against the innocent!
In a statement to the BBC recently, Peter Kaiser of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons stated, “If...the toxic properties of white phosphorus are specifically intended to be used as a weapon, that of course is prohibited, because...any chemicals used against humans or animals that cause harm or death through the toxic properties of the chemical are considered chemical weapons.”
One eventually loses score of the numerous war crimes that have been committed as a result of this illegal and immoral invasion. Nor would one column or ten be sufficient to highlight all these crimes. Over a 100,000 innocent civilians, many who were just children, have lost their lives because of Bush’s adventurism. There is indeed no ‘pie in your face’ sense of satisfaction in all of this.
Today, as I watch the pitiful figure of Saddam Hussein in court, on trial facing charges of crimes against humanity while he was in command, I ask myself: “Shouldn’t Mr. Bush, et al, be sharing the seat next to him?”
