The war on Iraq:
Conceived in IsraelBy Stephen J. Sniegoski
Posted February 10, 2003
NOTES
1. Paul W. Schroeder, "Iraq: The Case Against Preemptive War," The American Conservative, October, 21, 2002, http://www.amconmag.com/10_21/iraq.html.
In fact the spectacle of a powerful nation under the direction of a weaker one is not unprecedented. The great revisionist diplomatic historian Charles C. Tansill maintained: "The main objective of American foreign policy since 1900 has been the preservation of the British Empire." (Back Door to War [Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1952], p. 3.)
Britain was able to achieve her goal through media propaganda and sympathizers in high places in the United States. See Nicholas John Cull, Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign against American "Neutrality" in World War II (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 (Washington: Brassey's, 1998). [Back to the text.]
2. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 231. On the connections among Jews, Zionism, and neoconservatism, see Paul Gottfried, The Conservative Movement (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993); J. J. Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the Jewish Establishment (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1996), pp. 159-162; Peter Steinfels, The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979); Gary Dorrien, The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture, and the War of Ideology (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1993); and James Neuchterlein, "This Time: Neoconservatism Redux," First Things, 66 (October 1996), pp. 7-8, http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9610/opinion/neuchterlein.html. [Back to the text.]
3. Joshua Micah Marshall, "Bomb Sadddam?: How the obsession of a few neocon hawks became the central goal of U.S. foreign policy," Washington Monthly, June 2002, http://washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.marshall.html; and Kathleen and Bill Christison, "A Rose By Another Other Name: The Bush Administration's Dual Loyalties," CounterPunch, December 13, 2002, http://www.counterpunch.org/christison1213.html.
See also Christopher Matthews, "The road to Baghdad," San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 2002, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/24/IN164155.DTL; Justin Raimondo, "Our Hijacked Foreign Policy: Neoconservatives take Washington ó Baghdad is next," March 25, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j032502.html; Holger Jensen, "Pre-Emption, Disarmament Or Regime Change? Part III," October 7, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/orig/jensen1b.html; Scott McConnell, "The Struggle over War Aims: Bush versus the Neo-Cons," September 25, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/mcconnell/mc092501.html; and Jim Lobe, "Neoconservatives Consolidate Control over U.S. Mideast Policy," Foreign Policy in Focus, December 6, 2002, http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/commentary/2002/0212abrams.html.
As will become obvious, much of the material in this essay derives from authors who express the belief that neoconservatives are a leading force for war with Iraq. [Back to the text.]
4. Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000), pp.404-5. For a history of Zionist ideas on expulsion, see Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (Washington: Institute of Palestine Studies, 1992). [Back to the text.]
5. Quoted in Norman Finkelstein, "Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict," Introduction to German edition (10 July 2002), http://normanfinkelstein.com/id127.htm. [Back to the text.]
6. Finkelstein, "Image and Reality." [Back to the text.]
7. Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden History of Zionism, Chapter 12, "Strategy for Conquest," 1988, http://www.balkanunity.org/mideast/english/zionism/ch12.htm. [Back to the text.]
8. Yehoshafat Harkabi, Israel's Fateful Hour (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 57-58. [Back to the text.]
9. Stephen R. Shalom, "The United States and the Iran-Iraq War," http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/ShalomIranIraq.html; Jeremy Scahill, "The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet," Common Dreams, August 2, 2002, http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm; Robert Windrem, "Rumsfeld key player in Iraq policy shift," MSNBC, August 18, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/795649.asp; Chris Bury, "The U.S.-Iraq relationship was not always about confrontation," September 18, 2002, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/us_iraq_history_1_020917.html; and Michael Dobbs, "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup," Washington Post, December 30, 2002, p. A-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52241-2002Dec29.html. [Back to the text.]
10. Ginsberg, p. 208. [Back to the text.]
11. Christopher Layne, "Why the Gulf War was Not in the National Interest," The Atlantic, July 1991, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/91jul/layne.htm. [Back to the text.]
12. Arnold Beichman, "How the divide over Iraq strategies began," Washington Times, November 27, 2002, http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/beichman.htm. [Back to the text.]
13. Warren Strobel, "Bush won't back loan to Jewish state," Washington Times, March 18, 1992, p. A-7; Michael Hedge, "Israeli lobby president resigns over promises," Washington Times, November 4, 1992, p. A-3; "Loan Guarantees for Israel," Washington Times, September 11, 1992, p. F-2; Frank Gaffney, Jr., "Neocon job that begs for answers," October 13, 1992, p. F-1; Andrew Borowiec, "Group counters Bush on Israel," Washington Times, February 27, 1992, p. A-1; and Ginsberg, pp. 218-23.
An interesting side note: In Jewish Power, J.J. Goldberg observes (p. 234) that "in 1991, at the height of the Bush administration's confrontation with Israel, no fewer than seven of the nineteen assistant secretaries in the State Department were Jews." [Back to the text.]
14. The neonconservative takeover of the mainstream conservative intellectual movement is recounted by Paul Gottfried in The Conservative Movement. [Back to the text.]
15. Brian Whitaker, "US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy," The Guardian, August 19, 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,777100,00.html . [Back to the text.]
16. Jason Vest, "The Men From JINSA and CSP," The Nation, September 2, 2002, http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest&c=1. [Back to the text.]
17. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
18. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
19. The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000," "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm. [Back to the text.]
20. "Open Letter to the President," February 19, 1998, http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/rumsfeld-openletter.htm; Frank Gaffney, "End Saddam's Reign of Terror: Better late than never," National Review Online, February 21, 2002, http://www.nationalreview.com/contributors/gaffney022101.shtml. [Back to the text.]
21. Rumsfeld has a long record as an avid supporter of Israel. For example, he has spoken at "Solidarity with Israel" dinners hosted by the "International Fellowship of Christians and Jews." Michael Gillespie, "Bill Moyers, modernity, Islam," Middle East Times, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-30/opin/bill_moyers.htm. [Back to the text.]
22. "Open Letter to the President," February 19, 1998, http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/rumsfeld-openletter.htm; and Gaffney, "End Saddam's Reign of Terror," http://www.nationalreview.com/contributors/gaffney022101.shtml. [Back to the text.]
23. Seymour Hersh, "The Iraq Hawks," New Yorker, December 20, 2001, http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/targets/1220hawks.htm. [Back to the text.]
24. PNAC describes itself as follows: "Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project is an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3); the New Citizenship Project's chairman is William Kristol and its president is Gary Schmitt."
http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm. [Back to the text.]
25. Neil Mackay, "Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President," Scottish Sunday Herald, September 15, 2002, http://www.sundayherald.com/print27735. [Back to the text.]
26. Ian Urbina, "Rogues' Gallery: Who Advises Bush and Gore on the Middle East?," Middle East Report 216, Fall 2000, http://www.merip.org/mer/mer216/216_urbina.html. [Back to the text.]
27. Glenn Kessler and Peter Slevin, "Cheney Is Fulcrum of Foreign Policy: In Interagency Fights, His Views Often Prevail," Washington Post, October 13, 2002, A-1. [Back to the text.]
28. Marshall, "Bomb Saddam?" [Back to the text.]
29. Eric Boehlert, "The Armchair General," Salon, September 5, 2002, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/09/05/perle/.
Sidney Blumenthal would write that Perle "had done more to shape the administration's nuclear arms policy than perhaps any individual except Reagan himself." ("Richard Perle, Disarmed but Undeterred," Washington Post, November 23, 1987, p. B-1.) [Back to the text.]
30. Holger Jensen, "Pre-Emption, Disarmament or Regime Change? Part III," October 7, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/orig/jensen1b.html; Vest, "The men from JINSA and CSP"; and Seymour M. Hersh, "Kissinger and Nixon in the White House," The Atlantic Monthly, 24:5 (May, 1982), http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82may/hershwh2.htm. [Back to the text.]
31. Boehlert, "The Armchair General," http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/09/05/perle/. [Back to the text.]
32. Ronald Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush: Palestinians now vulnerable to expulsion," August 2001, http://desip.igc.org/SharonRoutsBush.html; and Bleier, "The Next Expulsion of the Palestinians," January 2001, http://desip.igc.org/TheNextExpulsion.html. [Back to the text.]
33. Tikva Honig-Parnass, "Israel's Recent Conviction: Apartheid in Palestine Can Only Be Preserved through Force," September 2001, Between the Lines, http://www.between-lines.org/archives/2001/sep/Tikva_Honig-Parnass.htm. [Back to the text.]
34. Bleier, "Sharon Gears Up for Expulsion," January 2002, http://desip.igc.org/SharonRoutsBush.html. [Back to the text.]
35. Tikvah Honig-Parnass, "Louder Voices of War: Manufacturing Consent at its Peak," Between the Lines, 1:8 (July 2001), quoted in Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush," http://desip.igc.org/SharonRoutsBush.html. [Back to the text.]
36. Jane's Foreign Report (July 12, 2001), quoted in Finkelstein, "Israelis Generals' Plan to 'Smash' Palestinians," July 12, 2002, Mid-East Realities, http://middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?categor y=Magazine&standalone=&num=278&month=7&year=2 001&function=text [Note: You may have to reassemble this astronomically long URL in your location window.]; and Tanya Reinhart, "The Second Half of 1948," Mid-East Realities, June 20, 2001, http://www.middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?category=Magazine&num=251&month=6&year=2001&function=text. [Back to the text.]
37. Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush." [Back to the text.]
38. James Bennet, "Spilled Blood Is Seen as Bond That Draws 2 Nations Closer," New York Times, September 12, 2001, p. A22, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/12/international/12ISRA.html; "Horrific tragedy, the media, Palestinian reaction," Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre, http://www.jmcc.org/new/01/Sep/us.htm. [Back to the text.]
39. William Safire, "The Ultimate Enemy," New York Times, September 24, 2001, http://www.embargos.de/irak/post1109/english/ultimate_enemy_nyt.htm. [Back to the text.]
40. Department of Defense News Briefing ó Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, September 13, 2001, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09132001_t0913dsd.html. [Back to the text.]
41. William Kristol & others, "Toward a Comprehensive Strategy: A letter to the president," September 20, 2001, http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document092101b.shtml; and "Project for the New American Century," http://www.newamericancentury.org/Bushletter.htm. [Back to the text.]
42. Robert Kagan and William Kristol, "The Gathering Storm," The Weekly Standard, 7:7 (October 29, 2001), http://theweeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/384thhhq.asp. [Back to the text.]
43. Eliot A. Cohen, "World War IV," The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2001, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001493. [Back to the text.]
44. Paleoconservatives are the conservative opponents of the neoconservatives. In regard to foreign policy matters, they tend to support noninterventionism. Paleocons are much less powerful than neocons. Almost all think tanks referred to as "conservative" or "right-wing" by the Establishment media are dominated by the neoconservatives. [Back to the text.]
45. Scott McConnell, "The Struggle over War Aims: Bush versus the Neo-Cons," September 25, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/mcconnell/mc092501.html. [Back to the text.]
46. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
47. Georgie Anne Geyer, "Pro-Israeli, Anti-Arab Campaigns Could Isolate America," October 25, 2001, http://www.uexpress.com/georgieannegeyer/index.cfm?uc_full_date=20011025&uc_comic=gg&uc_daction= X. [Note: This is another cosmically long URL that may have to be reassembled.] [Back to the text.]
48. Norman Podhoretz, "In Praise of the Bush Doctrine," Commentary (September 2002), http://www.ourjerusalem.com/opinion/story/opinion20020904a.html. [Back to the text.]
49. Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 49. [Back to the text.]
50. Woodward, p. 83. [Back to the text.]
51. Woodward, p. 84. [Back to the text.]
52. Patrick E. Tyler and Elaine Sciolino, "Bush's Advisers Split on Scope of Retaliation," New York Times, September 20, 2002, http://www.stanford.edu/class/intnlrel193/readings/week4/split.html; and Julian Borger, "Washington's hawk trains sights on Iraq," October 15, 2001, http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,558276,00.html. [Back to the text.]
53. Glenn Kessler, "U.S. Decision on Iraq Has Puzzling Past," Washington Post, January 12, 2003, p. A-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43909-2003Jan11.html. [Back to the text.]
54. "Bush Promises Military All It Needs to Win Long Battle Ahead, President addressed the troops at Fort Campbell, KY," November 21, 2002, U.S. Department of State, http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01112113.htm. [Back to the text.]
55. "Bush Meets with Aid Workers Rescued from Afghanistan," November 26, 2002, http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01112607.htm. [Back to the text.]
56. "President Delivers State of the Union Address," January 29, 2002, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html. [Back to the text.]
57. Matthew Engel, "Proud wife turns 'axis of evil' speech into a resignation letter," The Guardian, February 27, 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,658724,00.html. [Back to the text.]
58. Woodward, p. 330. [Back to the text.]
59. Glenn Kessler, "U.S. Decision on Iraq Has Puzzling Past," Washington Post, January 12, 2002, p. A-20. [Back to the text.]
60. Justin Raimondo, "War Party Stalled," November 20, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j112002.html. [Back to the text.]
61. Robert Fisk, "George Bush Crosses Rubicon ó But What Lies Beyond?," The Independent, November 9, 2002, http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1109-03.htm. [Back to the text.]
62. Thomas F. Ricks, "Some Top Military Brass Favor Status Quo in Iraq," Washington Post, July 28, 2002, p. A-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10749-2002Jul27?.html. [Back to the text.]
63. Richard Norton-Taylor, "British military chiefs uneasy about attack plans," The Age, July 31, 2002, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/30/1027926884871.html. [Back to the text.]
64. Justin Raimondo, "Attack of the Chicken-Hawks," August 2, 2002, http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j080202.html; and Doug Thompson, "Suddenly, the hawks are doves and the doves are hawks," Capitol Hill Blue, http://chblue.com/artman/publish/article_165.shtml. [Back to the text.]
65. Julian Borger, "Pentagon build-up reaches unstoppable momentum," The Guardian, December 31, 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866919,00.html. [Back to the text.]
66. Thomas E. Ricks, "Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies," Washington Post, August 6, 2002, p. A-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47913-2002Aug5?language=printer; and Jack Shafer, "The PowerPoint That Rocked the Pentagon: The LaRouchie defector who's advising the defense establishment on Saudi Arabia," Slate, August 7, 2002, http://slate.msn.com//?id=2069119. [Back to the text.]
67. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
68. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
69. Simon Henderson, "The Coming Saudi Showdown," The Weekly Standard, July 15, 2002, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/henderson/henderson071502.htm; and Victor Davis Hanson, "Our Enemies, the Saudis," Commentary, July/August 2002.
See also Simon Henderson, "The Saudi Way," Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2002, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002116; and Claudia Rosett, "Free Arabia," Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2002, http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=110002126. [Back to the text.]
70. Ronald Radosh, "State Department Outrage: The Firing of Stephen Schwartz," Front Page Magazine, July 2, 2002, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=1610; Stephen Schwartz, "Defeating Wahabbism," Front Page Magazine, October 25, 2002, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=4178; and Stephen Schwartz, Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror (New York: Doubleday & Co., 2002).
Among the favorable views of Schwartz: William Kristol writes that "no one has done more to expose the radical, Saudi-Wahhabi face of Islam than Stephen Schwartz." And maverick pro-war leftist Christopher Hichens chimes in that "Stephen Schwartz's work is exemplary in illuminating intra-Muslim distinctions, both historic and theological; distinctions which are of the first importance for the rest of the world to understand. He is a most articulate enemy of Islamofascism." (http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/display.pperl?isbn=0385506929)
Schwartz depicts most of Islam as peaceful, with only the Wahhabi variety being dangerous. While his argument could be used to remove some Islamic countries (such as Iraq and Iran) from the enemies list, it does not seem to have that effect. [Back to the text.]
71. Ricks, "Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies." [Back to the text.]
72. Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas, "The Saudi Money Trail," Newsweek, December 2, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/839269.asp?0cv=KB10 [Note: As of Feb. 17, 2003, this URL was returning a "cannot find" message.]; and Calvin Woodward, "Saudi princess's largess may extend to terrorists," The Associated Press, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.), November 25, 2002, http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/2218751p-2286814c.html. [Back to the text.]
73. Norman Podhoretz, "How to Win World War IV," Commentary, February 2002, http://www.counterpunch.org/pipermail/counterpunch-list/2002-February/018053.html. [Back to the text.]
74. Podhoretz, "In Praise of the Bush Doctrine." [Back to the text.]
75. Jacob A. Mundy, "Palestine: 'Transfer' or Apartheid," Eat The State, 7:6 (November 20, 2002), http://eatthestate.org/07-06/PalestineTransferApartheid.htm. [Back to the text.]
76. "Many Israelis content to see Palestinians go," in Chicago Sun-Times (March 14, 2002) (Jaffee poll); Ari Shavit, "Waiting for the sign," in Haaretz (March 22, 2002); and Tom Segev, "A black flag hangs over the idea of transfer," in Haaretz (April 5, 2002), quoted in Finkelstein, "Image and Reality." [Back to the text.]
77. Martin van Creveld, "Warning: Sharon's plan is to drive Palestinians across the Jordan," Daily Telegraph, April 28, 2002, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/28/wpal28.xml; and http://www.seeingred.com/Copy/5.3_sharons_plan.html. [Back to the text.]
78. "Urgent Plea to Prevent Massive War Crimes Comes from Israeli Academics," September 22, 2002, Mid-East Realities, http://www.middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?category=Magazine&num=752&month=9&year=2002&function=text. [Back to the text.]
79. Ibid. [Back to the text.]
80. Aluf Benn, "PM rejects Jordan's request to rule out 'transfer' in Iraq war," Ha'aretz, November 29, 2002, http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=235416&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4& sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y. [Back to the text.]
81. See Stephen J. Sniegoski, "September 11 and the origins of the 'War on Terrorism': A revisionist account," Part 3, The Last Ditch, http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/towers_3.htm. [Back to the text.]
82. Eric Margolis, "Details of U.S. victory are a little premature," Toronto Sun, December 22, 2002, http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_dec22.html. [Back to the text.]
83. For a review of Roosevelt's efforts to get the United States into the war, see Stephen J. Sniegoski, "The Case for Pearl Harbor Revisionism," The Occidental Quarterly, 1:2 (Winter 2001), http://www.charlesmartelsociety.org/toq/vol1no2/ss-pearlharbor.html; and "Pearl Harbor: Facing facts," The Last Ditch, http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/pearl.htm. [Back to the text.]
84. Undersecretary of Commerce Grant Aldonas told a business forum that a war in Iraq "would open up this spigot on Iraqi oil, which certainly would have a profound effect in terms of the performance of the world economy for those countries that are manufacturers and oil consumers." Michael Moran and Alex Johnson, "Oil after Saddam: All bets are in," MSNBC News, November 7, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/823985.asp?0sl=-10#BODY. [Back to the text.]
85. Anthony Sampson, "Oilmen don't want another Suez," Guardian Unlimited, December 22, 2002,. http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,864336,00.html. Sampson is the author of The Seven Sisters (New York: Bantam Books, 1976), which deals with Big Oil and the Middle East.
Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway write:
Officials of several major firms said they were taking care to avoiding playing any role in the debate in Washington over how to proceed on Iraq. "There's no real upside for American oil companies to take a very aggressive stance at this stage. There'll be plenty of time in the future," said James Lucier, an oil analyst with Prudential Securities. ("In Iraqi War Scenario, Oil Is Key Issue," Washington Post, September 15, 20002, p. A-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A18841-2002Sep14¬Found=true.)For MSNBC, John W. Schoen writes: "So far, U.S. oil companies have been mum on the subject of the potential spoils of war." ("Iraqi oil, American bonanza?," November 11, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/824407.asp?0bl=-0.) [Back to the text.]
86. Daniel Yergin, "A Crude View of the Crisis in Iraq," Washington Post, December 8, 2002, Page B-1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21166-2002Dec6.html. Yergin's book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991) won the Pulitzer Prize. [Back to the text.]
87. William D. Nordhaus, "Iraq: The Economic Consequences of War," New York Review of Books, December 5, 2002, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15850. See also a more extensive piece by Nordhaus, "The Economic Consequences of a War with Iraq," October 29, 2002, http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/iraq.pdf [PDF file]; and George L. Perry, "The War on Terrorism, the World Oil Market and the U.S. Economy," Analysis Paper #7, America's Response to Terrorism (rev. November 28, 2001), http://www.brookingsinstitution.org/dybdocroot/views/papers/perry/20011024.htm. [Back to the text.]
88. Robert J. Samuelson, "The Economic Impact of War," Newsweek, December 2, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/839098.asp {Note: As of February 17, 2003, this URL was returning an error message.]. [Back to the text.]
89. Quoted by Jay Bookman, "The president's real goal in Iraq," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 29, 2002, http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/29bookman.html. [Back to the text.]
90. Akiva Eldar, "They're jumping in head first," Ha'aretz, September 30, 2002, http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=214159.
For a summary of some of the non-democratic solutions the U.S. government is contemplating for postwar Iraq (including the installation of Jordanian Prince Hassan as king), see Conn Hallinan, "Favored Post- Saddam Leaders Belie Bush's Democracy Rhetoric," Foreign Policy in Focus, November 26, 2002, http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/commentary/2002/0211invasion.html; and Brian Whitaker, "Jordan prince touted to succeed Saddam," The Guardian, July 19, 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4464346,00.html. [Back to the text.]
91. "Top Republicans Break With Bush on Iraq Strategy," Todd S. Purdum and Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times, August 16, 2002, http://www.rider.edu/users/phanc/courses/350-web/mideast/iraq/topGOPbreakwGWBreiraq.htm; and Zbigniew Brzezinski, "If We Must Fight ...," Washington Post, August 18, 2002, p. B07, http://www.rider.edu/users/phanc/courses/350-web/mideast/iraq/brzezinski.htm. [Back to the text.]
92. Mark Danner, "The Struggles of Democracy and Empire," New York Times, October 10, 2002, http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/politics/1010empire.htm. [Back to the text.]
93. Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz, "Making the World Safer for Business: Instability and aggression are regarded as a threat to the global stability upon which U.S. markets depend," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1999, http://www.diaspora-net.org/food4thought/layneschwarz.htm. [Back to the text.]
94. Stratfor, "U.S. Could Become Mired in Iraq Occupation," December 30, 2002, http://world-analysis.1accesshost.com/stratfor2.html. [Back to the text.]
95. Christopher Layne, "The Power Paradox: History teaches that holding a monopoly on might ó as the United States now does ó is likely to provoke a backlash," Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2002, http://students.uwsp.edu/jwhit216/News%20Articles/LA%20Times%20Op-Ed_10-06-02_PowerParadox.htm. [Back to the text.]
96. Owen Harries, "The Anglosphere Illusion," National Interest, 63 (Spring 2001). [Back to the text.]
97. Rowan Scarborough, "U.S. ability to fight two wars doubted," Washington Times, December 25, 2002, A-1, A-9, http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021225-16818336.htm. [Back to the text.]
98. Robert Smith Thompson, A Time for War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Path to Pearl Harbor (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1991), p. 379; and Bruce M. Russet, No Clear and Present Danger: A Skeptical View of the United States Entry into World War II (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1972), pp. 53-54. [Back to the text.]
99. Joseph Sobran, "The Jewish Establishment," Sobran's, September, 1995, p. 4. Similarly, Philip Weiss, writing in the New York Observer, points out:
You don't see The Times pussyfooting when it comes to the anti-Castro lobby or the National Rifle Association, two other powerful special-interest groups. When they muscle the system, we read faintly sinister accounts of the Arlington, Va., headquarters for the gun lobby and the bland, alien Wayne LaPierre, or hysterical interviews with nutso Castro-haters on Eighth Street in Miami.... [However,] one of the difficulties about discussing this question [Jewish influence] is that the mainstream media refuse to address it directly; it's considered too sensitive. ("Holy or Unholy, Jews and Right in an Alliance," New York Observer, September 19, 2002, http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=6336.)For the power of American Jewish groups in silencing criticism of Israel, see Alexander Cochburn, "Israel and 'Anti-Semitism,'" Counterpunch, May 16, 2002, www.counterpunch.org/cockburn0516.html. [Back to the text.]
100. Robert Fisk, "The Coming Firestorm," May 27, 2002, http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk0527.html. [Back to the text.]
‘Friendly Relations Declaration’
Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,
24 October 1970
[…] Every State has the duty to refrain in its international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations. Such threats or use of force constitutes a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations and shall never be employed as a means of settling international issues.
A war of aggression constitutes a crime against the peace, for which there is responsibility under international law.
In accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, States have the duty to refrain from propaganda for wars of aggression.
Every State has the duty to refrain from the threat or use of force to violate the existing international boundaries of another State or as means of solving international disputes, including territorial disputes and problems concerning frontiers of States.
Charter of the United Nations
‘Art. 2. The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following
Principles.
- The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
- All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
- All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
- All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.’
Only three exceptions exist to this prohibition of the threat or use of force:
‘Article 107
Nothing in the present Charter shall invalidate or preclude action, in relation to any state which during the Second World War has been an enemy of any signatory to the present Charter, taken or authorized as a result of that war by the Governments having responsibility for such action.’
‘Article 39
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.’
‘Article51
self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures.’
Charter of the United Nations
CHAPTER VI – PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES
Article 33
- The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Article 2
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions, relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977
Part IV. Civilian Population
Art 13. Protection of the civilian population
- The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against the dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules shall be observed in all circumstances.
- The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.
- Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this part, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.
|
Races? Only one Human race United We Stand, Divided We Fall |
 |
No time to waste. Act now! Tomorrow it will be too late |
|
