Editorial

Reasons for war not credible

Within days, perhaps hours, the U.S. will be at war with Iraq.

All that can now be hoped for is a swift, efficient assault that brings an end with a minimum of bloodshed.

War has been inevitable since last summer when the Bush Administration launched a campaign proclaiming a threat to the security of the United States and the world.

But the harder Bush has tried to sell a preemptive attack, the more skeptical the world has become.

There's a good reason for that: This war is not about the things Bush and his War Hawks say its about.

It's not about Al Qaeda. The Bush Administration has strained to make a connection between the Iraqi regime and Al Qaeda. It isn't there. The most reliable information about that relationship is that they hate each other. Saddam Hussein is a Baathist hitman and thug, not a religious fanatic.

Yes, there is the Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq -- but they operate in a zone that is not controlled by Baghdad.

It's not about weapons of mass destruction. Saddam may have some biological or chemical agents still hidden in Iraq.

In any case, Iraq's weapons program is severely degraded and does not compare to those of its fellow "Axis of Evil" members North Korea and Iran.

Both of those nations are well advanced in an effort to create nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.

The possibility of terrorists getting hold of chemical, biological or nuclear materials is a real threat. But the threat is widespread -- well beyond Iraq. Terrorists could obtain any or all of these weapons from North Korea, Iran, Libya, Syria, any one of several destabilized former Soviet republics...

War with Iraq won't eliminate that threat and could, by further destabilizing the region, actually increase the danger from such weapons.

It's not about democracy. The L.A. Times reported Friday, March 14, that a classified State Department report "expresses doubt that installing a new regime will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East."

The report also argues that "electoral democracy, were it to emerge, could well be subject to exploitation by anti-American elements."

We don't care about democracy in the region. Witness Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan. Much of the anger toward American policy on the part of educated, business-class Arabs stems from our willingness to stifle democratic reforms in nations where they could produce instability that threatens our interests.

Our interest is oil and hegemony. The Glasgow Sunday Herald reports that "President Bush's Cabinet agreed in April 2001 that 'Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East' and because this is an unacceptable risk to the U.S. 'military intervention' is necessary."

The Sunday Herald quotes the report "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century," commissioned by Vice President Dick Cheney from the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a think-tank set up by James Baker, former Secretary of State under George Bush Senior:

"The United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to ... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East. Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets.

"Therefore the U.S. should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/ diplomatic assessments...

"Unless the United States assumes a leadership role in the formation of new rules of the game, U.S. firms, U.S. consumers and the U.S. government (will be left) in a weaker position."

That's what this war is all about.

Of course, the Bush Administration will never tell the American people that, because the American people would never support a war based upon such motives.

So the Bush Administration hawks dress up this piece of blood-and-iron geopolitics in noble clothing and try to bribe and bully our allies into going along. The world is not buying it and, increasingly, neither is a substantial proportion of the American people.

Bush has squandered the good will of a world that joined with us to combat international terrorism.

He is destroying the unity and sense of purpose that brought this nation together in the wake of September 11 and putting the lives of thousands of dedicated soldiers on the line.

If that is the price of hegemony and cheap gas, it's too high a price to pay.