I was one of the two thousand or so protesters, who were protesting against President Bush’s address in Cincinnati Oct. 7.
I found President Bush’s speech was in full compliance with the propagated notion that the United States of America is in no way involved with any of the human rights violations of our world. This is simply not true; and facts are available to disprove this myth. Here I would like to examine Bush’s doublespeak and see if he has the right to point the finger at Iraq.
Bush stated in his speech that Iraq “possesses and produced chemical and biological weapons” and “is seeking nuclear weapons.” This might be true, however, which country has developed, stocked piled, and even sold biological and nuclear technology all over the globe? Which government has dropped nuclear weapons on other countries? Where does Bush get off pointing his finger at others?
Bush also stated that Iraq “has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people.” President Clinton stated at an “anti-terror” conference in March of 1996 that, “we must be clear in our condemnation of those who resort to terror. Violence has no place in the future we all seek in the Middle East.” This is very similar to statements Bush made. However, at the time Clinton stated this, the U.S. was supporting the Iraqi National Accord, which was terrorizing Baghdad with car bombs and other terrorist tactics.
Perhaps a better example would be our policy that pumped millions of our tax dollars into the Taliban and al Qaeda’s terror network, which allowed them to take over Afghanistan? A policy the US also supported and implemented through the CIA.
If one would point Bush’s his finger back at him, he could see that he himself is a terrorist. Professor Marc Herold, who has studied domestic and foreign press, has calculated that more than 3,700 deaths have resulted from our bombings. The vast majority of these were not terrorists: they were men, women, and children. Bush’s military action there has also turned a million or so Afghan’s into refugees, forced into camps where many die each day from hunger and exposure to the elements. There is no doubt about it even though it is hard for most Americans to admit it, we are terrorizing Afghanistan.
Next, referring to Saddam Hussein, Bush stated that, “this same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small neighbor.” While Saddam may be trying to dominate the Middle East, he is doing a really poor job since the United States has dominated the region since British and French colonial interests were weakened and our oil interest took over.
As for invading and brutally occupying small neighbors, go read the history of the United States’ interventions all throughout Latin American, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Indonesia, and others to find out what we did there and why.
The all wise Bush stated next that “Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran and on more than 40 villages in his own county. These action killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of Sept. 11.”
William Blum, a former member of the State Department stated in his second book that, “A decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, America is still saving countries and peoples from one danger or another. The scorecard reads as follows: From 1945 to the end of the century, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes. In the process, the US caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair.”
A great many of the actions that our government has taken over the course of our history have been exceedingly worse than the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The United States government has destabilized countries all across the globe and has supported some the most offensive perpetrators of human rights violations of our time. A list that include Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran, Osama bin Laden in creating his terror network, and even the evil Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which we channeled millions of dollars to.
Next, Bush accused Iraq of possessing, “ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles-far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and other nations.” This does not even come close our nuclear arsenal, which can blow up our world many times over.
Going even further, Bush declared that, “over the years, Iraq has provided safe haven to Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carried out more than 90 terrorists attacks in 20 countries that killed or injured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans.” Once again we can say the same of the good old USA. What about the Cuban exiles living in Miami? This group is quite possibly the longest surviving terrorist group in the entire world. Even as recently as 1997, they were bombing hotels in Havana. I have not witnessed the government trying to get rid of these people.
But even still Bush barked, “America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us.” This is complete hogwash. In the Gulf War that pappy Bush waged for oil, we killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, launched depleted uranium shells against them and left the radioactive material there to infect generations to come. Then, there are our economic sanctions that have killed a million Iraqi’s since the Gulf War, half of those being children. And another war with Iraq will insure that we will kill many more civilians.
There is a very good reason why many people of the world hate us; it is because our government has done, and is doing, hateful things. Please don’t misunderstand the reason for this letter. I love my country, our cultures and our values. However, there is a direct difference between the action of the average human being, and the actions taken by our so-called leaders. This is what Bush is doing right now; he is beating the drums of war in a drive to spread more hateful acts. If we wait for history to prove us wrong, we will all loose.
