Profit for Few
Disaster for Many
A few observations about war on Iraq/Terrorism/North Korea and anybody else that is not with us:

We're not going to get the Security Council imprimatur. It would be convenient, good P.R., and a way to get most Americans, and foreign allies, on board, but it's not essential.

For all the diplomatic arm-twisting, bribes and threats that the Bush Administration are using at the U.N., the real message is, as one diplomat told the Washington Post, "You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not. That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the Council will go along with it or not." So, your vote
doesn't count, but we demand your acquiescence anyway. Working with "friends and allies," anyone?

Most Americans desperately want U.N. backing to find one thread of justification for an invasion of a country that is not a threat to the U.S., and has no demonstrable links with Al Qaeda. Bush, perhaps the most inept foreign policy President ever, prefers to go it alone and send billions around the globe to bed every night hating America. This will make us more secure?

But we do need international support, because the U.S. can't pay for the reconstruction of Iraq alone. Now it's reported that over one million officials and employees (Army, police, etc.) of the current Iraqi regime will need to be kept on at full pay, courtesy of U.S. taxpayer, for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, back in the homeland, we're losing thousands of jobs every week, while social programs are slashed and $400 billion is needed for the military. If you're in the security forces, there's a bright future ahead.

Recall, also, that we were going to rebuild Afghanistan and make it a safe place for girls to go to school. It's currently in worse shape than it was a year ago, with Al Qaeda and the Taliban planning a spring offensive to coincide with war in Iraq.

After the war in Iraq is over, will we then discover that all the rebuilding contracts are handed out to Bush cronies? After all, somebody has to pump and broker the oil, build the air strips and military bases, and shift the military from Saudi Arabia to Iraq. Why not Cheney's Haliburton and Richard Perle's Trireme Partners?

Haven't heard of the latter? Perle is the Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a DoD advisory group, whose members serve without pay, made up of ex-government officials, retired military officers and academics. Perle is not a government official but is, along with Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Bush world view. He's a managing partner in Trireme Partners, established in November 2001, which specializes in homeland security and technology goods, both home and abroad. So, on the one hand he's advising the President to war on Iraq, and not to trust the Saudis, and on the other his company is looking for contracts with the Saudi royal family and who knows what else in post-war Iraq. Not illegal, of course. Unethical, yes. Stinks, yes. "No Blood For Oil?" You decide.

Left unsaid is whether it's okay for the U.S. to wage aggressive war. Half the population of Iraq are children, boys and girls under the age of 18. What will happen to them when the cruise missiles and 25,000-pound "daisy cutters" fall? It won’t be "collateral damage". It will be flesh burned, bones shredded, and thousands killed while Americans watch it on TV.

Michael Coad

Rochester

____________