The U.S. media has dutifully echoed Bush’s doubletalk about the weapons inspections. The New York Times editorialized Friday that “there is no way a group of 100 or so arms experts in a California-size country like Iraq” can find weapons of mass destruction. Having previously argued that the administration should proceed through the U.N. inspections regime, the newspaper’s editorial board now dismisses the program as useless.
The Times has likewise echoed the administration’s desire to secure
“cooperation from knowledgeable Iraqis.” On December 1 the Times foreign policy columnist, Thomas Friedman, published an op-ed piece intended to legitimize the scheme to capture Iraqi scientists and extract testimony about Iraqi weapons programs. As the World Socialist Web Site noted [See below: “Friedman of the Times executes an assignment for the Pentagon”], Friedman’s column rehashed remarks recently made by Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board and a rabid advocate of war against Iraq, to a meeting of British members of Parliament.
While U.N. officials have indicated that analyzing the Iraqi declaration could take weeks, and the inspections themselves as long as a year, the Bush administration has no intention of waiting. The military clock is already running, with tens of thousands of soldiers deployed within striking distance of Iraq and four aircraft carrier battle groups set to mass in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean in the coming weeks.
Bill Vann and Barry Grey
Courtesy World Socialist Web Site: http://www.wsws.org
See Also:
Britain’s dossier on Iraq: human rights as a pretext for war
[5 December 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/doss-d05.shtml
Inventing a pretext for war against Iraq
Friedman of the Times executes an assignment for the Pentagon
[3 December 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/frie-d03.shtml
Bush advisor tells British MPs: war against Iraq regardless of UN findings
[26 November 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/nov2002/perl-n26.shtml
The Times has likewise echoed the administration’s desire to secure
“cooperation from knowledgeable Iraqis.” On December 1 the Times foreign policy columnist, Thomas Friedman, published an op-ed piece intended to legitimize the scheme to capture Iraqi scientists and extract testimony about Iraqi weapons programs. As the World Socialist Web Site noted [See below: “Friedman of the Times executes an assignment for the Pentagon”], Friedman’s column rehashed remarks recently made by Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board and a rabid advocate of war against Iraq, to a meeting of British members of Parliament.
While U.N. officials have indicated that analyzing the Iraqi declaration could take weeks, and the inspections themselves as long as a year, the Bush administration has no intention of waiting. The military clock is already running, with tens of thousands of soldiers deployed within striking distance of Iraq and four aircraft carrier battle groups set to mass in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean in the coming weeks.
Bill Vann and Barry Grey
Courtesy World Socialist Web Site: http://www.wsws.org
See Also:
Britain’s dossier on Iraq: human rights as a pretext for war
[5 December 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/doss-d05.shtml
Inventing a pretext for war against Iraq
Friedman of the Times executes an assignment for the Pentagon
[3 December 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/frie-d03.shtml
Bush advisor tells British MPs: war against Iraq regardless of UN findings
[26 November 2002] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/nov2002/perl-n26.shtml