Friday 13 September 2002

The Dirtiest of Dirty Wars

by Michael Rivero

Just for a moment, let's stop the beating of the war drum and take a look at the facts. Iraq hasn't done anything to anyone that justifies Bush's desired invasion. Even the US Government has now admitted it had no basis for the claim that Iraq had any connection with 9-11. Why then the constant attempt to subvert anger and indignation for 9-11 towards a war in Iraq, especially when evidence does exist (classified by the US Government) that points in another direction? There is no proof that Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction. The ones the US gave Saddam to use on Iran are gone. There is no proof that Iraq would actually use weapons of mass destruction in a non-defensive role even if they exist, with both the US and Israel major nuclear powers, and the US historically proven as willing to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations. Is defiance of the UN alone justification for invasion? If so, then why not invade Israel, which has defined far more UN resolutions than Iraq ever has, and invaded far more of its neighbors than Iraq ever has while concealing its own arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Why is there no demand for the UN inspectors to examine the arsenals of all aggressor nations equally?

The reason is simple. Weapons inspections are just an excuse, a pretext, for an invasion. The reality is that decades of bad economic policy have placed the US Government on the edge of bankruptcy. The interest on the Federal Debt now exceeds the total income tax paid by every American tax payer. The balance deficit stands at record highs. Taken together, these truths must eventually drive the value of the dollar down. When that happens, that portion of the government debt held by foreign interests will explode as the exchange rates shift. Where today the US Government owes a million, tomorrow it will be three million, or five, or worse. Barely able to meet the interest payments now, and with a finite upper limit on tax revenues from a population already forced to accept lower paying jobs with each passing week, the US Government will default on its loans.

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