-Caveat Lector- Good commentary. This would be a good one to download the pdf version and print copies for offline distribution.
Are you a 'friend of freedom?' By Linda Heard http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Heard012303/heard012303.html January 23, 2003�That's it folks! The leader of the free world has spoken. "The friends of freedom will disarm Saddam Hussein." Where do I sign up to be a friend of freedom you might ask? Sounds good to me. The American president [sic] went on to say: "This kind, generous and compassionate nation will lead the world to peace." Wow! We'd all like to support such a nation, wouldn't we? Who in their right mind wouldn't want to become a 'friend of freedom' helping out a kind and compassionate nation? Mr. George W. Bush sounds as though he has noble aspirations. If you really want to be a friend of freedom, the first thing you should do is find a role model. Now let's see . . . Eureka! The perfect friend of freedom is surely Britain's Tony Blair. Like the American leader, Blair also wants to "liberate the Iraqi people." These two friends of freedom are all set to do that by invading their country with up to 250,000 troops, state-of-the-art weapons, including microwave technology, and if the stubborn Iraqis don't shower them with chemicals instead of flowers and candy, then they wouldn't rule nuking them out of existence. Still want to be a friend of freedom? Our friendly duo, when they are not bribing, bamboozling and bearing down on UN member states, are busy supporting Iraqi dissident groups to help them oust the Iraqi leader and would not be averse to seeing Saddam Hussein end up with a well placed bullet in the back, as the spokesperson of the Chief Friend of Freedom, Ari Fleischer, once implied. "Live Free or Die" was obviously the motto of another one of freedom's buddies, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who, when asked whether the deaths of so many Iraqi children due to sanctions were worth the benefits, had no hesitation in saying that they were. After all, those kiddies had died for freedom didn't they? Many Americans know what it is like being a friend of freedom. Defending freedom against those nasty Commies caused the war in Vietnam, which still weighs heavy on the psyche of the more sensitive. They still remember the draft dodgers who fled to Holland and Scandinavia where they lived on the generosity of sympathisers, smoked dope and grew their hair long. They still recall how the Vietnam vets were spat on when returned home hoping for glory, and the image of the incinerated child still burns on their national conscience. Although on a much smaller scale, war with Iraq could evolve into a Vietnam replay. If the Bush/Blair combo get their way we could suffer from collective guilt for decades to come in the way that a section of the US are suffering today. Germany, too, still retains its Holocaust scars as we can see from its stringent laws concerning anti-Semitism and racism, as well as its reluctance to join in a conflict with Iraq. It is clear that the Bush administration plan to attack Iraq was in the pipeline long before Bush junior came to office. George H. W. Bush was accused of not finishing the job in 1991 and was the victim of an alleged assassination attempt, thought to have been the work of Saddam Hussein. Add to the pot the Bush family interests in both the oil and the weapons industries, along with America's geopolitical ambitions and you could find a combined raison d'etre for war. We should also take into account the right-wing southern Baptist, Christian-Zionist beliefs of many of the upper echelons of the US administration. People who believe in the Second Coming, which will only come to pass post-Armageddon, are Bush's main political support base. We still haven't found out where Bush stands on this issue. We probably never will as he has ensured that his presidential records and tapes will be sealed for a very long time to come. Another event which must take place before Jesus, as Christians believe, will return to earth is the rebuilding of the Jewish temple adjacent to where the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock stands today. Israel today enjoys enormous financial and moral support from Evangelical Christians without stopping to consider that according to Biblical prophecy, two-thirds of all Jews will be wiped out, with the other one-third having to convert to Christianity. It should be said that most followers of Christ around the world abhor this proposed conflict, including Pope John Paul II and almost every Anglican bishop. They know that when Jesus said: "Suffer the little children to come unto me for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven," he did not mean sending them there prematurely in wooden boxes. Whichever way one looks at it an invasion of Iraq would be self-serving and immoral. Already more than 500,000 Iraqi children are said to have died due to US-UK-led crippling sanctions, Iraq's water supplies have been tainted with raw sewage, and babies are still being born with deformities due to the use of depleted uranium by allied forces during the Gulf War. An entire generation in Iraq has lost its chances for education and while Iraq was once a bastion of culture and modernity in the Middle East, it is now little more than a wasteland on every level. Iraq was wrong to invade Kuwait in 1990 (some say that the US gave Hussein the green light to do so) but it has paid a heavy price for its wrongdoing. Since, Iraq has been trying to rejoin the world community, get the sanctions lifted and it has been asking for a process of forgiveness and reconciliation as was seen at the Arab League meeting held in Beirut early last year. Recently, Hussein has returned museum artifacts stolen from Kuwait in 1991 as well as important files taken out of ministry buildings. Iraq has not threatened the US in any way for the past 12 years and does not possess missiles with sufficient range to hit New York or Washington or even London. Its Scuds can reach Tel Aviv as we saw during the Gulf War and fears are that this time they could be loaded with chemical or biological weapons. The Bush administration is, of course, fully aware of this but has still seized every opportunity since September 11, 2001, to impress upon the American people and the world that Saddam Hussein is a direct threat to them. First, it began to fudge the still elusive Osama bin Laden with Saddam Hussein and wasted no time trying to pin the anthrax attacks on Iraq. Later, the creative minds in the US security agencies came up with the accusation that Mohamed Atta, one of the 19 hijackers, met with an Iraq secret service agent in Prague (this later turned out to be false). When a well-known Palestinian militant was killed in Baghdad, the Americans said that Iraq was harbouring foreign terrorist groups. Sadly few Americans can see that their government is trying, and often succeeding with the assistance of its compliant media, to pull the wool over their eyes. This propaganda has succeeded so well that today some 46 per cent of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the atrocities committed by al Queda terrorists on that fateful September day. If many Americans are hopelessly misinformed, the British, while less gullible than the Americans, and also far less gung ho, are apathetic. Most have little interest in wars fought at the other side of the world and would prefer to watch Eastenders than the news. They appear to know all about Brittany Spears, as well as Posh Spice and her footballer husband and little about their own politicians�even less about foreign policy. It's a sad state of affairs. Real friends of freedom, staring in the face a war, which could kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and may have devastating repercussions for our planet, should make their voices heard. Murdering innocents with J-dams and Daisy Cutters may be offering them a kind of freedom but I doubt that it is one that those people want. Time is now of the essence. We haven't got time to listen to the stomach-turning propaganda emanating from the White House and Number 10. We should all take a leaf out of the books of French President Jacques Chirac and Gerhardt Schroeder, the German chancellor. We must say a unanimous "no," "non," "nein," "yok"' in as many languages of the world as possible. We are being duped with flowery expressions, obfuscations and untruths. Friends of true freedom must open their eyes, see the truth and refuse to allow this dirty war to take place. Linda Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
