-Caveat Lector- http://www.sfbayview.com/090402/armsrace090402.shtml
Arms Race in the Middle East by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin So here we are on the verge of a new war in the Middle East, a conflict that only aids Israel, while it covers up the real source of instability in the Middle East: American arming of Israel, which has led to a new regional arms race. President Bush’s administration is telling the American people and the world that he simply must invade Iraq because its leader, Saddam Hussein, you see, is threatening nuclear, chemical and biological war. Bush has also from time to time threatened to use American nuclear and conventional arms against Iran and North Korea for a similar reason. But the real problem here is that if the Iraqis are “seeking” or “building” nuclear devices or chemical and biological weapons, as is always being alleged by the Bush administration, it is because the U.S. has already given such weapons to Israel, and the other states in the region are trying to catch up. Israel has almost 400 nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines, the fourth largest army in the world, the eighth largest navy, and all the latest weapons systems. All while Iraq has a rusting armory and is under severe pressure to get rid of that. The Iraqis must look at this with wry humor, if not fear and loathing. But it is not just Iraq being pressured in this way, and that is very important to understand. The United States is preventing the Arab and Muslim states from obtaining nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction while supporting Israel’s armory and giving political rationalizations why they should have them. That is what is behind this particular planed attack. The U.S. wants to protect Israeli hegemony, giving them the right to strike, while not allowing the other countries the right to defend themselves from that strike. So U.S. arms assistance to Israel is a large part of the problem behind an arms race in the Middle East. But, for some strange reason, the U.S. looks at itself as a “neutral bystander” when it comes to events in Israel; yet the reality of massive U.S. arms sales to Israel means that Washington is deeply implicated in whatever happens there. Every gun and bullet that shoots an Arab is an American bullet, every fighter plane that bombs an apartment building or refugee camp is American, as is most of Israel’s armory. Even weapons that Israel makes for itself or buys on the international arms market are arranged or approved by the U.S. government. A conservative estimate is that Israel now receives 17-20 percent of all U.S. foreign assistance and has purchased more than $7 billion worth of U.S. weapons over the last decade - much of it financed by grants from the U.S. government. The weaponry includes more than 200 F-16 fighters, with 100 more on order. The Bush budget for fiscal 2003 will raise the military finance assistance to $2.1 billion and toss in another $28 million to buy manufactured anti-terrorism equipment. In all, Israel has received over $100 billion in American aid since the 1968 Arab-Israeli war. So one must ask: what type of double-dealing is at work here to justify a war based on a situation where the party braying the loudest about the procurement of Iraqi arms is the very party responsible for the one-sided arming of Israel, ensuring an arms race, even to secure nuclear weapons. Let’s get real here: the American government itself is responsible for this problem of nuclear proliferation and an arms race in the Middle East, and it can never be looked at as impartial partner with clean hands. For to pretend that it can negotiate a peace makes it the most hypocritical country on earth. Certainly it has no moral right to attack anyone else alleging that they are causing an arms race. It’s absolute nonsense and immoral posturing of the worst sort. To go to war under such bogus circumstances is criminal aggression. What needs to happen in the Middle East is not an attack on Iraq by the U.S., but rather an agreement by all parties, including the U.S., to make the Middle East a nuclear/weapons of mass destruction free zone. Israel must be made to give up its nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, and the other countries must made to comply with a new treaty involving all weapons of mass destruction. The disgusting American approach is just a military intervention on behalf of Israel, nothing more. According to Bahig Nassar of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a Middle East plan to make the region a WMD free zone would include five verification regimes: 1) zero nuclear weapons; 2) zero chemical weapons;3) zero biological weapons; 4) zero ballistic missiles and other delivery vehicles for WMD, and 5) zero laser systems. If you’d like to see the entire report, go to http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/bmd/nassar_bmd_alternatives_middle_east.html. Email Lorenzo Komboa Ervin 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. 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