lubna
08-10-2004, 13:56
Here is the Verdict
By ABID ULLAH JAN
The New York Times came out with a very fine editorial this morning (Oct 07,
2004), “The verdict is in.” However, unlike its tradition of doing right
assessments and giving wrong conclusions, this time it came with no conclusion
at all.
Instead it gave a bottom-line to the conclusion of Bush’s hand picked
investigator’s report on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. What the New York
Times calls a verdict is not a verdict at all.
It says: “Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked.” Then what? Here we find
something of value missing. It is not less than an attempt to avoid the actual
verdict in the name of verdict.
The so-called verdict is simply continuation of the same crime against humanity
that started with Bush and his team’s lies with full backing of the US media up
to the time when Bush and his allies were knee deep in innocent blood.
The whole world knew all along that Bush and his team are lying to their nation,
to the United Nations and to the whole world. The whole world knows that the
same team has been justifying the decision to invade and occupy Iraq by agreeing
with Bush that Saddam Hussein was "a gathering threat" to the United States.
Like the New York Times’ earlier belated apology for its incorrect reporting on
Iraq’s WMD, it matters little that a report which took 18 months to get prepared
— when most of the irreversible damage has already done — has now confirmed that
Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. We all knew this all along.
Similarly the New York Times verdict is nothing new. The real verdict is: Bush
and his allies were wrong and Saddam Hussain was right on the WMD issue.
As the report issued yesterday goes further to say that Iraq had no factories to
produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing
more feeble every year, it makes Bush administration and his political and
intellectual allies even more guilty for the death and destruction of thousands
of innocent lives.
Both the report and the New York Times editorial are still coming from the war
infected, biased and brainwashed mentality. That’s why both say that the
genocidal international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before
the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective.
Of course they were effective but only in killing 1.8 million Iraqis, not
eliminating WMD which did not exist in the first place. How can one call them
effective against WMD when they did not exist in the first place? How can one
call the genocidal sanctions effective when the same report concedes that the
Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons
programs if — repeat if — it did?
Now that it has been proved without any reasonable doubt that administration
officials in Washington lied and then kept on lying to try to deflect the
reality that they invaded Iraq under false pretenses and have urged critics to
wait for Mr. Duelfer's verdict on the weapons search, the verdict should be
totally different than what the New York Times is presenting as a verdict.
“Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked.” These are partial facts. Yes
sanctions worked for wiping out 1.8 million Iraqis. Yes weapons inspectors
worked but when the damage was already done. The total facts are: the basic
premise for imposing sanctions was wrong because there was no WMD program at
all. The invasion and occupation was wrong because there were no weapons of mass
destruction at all.
The actual verdict should come now as the authoritative findings of Iraq Survey
Group have now left the administration's rationale for war more tattered than
ever. It is not sufficient for the New York Times to repeat that stories of
“looming mushroom cloud conjured by the administration to stampede Congress into
authorizing an invasion - was a phantom.”
The verdict is Bush and all those who supported in his decision to invade and
occupy Iraq are guilty of mass destruction and continued massacre in Iraq. The
crisis will go on and on unless immediate steps are taken to punish the guilty
and make a course correction to clean up the mess.
1. Bush and his administration needs to be smoked out of the power houses
in Washington.
2. They should be tried as war criminals in an international court for
distorting the reality with lies upon lies, taking lives of thousands of
innocent people and making the world more unstable than it was before their much
vaunted noble war.
3. Withdraw all occupation forces from Iraq and Afghanistan within a
specified period of time and these should be replaced by UN or forces from
Muslim countries funded by the US.
4. Remove the US installed puppets and prepare the way for free and fair
elections both in Iraq and Afghanistan (with absolutely no interference of the
US whatsoever).
5. Saddam Hussein should be given political asylum in any outside country
of his choice (or the country which is willing to give him asylum) because he is
not the only dictator in the world. If his dictatorship be the criteria and
justification for punishing him, then this selective justice would not make any
difference without taking similar action against other blood suckers like Hosnie
Mubarak, Islam Karimov, General Musharraf and many other kings, sheikhs and
“democratic” Sharon ruling in the Middle East.
6. The US should pay for clearing the mess in Iraq. It should pay all
damages to Iraq for the lives it has taken and the destruction has done in the
past 18 months.
7. The UN should compensate Iraq for the damage it has inflicted on Iraq
due to the genocidal sanctions that were approved and imposed under its grand
auspices.
This is the way to fairness and justice. This is the blueprint to real freedom.
Anything less than this will simply perpetuate and intensify the global tyranny
we are facing at the hands of United States today.
By ABID ULLAH JAN
The New York Times came out with a very fine editorial this morning (Oct 07,
2004), “The verdict is in.” However, unlike its tradition of doing right
assessments and giving wrong conclusions, this time it came with no conclusion
at all.
Instead it gave a bottom-line to the conclusion of Bush’s hand picked
investigator’s report on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. What the New York
Times calls a verdict is not a verdict at all.
It says: “Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked.” Then what? Here we find
something of value missing. It is not less than an attempt to avoid the actual
verdict in the name of verdict.
The so-called verdict is simply continuation of the same crime against humanity
that started with Bush and his team’s lies with full backing of the US media up
to the time when Bush and his allies were knee deep in innocent blood.
The whole world knew all along that Bush and his team are lying to their nation,
to the United Nations and to the whole world. The whole world knows that the
same team has been justifying the decision to invade and occupy Iraq by agreeing
with Bush that Saddam Hussein was "a gathering threat" to the United States.
Like the New York Times’ earlier belated apology for its incorrect reporting on
Iraq’s WMD, it matters little that a report which took 18 months to get prepared
— when most of the irreversible damage has already done — has now confirmed that
Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. We all knew this all along.
Similarly the New York Times verdict is nothing new. The real verdict is: Bush
and his allies were wrong and Saddam Hussain was right on the WMD issue.
As the report issued yesterday goes further to say that Iraq had no factories to
produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing
more feeble every year, it makes Bush administration and his political and
intellectual allies even more guilty for the death and destruction of thousands
of innocent lives.
Both the report and the New York Times editorial are still coming from the war
infected, biased and brainwashed mentality. That’s why both say that the
genocidal international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before
the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective.
Of course they were effective but only in killing 1.8 million Iraqis, not
eliminating WMD which did not exist in the first place. How can one call them
effective against WMD when they did not exist in the first place? How can one
call the genocidal sanctions effective when the same report concedes that the
Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons
programs if — repeat if — it did?
Now that it has been proved without any reasonable doubt that administration
officials in Washington lied and then kept on lying to try to deflect the
reality that they invaded Iraq under false pretenses and have urged critics to
wait for Mr. Duelfer's verdict on the weapons search, the verdict should be
totally different than what the New York Times is presenting as a verdict.
“Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked.” These are partial facts. Yes
sanctions worked for wiping out 1.8 million Iraqis. Yes weapons inspectors
worked but when the damage was already done. The total facts are: the basic
premise for imposing sanctions was wrong because there was no WMD program at
all. The invasion and occupation was wrong because there were no weapons of mass
destruction at all.
The actual verdict should come now as the authoritative findings of Iraq Survey
Group have now left the administration's rationale for war more tattered than
ever. It is not sufficient for the New York Times to repeat that stories of
“looming mushroom cloud conjured by the administration to stampede Congress into
authorizing an invasion - was a phantom.”
The verdict is Bush and all those who supported in his decision to invade and
occupy Iraq are guilty of mass destruction and continued massacre in Iraq. The
crisis will go on and on unless immediate steps are taken to punish the guilty
and make a course correction to clean up the mess.
1. Bush and his administration needs to be smoked out of the power houses
in Washington.
2. They should be tried as war criminals in an international court for
distorting the reality with lies upon lies, taking lives of thousands of
innocent people and making the world more unstable than it was before their much
vaunted noble war.
3. Withdraw all occupation forces from Iraq and Afghanistan within a
specified period of time and these should be replaced by UN or forces from
Muslim countries funded by the US.
4. Remove the US installed puppets and prepare the way for free and fair
elections both in Iraq and Afghanistan (with absolutely no interference of the
US whatsoever).
5. Saddam Hussein should be given political asylum in any outside country
of his choice (or the country which is willing to give him asylum) because he is
not the only dictator in the world. If his dictatorship be the criteria and
justification for punishing him, then this selective justice would not make any
difference without taking similar action against other blood suckers like Hosnie
Mubarak, Islam Karimov, General Musharraf and many other kings, sheikhs and
“democratic” Sharon ruling in the Middle East.
6. The US should pay for clearing the mess in Iraq. It should pay all
damages to Iraq for the lives it has taken and the destruction has done in the
past 18 months.
7. The UN should compensate Iraq for the damage it has inflicted on Iraq
due to the genocidal sanctions that were approved and imposed under its grand
auspices.
This is the way to fairness and justice. This is the blueprint to real freedom.
Anything less than this will simply perpetuate and intensify the global tyranny
we are facing at the hands of United States today.