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This War Could Cost You Your SUV by James Brooks A recent editorial expressed a common perception: "There doesn't seem to be any question in the minds of anyone in this country, no matter whether they supported or opposed the move to war with Iraq, that we're going to win the war." Unfortunately, respected world news and foreign intelligence sources available on the internet portray a war very different, and much grimmer, than the one now appearing on your TV set. Look up the BBC and the Guardian UK for a modest start. A senior source at the BBC confessed yesterday, "We're getting more truth out of Baghdad than the Pentagon at the moment." Scott Ritter is a Republican who voted for Bush, a Gulf War vet and former chief UNSCOM inspector in Iraq. On March 24, Ritter said, "We will not win this fight. America will lose this war." He argues the "coalition's" success depends on Iraqis wanting Bush more than Saddam; they don't. To the Iraqis, we are imperial invaders destroying and occupying their nation. The more we bomb them, the more determined they will be to attack us at every opportunity. If do we kill Saddam, he will die a martyr, and the "battle for hearts and minds" will die with him. We're in a guerilla war. Iraqis will not consider themselves liberated until they drive us out. Our military is caught in the middle. Rumsfeld called the brass "cowards" when they opposed war last summer. Last month he countermanded General Franks' order for two more heavy divisions to Iraq; he said they'd be unnecessary for his Blitzkrieg to Baghdad. Now that our troops are bogged down on a thin front over 200 miles, nearly surrounded by hostile forces, Rumsfeld orders another 100,000 GIs. It will take them about five weeks to ship in and become effective. According to the Washington Post, CIA tried to warn the Bush gang that Iraqis might resist our attempts to "liberate" them, using guerilla tactics. They were ignored, just as they were ignored when they said Saddam did not have nukes or pose a significant threat. Instead, the Bushies believed in their own power, and the poison promises of Iraqi "opposition leaders": Iraq will welcome American soldiers! US and British military intelligence also seem to have dropped the ball. Imagine how Generals Myers and Franks feel right now. Pretty teed off, by all reports. "We find ourselves with fewer than 120,000 boots on the ground", Scott Ritter notes, "facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million -- who are concentrated at urban areas." Just about the size of Vietnam. After twenty years and two million people dead, we lost that war. We were the invaders. The people made enormous sacrifices to drive us out, and millions of GIs made enormous sacrifices fighting someone else's losing battle. Operation Iraqi Freedom? Is that anything like our liberation of Afghanistan, where Karzai's ramrodded regime still needs a US military guard and is virtually powerless outside Kabul? Where warlords are fighting and the Taliban are back and American soldiers are everybody's target? Well, we democratized it. Onward to Iraq! We'll never forget Afghanistan again! If we eventually gain some kind of control in Baghdad (the Brits will "maintain" the south), Bush's Iraq may turn into a California-sized Palestine, a hostile and illegal occupation in the Israeli style, until "the terrorism stops." With no respect for the extraordinary stamina, social cohesion and bravery of the Palestinian people in the world's longest war of occupation, Bush had no idea of what he was getting us into in Iraq. Israel can't sustain such nonsense without billions of our tax dollars every year. Who will support us? One complaint is expressed all around the world: "The US war on Iraq is illegal aggression." The world takes international law seriously. But for a long time it has felt obliged to accept certain US indiscretions. For example, it has allowed us to block the legal solution for Palestine and Israel, a mistake it regrets more with each passing day. But this time we stepped over the line. Now the world is outraged - a blatantly illegal American war in the heart of the Middle East? No, this time we will not get a pass. Think the UN doesn't work? To stop this war, it doesn't have to. Even if we are spared terrorist reprisals, the world can apply convincing pressure to stop Bush's war that will hurt every American for years to come, with no more violence than the stroke of a pen. It's the economy,..dear reader. We wildly overestimate our economic strength. We are far and away the world's largest debtor nation. Our manufacturing base has been shrinking for thirty years. Our balance of trade deficit is at record levels and growing. Bush is ballooning the Federal deficit at alarming rates. Our savings base is nil. Our stocks are highly questionable, with no serious effort to root out endemic book cooking. The last prop supporting our standard of living is the highly inflated dollar, and now it's deflating. The nearly 100 nations opposing Bush's Blunder include OPEC and all the major powers except Britain and Japan. Some have already withdrawn assets from our financial system, and the trend is increasing. A popular global boycott of US goods is mushrooming, and is sure to impact soon. If the war gets worse, as now seems inevitable, bad water and malnutrition will begin killing thousands of Iraqi mothers and children, again. But this time they will die on global television. The world powers could reach for a bigger gun; they could start trading oil in euros. Saddam switched in 2000 and made a hefty profit; the euro gained 17% against the dollar last year. Switching to petroeuros would cushion the impact of our failing economy for other countries, boosting the euro to boot. It would also terminate the dollar's thirty-year lock on global oil sales, which would instantly reduce its value, our wealth, and our trade leverage with other nations. OPEC and the big powers wouldn't switch all at once; that would devastate us and trigger a global depression. They would do it in steps, just enough to make it hurt, until Bush starts to listen. Or they could attack the dollar in currency markets, or use any of the dirty tricks we've employed for fifty years to destabilize regimes. We are very vulnerable. This unwinnable war could cost you your SUV, and maybe your house. For the Iraqi people, for America, and for our brave and able troops, who should never have to fight illegal and unprovoked wars, we must withdraw from Iraq as gracefully as we can. It's not a defeat, it's a reality check. Declare victory and get out, as Vermont Sen. George Aiken said of Vietnam. Bush's propaganda team is up to that, don't you think? He has already savaged the world's respect for America. Withdrawal from Iraq is the first thing we must do to salvage it, and recover our nation's future. selected sources: The Times Argus, Barre, VT, March 26, 2003, "War details" BBC
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Question The
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Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth James
Brooks James Brooks of Worcester, Vermont, is an independent researcher, writer, and former business owner. His recent articles have been published by several Web sites covering the Middle East, investigative journalism and alternative politics. Currently Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel (www.vermontsun.net) and publishes News Links, a free, once-daily (Mon-Sat) e-mail digest of in-depth Middle East news and commentary. To subscribe, contact jamiedb@attglobal.net.
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