NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5989

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Subject: Bush War as Election Gimmick
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Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit


            Bush Exposed as Using War in Election Run

                        By Charles Knight

The Bush White House dropped a news bombshell on the eve of the
Republican Convention, threatening to provoke a confrontation
with Iraq that could lead to renewed bombing and rocket attacks.

Antiwar forces immediately mobilized around the country. "Bush is
trying to bomb his way into the White House," declared Sara
Flounders of the National Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in
the Middle East. She added that the guise of `protecting the
Shiites' is "really theft of the huge Rumallah oil fields in the
south of Iraq."

The U.S. plan called on the United Nations inspection team in
Iraq to demand access to Baghdad's Ministry of Military
Industrialization -- which they already inspected and found
nothing. If Iraqi officials refuse to cooperate, U.S. cruise
missiles or carrier-based aircraft "would strike the building in
short order," U.S. government officials told the New York Times.

Bush and his advisers wanted UN inspectors to also demand entry
to Iraq's Ministry of Defense -- again, any refusal would trigger
air assaults. The New York Times Aug. 16 report said nine targets
have been selected, "not because American intelligence has
identified specific documents hidden there, but because the
buildings are so important to Mr. Hussein's overall survival that
he is certain to refuse access."

A cynical election gimmick

The plan is so cynical that even Bush administration officials
themselves, in a leak to the New York Times Aug. 16, admitted "we
are going to stage an incident" that might "help get the
president re-elected."

Bush angrily denied his brinksmanship was aimed at helping his
sagging re-election campaign. His deputy campaign manager called
the charge "total trash" and Defense Secretary Cheney called it
"goofy."

But Bush also said "there's been a clear breach of security,"
referring to the Aug. 16 New York Times report. And a follow-up
article Aug. 17 said the White House "had second thoughts" after
the Aug. 16 expose. "The publicity killed the idea of any
confrontation," a Defense Department official admitted. Defense
Secretary Richard Cheney appeared on the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour
fuming: "I'm outraged," he said, calling the exposure "a new low
in political reporting."

In the midst of all these denials, Bush administration officials
admitted the Pentagon sent an "air war planning unit" to Saudi
Arabia last week.

It's the second time in less than a month for U.S. war
provocations against Iraq. In late July Washington used the
pretext of Iraq's refusal to allow inspection of its Agriculture
Ministry to threaten full-scale attack. Aircraft carriers and
other warships were rushed to the Gulf.

When the pressure died down, the Pentagon announced large-scale
"war games" to start Aug. 2 in Kuwait. Workers World on July 28
cited a rash of reports that U.S. war planners are "laying the
groundwork" for "a larger attack on a wider range of Iraqi
targets that might seem justified by the issue of the agriculture
building or any other single site."

Plan to seize control of oil fields

Bombing ministry buildings is just one part of the plan. It was
revealed Aug. 16 that Bush and the Pentagon are also "seeking
allied support for military action in southern Iraq."

It has claimed a "humanitarian" desire to "protect" Shiites in
southern Iraq and Kurds in the north. But the July 29 Los Angeles
Times revealed the real goal: to seize control of Iraq's two
strategic oil centers in the north and south, and leave the
middle region around Baghdad impoverished and isolated from the
rest of the country.

Iraq has accused Washington of a secret bombing campaign against
agricultural fields in northern Iraq that has destroyed 11,000
acres of wheatfields in 31 raids since May 27.

Arab opposition

"New military assaults against Iraq are totally unacceptable to
Arab public opinion now," declared Said Yassin, director of the
Jordan-based Arab Thought Forum. "Most Arabs have become
convinced that it is the Arab nation of Iraq that is the target
of the West now, and not the Iraqi regime," he said.

Even among Washington's allies consultation had "bogged down" on
details of the war plans.

The ultraright, the bedrock of Bush's electoral base, wants him
to go even further. William Safire, a former presidential aide to
Richard Nixon, outlined a plan for full-scale military action to
"finish" the Gulf war, dismember Iraq and set up a regime to
Washington's liking. Anything less, he said, "would be a stunt."

Democratic candidate Bill Clinton has refused to comment, saying
"there can only be one president at a time." But he is on record
favoring exactly the same tactics against Iraq as the Bush
administration -- if not even more aggressive.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "[e-mail]".)


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