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CounterPunch
October
8, 2002
Bush's Leaps
of Illogic Don't Answer People's Questions About War
by
ROBERT JENSEN
George Bush got one thing right in his speech
Monday night -- that "many Americans have raised legitimate
questions" about his mad rush to war with Iraq.
But he continues to misunderstand what
the American people and the rest of the world want in this debate
over war -- credible evidence, not speculation and lies; defensible
claims, not leaps of illogic; and a response to the growing skepticism
about his administration's motivations.
Take Bush's assertion that if Iraq could
"produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium
a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear
weapon in less than a year." Yes, that's likely true, but
it is the equivalent of saying, "If Iraq had a nuclear weapon,
it would have a nuclear weapon." Creating the other components
of a nuclear bomb would be relatively easy; it is the fissile
material that is the issue.
Or consider Bush's claim that "Iraq
could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical
weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists." Yes,
he could. But if for the sake of argument we accept the claim
that Hussein has stocks of usable weapons, would he give them
away? Bush reminded us  that Saddam Hussein is a power-hungry
dictator who seeks total control. Is it likely such a fellow
is going to turn over powerful weapons to an outside group that
he can't control? Especially given that Saddam is a secular nationalist
and the outside group is rooted in a fanatical theology? Is that
how someone trying to hold onto power is likely to act?
Bush at least acknowledged that we know
little about Saddam's nuclear capability, but he lied about why.
Bush claimed that Iraq barred the inspectors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency in 1998. In fact, the inspectors, along
with those from the U.N. Special Commission, were withdrawn by
their agencies -- not expelled by Iraq -- in December 1998 when
it became clear the Clinton administration was going to bomb
Iraq (as it did) and the safety of the inspectors couldn't be
guaranteed.
When Bush needed to answer people's legitimate
questions, he sidestepped them with cynical attempts to manipulate
emotion. To explain why a war is necessary now, he cited the
horror of 9/11. "We have seen that those who hate America
are willing to crash airplanes into buildings full of innocent
people. Our enemies would be no less willing -- in fact, they
would be eager -- to use biological or chemical, or a nuclear
weapon."
Yes, but the people who committed the
atrocities of 9/11 were not agents of Saddam Hussein. The fact
that one U.S. enemy used such terrorism does not mean that eveyone
who dislikes the United States and its policies is going to do
it. In fact, the only two times Hussein has dared to use chemical
weapons -- in the war with Iran and against Iraqi Kurds -- occurred
in the 1980s when he was an ally of the United States and had
our implicit support.
Bush's argument reduces to this: No one
can prove that Saddam Hussein is not planning to attack us. And
if he had a nuclear weapon, no one can prove he wouldn't use
it. And if he used it, it is possible he could destroy us. So,
to stop this unknown, unproven, unquantifiable, logic-defying
"threat gathering against us," we must go to war or
risk seeing a mushroom cloud rise over the United States.
For this, Bush is willing to risk massive
civilian casualties, the complete destruction of a people already
devastated and impoverished by one war and nearly a dozen years
of economic embargo, and a dangerously chaotic postwar world.
I cannot prove those events would come to pass, but given the
brutal way in which the United States fights wars -- with high-altitude
bombing and indiscriminate weapons, the direct targeting of civilian
infrastructure, and a consistent lack of concern for civilian
deaths -- those results are far more plausible than any of Bush's
fearmongering claims.
Bush's tactics won't stop people from
raising the obvious: It seems clear that the war plans are not
about protecting people, but about projecting power. The transparent
goal of a Bush war is to extend and deepen U.S. control over
the strategically crucial oil resources of the Middle East. A
compliant puppet government in Baghdad will solidify U.S. power
in the region, through influence over the flow of oil and the
establishment of what would almost certainly become a permanent
U.S. base and staging area for other military actions in the
area.
Although the TV pundits and political
sycophants were quick to gush over Bush's alleged statesmanlike
demeanor and careful arguments, the legitimate questions remain.
People continue to ask them. And Bush and his administration
continue to try to paper over them with emotion, not evidence,
and rhetoric, not reason.
Bush has over the past months made clear
his contempt for the United Nations and the rest of the world.
Monday night he made crystal clear his contempt for the intelligence
of the American people as well.
Robert Jensen
is an associate professor of journalism at the University of
Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author
of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream
and the pamphlet "Citizens of the Empire."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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