What are the real intentions behind the Bush Administrations quest to invade Iraq? I think its important to learn all the facts before one erroneously decides or is misled into thinking that invasion is the only way to safeguard world peace… An excellent analysis follows.
Understanding US Policy with Iraq](Understanding US Policy with Iraq : Indybay) San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Nov 23, 2002
War is not inevitable. However, our “leaders” are not the ones who will stop it.
Understanding US policy with Iraq.
**To any informed critic of United States foreign policy, the Bush administration’s intentions should be chillingly clear: the United States is going to invade Iraq, and its reasons have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), or that country’s despotic dictator. **
The United Nations’ “resolutions” that have been set before Iraq are such that no sovereign nation could ever be expected to comply with them. Iraq must open itself to UN inspectors, and allow them unfettered access to factories, universities, hospitals, religious shrines and other historic sites. Iraq must also allow UN inspectors to randomly detain Iraqi civilians for questioning. However, the most ominous component of these resolutions is the requirement that Iraq furnish a manifest of its entire “weapons program”—a program, which according to many observers (including conservative Republicans and CIA members) has been destroyed. Simply put, the Bush administration is demanding that Iraq divulge the particulars of a weapons program that has not existed since 1991.To name oil as the US’s chief concern in Iraq is to state the obvious. No serious observer of American politics could ever believe that US policy with Iraq is driven by anything else. Less known to most Americans, however, is the 40-year history of US meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs.
In 1958, a revolution brought a popular nationalist government to power in Iraq. The CIA immediately plotted the assassination of the new Iraqi president, Abdel Karim Kassem. Simultaneously, US military leaders in central Asia devised a military plan for invading northern Iraq and seizing the oil fields there. Code-named Operation Cannonbone, the plan targeted the same areas designated as no-fly zones in 1991.
In 1963, President Kassem and thousands of his supporters were massacred in CIA orchestrated coup. Not long thereafter, Saddam Hussein was brought to power by US covert action.
What was it about the Kassem government that the United States found so insufferable? Was Kassem thought to be stockpiling nuclear weapons? Had Iraq shown any desire to invade its neighbors? Had Kassem ruled Iraq with and iron fist? No. None of these things held true. **The government of Abdel Karim Kassem was brought down for the same reason the US now seeks Hussein’s ouster—to wit: control of oil. However, to that end, the Bush administration is seeking “regime change” by more decisive and conclusive means.
If the Bush strategy is successful, the US will invade and occupy Iraq, and then rule the Middle Eastern country by martial law. It is not again resorting to covert action to change the Iraqi leadership for the simple reason that coups d’etat have a tendency to backfire and bring other “uncooperative” leaders to power. Examples of this include Hussein’s own accession to power as well as the installation of Manuel Noriega, as ruler of Panama.
It is also worth noting that when a CIA coup in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s failed to eliminate President Juan Bosch, the US invaded that country outright. In the case of Iraq, not only have coups failed to bring about the desired regime change, but bombings and sanctions, which have resulted in the deaths of close to two million people, have also been inefficacious—for the United States’ purposes. Therefore, full-scale invasion and colonization will be the methods of choice this time around.**
The US led offensive against Iraq in 1991 was abruptly shut down after it was discovered that an internal revolt against the Hussein government was taking place. Had the revolt in Iraq succeeded, it might have brought a legitimate revolutionary government to power—hence, an even bigger headache for the Western oil gangsters. Therefore, the Bush administration halted the offensive against Iraq in order that Hussein could use his military to crush the insurgent forces seeking to overthrow him. **Since the end of the Gulf War, the US has relied solely on the use of sanctions to bring about the desired regime change in Iraq. Unfortunately, the sanctions (worth the price according to the ghastly Madeleine Albright) have brought mass immiseration to Iraq but not the replacement of the Iraqi leadership with a Washington/Wall Street friendly comprador regime. **