war is peace

Somewhere over at the Ministry of Truth you can bet that Winston Smith is putting in some late hours this week.



We now learn that George W. Bush invaded Iraq knowing full well that Saddam Hussein had no chemical weapons; no biological weapons; and no nuclear weapons. In fact, that he had no banned weapons at all, not even "weapons related program activities."



That is the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group, which was created by George Bush with the specific assignment of proving his case for removing Hussein. But Bush's own hand-picked group of investigators has found the facts to be precisely the opposite of what Bush and his band of thugs has been telling the American people: the much-maligned international regime of sanctions and weapons containment was working exactly as it was supposed to. Following the war over Kuwait Saddam Hussein was progressively disarmed and he never re-started the banned offensive programs.



The plan fact is this: the world was successfully dealing with Saddam Hussein without any need for an American invasion. In other words, this was a totally optional war. The invasion of Iraq was a choice made by Bush who then lied to America and the world to convince us otherwise.



So how do George Bush and his cronies react?

First, deny reality: "As soon as the sanctions were lifted, he had every intention of going back," asserted Dick Cheney, "delay, defer, wait, wasn't an option." In Cheney's world merely having the desire to commit a crime is enough to get your country invaded and occupied and land you in the slammer without a trial.



Then, change the subject: "Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to influence countries and companies," added George Bush. So forget about all that stuff about WMD, ties to al Qaeda, state sponsor of terror and so on, Hussein was a shake-down artist and that's plenty of reason to invade a country, kill and maim thousands of Americans soldiers and tens of thousands of the local residents.

As Americans now the only sensible course of action is for us to vote for change. If we as the American people fail to take responsibility for this the world will hold us accountable, and there's no amount of spin or positioning that will save our sorry souls.



Independent (UK) - The final judgment