Americans still regard themselves as the salt of the earth. But
the rest of the world no longer sees Americans that way. When
citizens of other countries turn their eyes toward America, they
see evil.
By Paul Craig Roberts
-- Information Clearing House
March 7, 2007 -- U.S. casualties (dead and wounded) have now
reached 27,000 in a war that was supposed to be a “cakewalk”
over in a few weeks. If what four-star general Wesley Clark,
former supreme commander of NATO, told Amy Goodman in a March 2
interview is correct, U.S. casualties are yet in their early days.
Gen. Clark told Amy Goodman that shortly after 9/11 he was shown
a Pentagon “memo that describes how we’re going to take out
seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then
Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
That sounds exactly like the plan that neoconservative Norman
Podhoretz set out in Commentary magazine.
The media have done a good job for the government of keeping the
blood and gore out of the living room. Except for close friends
or relatives of one of the 27,000, Americans have not been
impacted by the war. They are even less aware of the
consequences for Iraqis.
Every day 100 or more Iraqi civilians are killed and 100 or more
are maimed and injured. For example on Tuesday, March 6, the US
lost 10 GIs killed. Iraqi casualties totaled 535, 152 killed and
383 wounded.
U.S. troops routinely kill Iraqi civilians mistakenly or from
frustration, but the heavy daily casualties are the result of
the civil war made possible by the US overthrow of the Iraqi
government. US troops per se are not responsible for much of the
daily toll, but the Bush administration, Congress, and the
American people are.
The March 6 toll of 535 casualties is high even for Iraq. Assume
200 casualties each day and the result is 73,000 Iraqi
casualties per year. Why does anyone in the Bush administration,
Congress, or among the public believe that the US has the right
to wreck a country and be responsible for such extraordinary
harm inflicted on a civilian population?
How did the “war on terror” become a war on the Iraqi people?
We have heard every answer: intelligence mistakes, incompetence,
and evil machination. Whichever answer we take, the killing and
destruction continue.
Why?
It has recently come to light that the U.S. government has imposed
an oil deal on the puppet Iraqi government that turns Iraqi oil
over to U.S. and British firms for exploitation. Bush-Cheney have
not brought Iraqis democracy, but they have stolen their oil
revenues.
The profits of the military-industrial complex are soaring, and
higher military budgets are being appropriated. The value of
Cheney’s Haliburton stock options has not merely doubled or
tripled but multiplied by a factor of 32.
The Israel Lobby sees the war as enhancing Israeli hegemony in
the Middle East and making possible the completion of Israel’s
theft of Palestine from Palestinians.
Thus, the three most powerful lobbies in America are the
beneficiaries of the devastation of Iraq. The combined power of
these lobbies makes it impossible for Congress to respond to the
American people and end the war.
American politicians and administrations still cloak their
motives in idealistic principles, but it has been a long time
since anyone has seen any principled behavior in Washington.
Despite the unrelenting U.S. propaganda against Iran and North
Korea, a poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries for the BBC World
Service (March 6) found that Israel, Iran, and the United States, in that
order, are regarded as the most negative influences on the world.
Even North Korea is regarded as a less negative influence than
America.
Japan, Canada, the EU, France, China, and India are all regarded
as more positive influences on the world than the United States.
The Bush Cheney-Regime has achieved this deplorable result in a
mere six years.
Yet the Democrats cannot even pass a toothless resolution
against committing more U.S. troops in Iraq.
. Far from making Americans safe by attacking a country that posed
no threat to the United States, Bush-Cheney have alarmed the Russians and
the Chinese. Russian President Vladimir Putin and General Yury
Baluyevsky, Chief of the Russian General Staff, have both warned
that the Bush regime’s military aggression and drive for
hegemony are setting off another arms race.
General Baluyevsky
says that Russia might pull out of the 20-year-old Intermediate
Nuclear Forces Treaty.
China has announced a 17.8 percent increase in its military
budget for 2007.
China is America’s most important banker. How long will China
fund America’s wars and trade deficit when it finds itself so
threatened by America’s “leaders” that it has to accelerate its
military spending?
Americans still regard themselves as the salt of the earth. But
the rest of the world no longer sees Americans that way. When
citizens of other countries turn their eyes toward America, they
see evil.
LINK: Information Clearing House