The UN or the Jungle! BUSH'S WAR IS ON THE UN

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Bush's war on the UN(By Zia Syed APFPC)PAKISTAN

        For the last few months we have been subjected to the most powerful
war propaganda, designed to brainwash us into believing that war with Iraq
is both necessary and inevitable.

        Television pictures of war planes taking off from U.S. aircraft
carriers are mixed with stories of troop movements and the establishment of
a huge command HQ in Qatar, while Britain offers uncritical support for its
US allies.

        To whip up the hatred to a fever pitch, the Foreign Office issues a
dossier of human rights abuses by Saddam, all of which we have known for
years, but which have been released at this moment to make it appear that
the war, when it comes, is motivated by a humane desire to lift the burden
of fear from the people of Iraq by killing even more of them in a series of
murderous air attacks.

        But, if we are to understand exactly what is happening, we have to
look beyond all these threats directed to Saddam.

        The real story is that President Bush is actually threatening the
UN and its role in resolving this crisis, with the long-term objective of
dismantling the UN and substituting the forces of his US empire as the only
true ruler of the world, able to guarantee its own oil supplies.

                This also explains his policy toward Chavez in Venezuela -
which also supplies a lot of oil - a man seen as unreliable and so an
attempted coup was launched from Washington to get him out.

        It failed and may be tried again as one of those backyard regime
changes which the US has carried out in the past - as when Salvador Allende
was overthrown with the help of the CIA.

        It all began even before September 11, when the White House began
to realize that the supplies of the Middle Eastern oil, upon which its
whole economy depends, were vulnerable.

        Iraq is hostile, Iran is unreliable and Saudi Arabia - which has no
democracy whatever - might find its regime toppled by Muslim
fundamentalists who want to see US troops leave the country.

        Then based in Afghanistan, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was also
important, because the US needed a pipeline through that country to bring
the Caspian oil to the Western market and, although the Taliban had
discussed this in Texas before Bush came to power, there was no certainty
that it would go ahead.

        If bin Laden had been caught and tried, his evidence in court would
have proved too damaging, since he had been launched as a terrorist by the
US itself, sent to Afghanistan to oust the Soviets and worked from bases
which the US helped him build.

        As a prisoner on trial for his life, he would have been only too
glad to tell all.

        For these reasons, Bush decided to transfer the anti-terrorist
crusade from bin Laden to Saddam, who had nothing to do with September 11,
and to widen the war of words into a direct threat against the UN itself -
as he did when he issued his ultimatum to the General Assembly ordering it
to support his war or he would go it alone.

        Since the Security Council passed its resolution, Iraq has invited
the UN inspectors back, cooperated with them in allowing access to all the
sites they have wanted to visit and met the deadline set by the security
council for a declaration of all the weapons it possesses.

        These developments have caused alarm and anger in Washington, since
the last thing Bush wants is a peaceful solution to the crisis, which would
not help him with the oil he needs.

        A major effort has therefore been made to discredit the UN
inspectors and the Iraqi declaration of its weapons has been physically
seized by the US government so that members of the Security Council cannot
even get to see the Iraqi declaration that it, itself, demanded.

        Against this background, it is even more unlikely that the Security
Council will agree to authorize a war, so Bush is hoping that, by
discrediting it, as he has done, people can be persuaded that he must act
alone.

        Meanwhile, the propaganda war goes on apace and, today, everyone
can see that it is designed to undermine the UN so that Bush can launch the
war for oil that the US corporations want.

        One last hope remains and it is that, if Blair stuck to the UN
instead of taking orders from the White House, it would become very
difficult - if not impossible - for Bush to carry US opinion in a war that
the US would be fighting without a single ally.

        :Britain currently provides a thin cover of legitimacy for what he
wants to do.

        In short, Blair has the power of veto on this one occasion. That is
why we must step up the pressure on him in every way that we can and work
with those courageous US citizens - many millions of them, – who are also
against the war and are demonstrating to show their opposition publicly.

"

That is why the CND case in the High Court this week is so important in
asking for a judgement declaring that Britain cannot disregard its
international obligations by going to war without the authority of the
Security Council.

"With all its weaknesses, the United Nations remains humanity’s best hope
of finding the means to settle its many differences peacefully.

"If we allow the US empire to destroy it, as US ex-president Carter warned
when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and denounced the use of pre-emptive
war as an open door to violence by any country against any other, the only
law will be the law of the jungle."