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What Bush Is Up To
By Charley Reese
02/19/06 "ICH"
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I'm going to tell you what the real Bush administration policy
is. I have no take-it-to-court proof. No one does, because the
administration doesn't tell the truth and is very secretive.
But from conversations I've had with people from the Middle East
and from extensive reading, I infer that the Bush
administration's policy encompasses three goals:
One of the goals is to replace the present Syrian government
with one the administration hopes will be more pliable in its
policy toward Israel. Another is to construct four permanent
bases in Iraq, and that means the administration has no
intention of ever withdrawing all U.S. forces. The third goal is
to attack Iran's nuclear facilities from the air. The propaganda
campaign to justify this attack is already under way.
The U.S. government has lied a lot about Syria. It has implied
that Syria was helping jihadists slip into Iraq. Some of the
neoconservatives have claimed that Iraq hid its infamous
nonexistent weapons of mass destruction in Syria. Now they have
joined in accusing the Syrian government of assassinating a
Lebanese politician. They've even picked out a successor to the
current president of Syria. More recently, they accused Syria of
inciting mobs to burn a foreign embassy in Damascus during a
riot related to the prophet cartoons.
In fact, Syria's government is Ba'athist – that is to say, it is
secular, socialist and nationalistic. It highly disapproves of
religious extremists, whether Shi'ites or Sunni. There is no
evidence whatsoever that Syria incited the mobs to burn the
foreign embassy in Damascus. Professor Juan Cole searched the
databases of Arab newspapers and radio broadcasts, which are
monitored and translated by the U.S. government and the BBC. Not
a peep from the Syrian government in the way of incitement.
The Syrian ambassador to the U.S. told me of another instance of
U.S. lying. Our government asked the Syrian government to help
it catch an Iraqi who was hiding in a tribal area that extended
across the border, partly in Iraq and partly in Syria. The
Syrian government agreed and indeed captured the man and 32 of
his followers, all of whom were handed over to the U.S. Syria
asked the U.S. for only one thing in return: just tell the world
we cooperated with you.
Did the U.S. do that? No, it lied and said that the Syrians had
harbored the fugitive. As for Saddam Hussein hiding his weapons
in Syria, it so happens that the Syrian Ba'ath Party and the
Iraqi Ba'ath Party have famously been at odds for years. People
spreading that nonsense seem to have forgotten that Syrian
troops fought alongside Americans in Gulf War I against Iraq.
You can be sure Saddam did not forget that. He would have no
more turned over his nonexistent weapons to Syria than he would
have to Israel.
The large American military bases in Iraq already exist and are
being improved. These are billion-dollar-plus facilities, and
you can bet nobody in the Bush administration intends to hand
them over to the Iraqis. Watch carefully the language used when
the Bush people, in or out of uniform, talk about "withdrawal."
It is always surrounded by conditions. They don't intend to
leave Iraq. Now, that doesn't mean that the new Iraqi government
might not force them to leave. That remains to be seen.
As for bombing Iran's nuclear facilities, we have that
capability. There's not much the Iranians could do to stop us.
And, yes, it would be a stupid and foolish thing to do, since at
present there is no evidence that Iran intends to build a bomb.
As we know from the Iraq invasion, this administration is
capable of doing stupid and foolish things.
Just because Iran can't stop us from bombing it doesn't mean the
Iranians can't retaliate. They very likely have the capability
of setting the entire Middle East on fire with a general war
that could disrupt the world's oil supply and wreck much of the
world's economy. Unfortunately, history shows that those who bet
on wise political leadership avoiding war end up losing their
shirts and often their lives and their fortunes.
Copyright: Charley Reese
http://reese.king-online.com
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