2003

by Robert Fisk
Reprinted from CounterPunch with permission.

In the end, I think we are just tired of being lied to. Tired of being talked down to, of being bombarded with Second World War jingoism and scare stories and false information and student essays dressed up as "intelligence". We are sick of being insulted by little men, by Tony Blair and Jack Straw and the likes of George Bush and his cabal of neo-conservative henchmen who have plotted for years to change the map of the Middle East to their advantage.

No wonder, then, that Hans Blix's blunt refutation of America's "intelligence" at the UN yesterday warmed so many hearts. Suddenly, the Hans Blixes of this world could show up the Americans for the untrustworthy "allies" they have become.

by Senator Robert Byrd
Delivered from the Senate floor.

To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of
war.

Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

by Firas Al-Atraqchi
Reprinted from YellowTimes.org

Editor's note: YellowTimes.org, an alternative news site that regularly contributes articles to The Dubya Report and other sites critical of the Bush administration, is currently offline, having been subjected to denial of service attacks since publishing articles by exiled Iraqi nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri. The articles (Iraq's Nuclear Non-capability, The Nuclear Bomb Hoax are available on The Dubya Report site. According to Director of Operations and Public Relations, Matthew Riemer, YellowTimes expects to be online again in a few days.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell dropped a bombshell at a Congressional hearing on Iraq and revealed that he had a transcript of an "upcoming" audio message from Osama bin Laden that betrays the links between bin Laden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

from Reuters

Economists led by 10 Nobel laureates Monday attacked President Bush's roughly $674 billion tax-cut proposal, arguing that the cuts fail to address the problems facing the U.S. economy and will add to long-term budget deficits.

Their signed statement, to run this week as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, comes as Congress prepares to examine the details of the Bush proposal.

by Imad Khadduri, former Iraqi nuclear scientist.
Reprinted from YellowTimes.org.

In his speech in front of the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003, Colin Powell did not offer any viable new evidence concerning Iraq's nuclear weapon capability that Bush and his entourage continue to wave as a red flag in front of the eyes of the American people to incite them shamefully into an unjust war.

On the contrary, the few flimsy so-called pieces of evidence that were presented by Powell regarding a supposed continued Iraqi nuclear weapon program serve only to weaken the American and British accusations and reveal their untenable attempt to cover with a fig leaf their thread bare arguments and misinformation campaign. The false and untrue pieces of evidence follow:

"Schizophrenic"was the word NY Times columnist Frank Rich used to describe the Bush State of the Union message. The first section of the speech, devoted to to domestic issues, continued the administration practice of using rhetoric at odds with its actions to try to put a popular face on policies that favor an elitist few. The latter portion of the speech, which attempted to bolster support for Bush's adventure in Iraq, offered no new evidence, and seemed, as Salon.com suggested in the lead-in to Jake Tapper's piece, designed "to scare the bejesus out of his audience."

Bush did indicate that Secretary of State Colin Powell would present "information and intelligence" about Iraq's weapons program to the UN Security Council. Critics questioned why such information, if available, had not been provided to UN weapons inspectors.

Of the two items Bush cited as achievements, one -- creation of the Department of Homeland Security -- was opposed by his administration until political pressure made that impossible. The other, what he referred to as "historic education reform," was at the time of its enactment labeled by the Boston Globe "an evolutionary move down a path that education has taken for more than a decade." Moreover, civil rights groups have called the funds designated for education in the current administration budget "a sharp retreat" from the funding levels "trumpeted" when the bill was signed.

This article is Part I of The Dubya Report's three-part response to Bush's State of the Union message. See also:

• Part II: Health and Human Services
• Part III: Iraq
  

by John Pilger
Reprinted from The Mirror (UK)

William Russell, the great correspondent who reported the carnage of imperial wars, may have first used the expression "blood on his hands" to describe impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the mass killing of ordinary people.

In my experience "on his hands" applies especially to those modern political leaders who have had no personal experience of war, like George W Bush, who managed not to serve in Vietnam, and the effete Tony Blair.

There is about them the essential cowardice of the man who causes death and suffering not by his own hand but through a chain of command that affirms his "authority".

Ed Vulliamy

George Bush's foes see him as an inarticulate bully. Friends say that evangelical faith underpins his every action. Ed Vulliamy goes back to Bush's dusty Texan roots to find out what really drives the man who now stands on the brink of war

At 4.40pm on Friday 14 September 2001, George Walker Bush finally became President of the United States. He was amid the ruins of the World Trade Centre, greeting a crowd of rescue workers. On the way, New York governor George Pataki had jibed: 'See those people? None of them voted for you.' Then Bush overheard one of the multitude saying: 'Don't let me down.' ('Don't let me down,' Bush would later recall, 'It was so personal .') 'They want to hear him,' panted a presidential aide. A 69-year-old fireman called Bob Beckwith was standing on a charred truck, and was asked if he could test it for stability as a podium. He did. Bush clambered up, put his arm round the old man's shoulder and kept it there. Someone thrust a megaphone into Bush's hand, and he embarked on a version of the pedestrian speech he had been making all week: 'America today is on bended knee in prayer... '