Gulf War version 2.0 as edited by G.W. Bush

I´ve been following the conversions going on about the war in Iraq. Finally I´ve decided to air my own views about the subject. Some of you will definitely not like what I´m going to write….but so be it. I´m trying to look at this by bypassing the mass propaganda going on in the media. The propagand machine that has been assembled around this subject is so huge as to be mind bogling, particulary in the US. Herr Göbbels would have been impressed. Now he is probably turning in his grave thinking….”why didn´t I do that”

WHY ARE WE AT THIS POINT NOW??
To know that we must look at the history of the region. The Baath party, to which Saddam Hussain belongs, came to power in a coup. Initially there was another President but within a couple of years Hussain (which at that time was the chief of the secret police) had killed the President and declared himself as President. His first job was to completly rid him self of all opposition, and he started with the congress. In his first speach in congress he started reading out the names of his adversaries (real or imaginary), which were then taken away from the hall by his buddies in the secret police and promptly shot outside the building. At the end of this “meeting” he had complete control in congress. Then he turned his attention to the general population with the same energy. Soon he had complete dominance every where, the secret police was everywhere and people could not even talk in their own homes without big brother knowing about it. This was happening in the 60´s.

Initially this was purely a domestic issue, and nobody paid real attention, even though everybody knew what was happening. The oil crises in the 70´s changed all that. Saddam Hussain has allways been an opportunist and that was his moment of opportunity. Iraq was the only arab country not to parcipitate in the oil embargo on the west. The west, particulary the US, bought huge quantities of oil from Iraq, for a high price. Iraq was on the map as a mayor supplier of oil for the west. Saddam is not ALL bad, because he used a part of the oil wealth to start a mayor overhaul of the school and healthcare systems and earned the respect of the international community for that….Hey, the UN even gave him a medal for it. He was a very good guy at this time.

At the end of the 70´s a new threat loomed on the horizon. An uprising started in Iran. In the end a Islamic state was declared in Iran, and it was very Anti-US…..The US was the great Sadan, the mother of all evil. For this reason Iran became a great consern for the US, this spreading of Islamic Fundamentalizm had to be stopped, because it was bad for “stability” in the region. “Stability” in US paralance means governments “on their side”, and this region was/is one of the greatest oil fields in the world. Having them in the hands of Islamic Fundamentals was something unthinkable because of the economic impact that would have. But there was a dialema……at the hight of the cold war, the US could not very well go in and simply remove the government of Iran from power without risking WW3. It was a risk they were not about to take. But they had an ally, in the form of Saddam Hussain.

Saddam Husain was genuinly afraid of the new Islamic state in Iran. The Islamic state in Iran was based on the teachings of Sheta (hope it is the correct spelling) Muslims. Sheta muslims were the majority of the Iraq population, and Saddam Hussain was afraid the uprising would spread south of the border and in the end terminate his powers. He was not about to let that happen. He calculated that Iran was still weak from the internal fighting, so he decided to act quickly. He started an invasion of Iran in 1980, expecting a quick victory. What he hoped to gain, was not so much a territorial gain, but rather he wanted to remove this thorne in his side, which was a country run by Sheta muslims. The US (and the rest of the west) was delighted. Saddam may not have been entierly to their liking until then, but he was the lesser of two evils. They too were hoping for a quick victory. Which, incidentally never came…..

After the Iraq war on Iran became bogged down, the west (particulary the US) started helping Iraq. At first by giving them access to saterlite and spy plane data. Later they became even more involved with military advisors on the battlefield. But all to no avail, the war was still bogged down on a more or less stable front. More drastic measures were needed……gas!! Iraq did not posess anything of the kind and had to get it from elsewhere. The biggest sorce of such things in the world was the US, and they agreed to give Iraq some, to stamp out the big evil, the Islamic government in Iran. But even with the use of gas, the war was still bogged down in a more or less stable battle (even though both sides resorted to using gas), and in 1989 the war ended. Saddam declared it as a won war…..He was to be considered the only victor….God knows how he found that out!!

After the war with Iran, Saddam was in crisis. His army becoming increasingly browned off, and the civil population becoming increasingly difficault to handle….they didn´t understand the sacrifices they had to pay for a war decleared as won. Poverty, misery and a lot of young men that did come home after the battle. To shift the focus of both the army and the civil population Saddam decided to go to war again, this time for a sure victory. He chose the state of Kuwait, as his victim. Based on some obscure claims about Kuwait being a Iraq territory (as it had been at one time in history), he lunched an invasion. And won the war. Everybody in Iraq were happy……finally a visable victory, conqured land. Saddam had restored the faith of the Iraq people and the army. But he had made a bad miscalculation, just like Hitler when he invaded Polland……He didn´t think the world would react, why should it, Kuwait was only a small insignificant state. But it did react.

Why did the world react?? A lot of people say it was for the liberation of the Kuwaity people. Sorry guy´s, that is a load of B.S. Just like nobody cared what was going on inside Iraq after Saddam Hussain came to power, nobody really cared about the people of Kuwait, if they lived or if they died. That is the hard reality gentilmen. The reaction to the invastion of Kuwait had everything to do with International Politics and International Military issues. It had nothing to do with the people of Kuwait, or with Kuwait as a independent state.

Every country that participated in the Coalition against Iraq in 1990 did so on it´s own grounds…..and none of these grounds had anything to do with the people inside Kuwait, as was to be seen at the end of the conflict. The west, lead by the US, was there because they were afraid of the “stability” of the region. What this meant at the time….If Saddam Hussain can march into Kuwait unopposed, where is he going to go next?? Give him time to recuperate, and Saudi Arabia might be his next victim. After Saudi it would be the UAE, Yemen etc. etc. That would be intolarable for the west….a single country / man controlling all the oil fields the Gulf. Even though they only hold about 30% of the worlds oil, denial of these fields would be a huge economical blow to the west. It is much better to deal with individual countries, using the sticks-and-carrot method, than to deal with one country holding 30% of all the oil in the world. Then everything is non-negotiable….take his deal or nothing. Clearly a very embarrasing situation for a “Superpower”. So the west saw it fit to stop this right at the beging by throwing Iraq out of Kuwait, destoying the Iraq army and end any such possibility once and for all, by overthrowing Saddam Hussain. That is what they wanted right from the begining, but forgot to tell the arab countries about it, because they needed their support for at least the beging. To have your oil turned of at the start of a war is a bit embarrashing. So they settled on the arab side…..

What was the arab side in this war?? Well the arab content of the Coalition was mostly made up of countries that had common borders with Iraq, or were close to it. These countries didn´t go along because they wanted to help the people of Kuwait, they did it because they tought they might be next in line for an Iraq invasion. It is much better to fight the battles in some foreign land than on your own´s All the arabs wanted was to severly maule the Iraq army to delay/end any plans of invasion of their own countries. In the end the Iraq army was severly beaten and thrown out of Kuwait. A total collapse is the right word for it. But Saddam Hussain still claimed he won the war……..and, you know, in a way he is right. Before the war he was a small dictator that nobody took any real notice of. After the war he was playing on the big table of international politics……..a force too be recconed with. At last he was in there with the big boys as he always wanted

These differences of oppinon came to light after the Iraq invasion force of Kuwait (and the best part of the rest of the army) had been reduced to ruins. The west coaliton wanted to drive on right into Bagdhad, but the arabs said stop, or else………they had reached the end of their objectives, that is to destroy the Iraq army and the probability of any further landwinning battles of the Iraq army in their lands. But there is another consideration in this arab attitude that makes a lot of sence, something I think has been greatly overlooked by the present war – going movement. If Saddam Husain is overthrown, Iraq is going to be alight with civil war, many different faction wanting to control the ruins, there are simply too many different factions in this country. Now they are held to gether with the iron grip of a dictator, but once that iron grip eases…..you better hold on to your hats. It´s going to be a wild ride. This is something the arab leaders knew in 1991, and were justifiably afraid this civil war would end up in their back garden. A tue reduction in “stability” in the region. The west could do nothing but to accept the big NO from the arabs, this was after all a UN lead Coalition, and everybody wants to heed the UN…….don´t they???

What followed was a string of UN resolutions about everything and nothing. This primarily was in the order of the “No fly zone” over eastern Iraq where Iraq had been so “unruley” as to use the gas supplied by the US to stamp down an uprising by Sheta muslims (remember the use in the first war) that where hoping to take advantige of the situation after the war to ceate their own country. Now the Sheta muslims were US´s greatest ally in overthrowing the hated Saddam Hussain government. All conserns about Sheta muslims held by the US government since ten years earlier had been quietly forgotten. And since they were at it the iraq also dropped some gas on the Kurds in the north. Now they were also the greatest ally of the US. Everything about them being at war with the Turkish (a member of NATO), and what was probably worse……..being left-ish, was quietly forgotten. Another no fly-zone had to be created in the north to protect these new accidental allies. The hope was that one of these days, one or both would be strong enough to overthrow the hated Saddam Hussain. Another weapon used against the Iraq people was the embargo. No goods in, no goods out. To think for one milli-second this is going to have some effect on the Iraq government is poor folly……..It is actually working in their favour. Everybody who is somebody has enough of everything…….smuggling sees to that. The people in the streets are probably starfing, need medical aid etc. but it is not available. Why??? Because the west is bad, all the people living in the west are bad. The best people are our gallant leaders who are trying to get us something, but the west will not allow it because they are bad……See where I´m going?? It will only strengthen the ordinary Iraq against any change. And for the weapons…..people must be stupid or something to think they are not getting trough the embargo. Not in huge quantities, but getting through all the same.

Then it is the huge shame…….weapons inspectors. They are basically looking for the gas the US sold to Iraq in the first place, plus some unspecified nuclear programm once thought to exist. Now dear readers……how do you think a country that has been bombed back to the stone age can handle some neclear stuff??? And under constant monitoring from 1991 til 1998 at that?? Well I´m sure that somewhere at the back of his mind Saddam Hussain would like to have a nuclear bomb, but he will be long dead (of natural causes) before that comes into frutition. Mr. Bush will also be long dead by that time, and indeed all the leaders in the world at this stage. You simply can not build a nuclear bomb in a bomb creater. After years of incooperation, the weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998. There was nothing there to see.

NOW WE ARE HERE!!
Why are we here at the brink of war now?? The answear is economy. You can read it again…….economy.

It all started with the US presidential elections. Geroge W Bush was elected President of the United States of America. Not by a majority vote, but after so many countings of the papers. He only just defeated his opponent by a few ballots. So from the begining he was a weak president, ALMOST 50% of the population (strange democratic the US, you have to sign up to be able to vote) that had signed up didn´t have trust in him. But worse was to come. When he took office the economy was going downhill rather faster than advisors liked (as Mr. Bush seems to be a simple man, he didn´t see it him self). There was only one solution….a solution that so many men in his position have used before. To name just two Hitler and Saddam Hussain. Go to war. That is the solution. It keeps the peoples mind of the crises at home (and the crises at home can be blamed on the other guy) and it stimulates the economy because of the huge influx of money into the armament industry, which is going to rub of on to other industries as well because of the “domino effect” an influx that large has. There was only one problem…….the US didn´t have anybody to go to war with. Then came 11/9 or 9/11 as the americans insist on calling it. It could not have come at a better time!! And to tell me, that nobody in the government knew anything about it before hand, is an insault to my intelligence. Sorry guy´s. That is just how I feel. The biggest “superpower” in the world, with the biggest intel. network of them all. With the most sophistcated listening devices that can pick up every thing that is said on a mobile, saterlite telephone or even home line if the right words are said. A superpower that is so efficent it can have supercomputers scan all exchanges on the internet, looking for certain key words (I´ve already had many of those in my text…Sure there is a black van outside). A superpower with so many agents in the most incredible places, not to have heard anything??? Sorry guy´s, just don´t buy it. And indeed there has been an FBI woman going public telling she had sent her bosses a warning that something was going on, but they ignored her. But of course she was quickly silenced. You think she was the only one to have found something??? NO WAY!! The US government wanted 11/9 to happen. I don´t think they had any idea of the magnitude of the happening before hand, or, to give them some benifit of doubt, the exact date, but the knew that there would be a terrorist attack on the US in the autumn of 2001. It came in very handy…..at approximately the right time for Mr. Bush. He had an enemy. Didn´t it surprise you, before the day was out, the blame had already been laid on one particular organization……One particular individual named as the prime suspect, one particular government as his shield. Indeed, they admitted to having intercepted some phone traffic just before the attacks that was translated to late to be of any use……..do you really buy that, they knew it for a long time. But now they had their enemy….got a UN permission to bomb Afganistan (or what was left of it) back to the stone age. Easy work……but the war was too short. Mr. Bush must have been counting on a war of at least one year to get the economy going again, but it failed. It was all over in a few short months. Then came the famous speach…….

If you don´t have enemies…..find ones. That could be the motto of Mr. Bush. The “Axis of Evil” speach will probably go down in the annals of history as the one of the most stupid thing said in international politics. Iran is reacting to the speach in a remarkably calm manner, they have been the enemies of the US before and are not take by surprise by threats. This speach has now started a nuclear race on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea wanting to get ready for anything. Iraq is the prime target at the moment. Suddenly there are weapons inspectors in Iraq again…..trying to find what is unaccounted for of the US supplied gas plus that nuclear program of the nation. But problem is they are not finding anything. Mr. Rumbsfeld and his clan keep on insisting it must be there somewhere, but are not able to come up with a clear idea where. A superpower like the US must surely know where it is, just watch their first air strikes. But they surely destroyed all of it in the first war?

When the weapons ispectors say they can´t find anything the US says……We are going in there anyway, just to make sure. To save the Iraq people!! The people in Washington don´t give a rats a## about the people in Iraq. If they did, something would have happened almost 40 years ago. What this war is all about is economy, Mr. Bush is trying to jumpstart the economy with a lot of cash influx into the armament industy hoping it will rub off to the other aspects of live. It is going to make a few even more rich, but try to explain that to a woman in Harlem who lost her only son in a battle on the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Mr. Bush is going down the annals of the war mongers, as one of the most profitable yet. Common guys….if there is a Republican at the helm in the White House, the cash is flowing in only one direction…..armament industry. And who do you think is parting with with the greatest amounts of money into the election funds of the Repulican Party??? Any idea?? Does the armament industry ring any bells?

So after all, this is only a war to save the economy of the US. By huge influx of cash into the armament industry, hoping it will rub off somewhere else as well. It also keeps the average american fat, dum and happy in his lazy boy, saying this unemployment is because of Saddam Hussain and his clan. The Wall Street Stocks are falling because of Saddam Hussain. In fact everything bad that happens has something to do with Saddam Hussain. It has nothing to with our government that is unable, or unwilling, to keep up with what is happening in the world around it.

Now there is going to be a lot of cries about “The US did this there, and the US did this there”. Lets take the last 50 years……when did the US do something that was not in it´s own inetersts?? Lets take the last 100 years…….Let´s face it guys. The US is a superpower that makes it´s owns rules and always acts in it´s own interest. It does not give a rats a** about the people living in the country of interest at the moment. Democracy…..That could be something that comes out of the fridge for everything the presidents of the US have done over the years. Various dictators and tyrans, no better or no worse than Saddam Hussain have been backed by the US government over the years. Ofcourse all done to keep the evil red thing in the east at bay……..But it makes you wonder, which one is the more evil. Indeed the US was the biggest backer of Saddam at one point….What does that tell you?

The most famous cries of old Yugoslavia are going to ecco in this place. Why did the US (and the whole of Europe for that matter) go into that place? To save the people from tirany and get some democracy for the people is the politically correct answear. The truth is….now brace your self…..to restore “stability” in the region. Now what does that mean?? It means that the Eurpean nation were afraid this conflict might excalate into something a whole lot bigger, an all out war in the whole of southern Europe and even spread to the north. Europe at war, once again was, not at the top of their christams list for that particular year, so it was decided to stamp it out as soon as possible. Europe at war was not one US´s biggest of abitions at the time, because it would be bad for the economy of the US……..less amount of goods sold to the old Europe……less economic growth…..less money for the average american…..average american less happy with his government.

Now, if the US, and the west, is going to war now, because of the treatment of the average Iraq citizen, where were they when hundreds-of-thousunds (or millions, nobody knows) Ruandan people where murdered in a genecide in the mid 90´s? They were killed when nobody needed an enemy. They were killled in a country that has no natural rescouces, so there was no reason to get involved. Maybe they were even allowed to be killed because this was the “dark Africa”. I don´t know.

While the talk, about giving the people of Iraq a better live with free democracy is going on, the various poppet governments are still in place, supported by the US and the UK, and are no better or only marginally better than that of Saddam Hussain. How is that?

It is with great sadness that I must report that the Icelandic government, the government I chose, has decided to go along with the US and the UK. The reason……..Money. They have to follow what big brother says, or else……..no money. NAS Keflavik closed, no domino effect of Uncle Sams money, hundreds of Icelanders loose their job (in a country of only 280.000) that is a big blow. Look at the threats Donald Rumbsfeld made at Germany for not following them through till the bitter end……..No money for you my friends. We will withdraw all out forces, we will stop paying anything…….Fortunatly, Germany was strong enough to not fall into the trap, same about the French……They do not need the US to live, and have therefore become enemy of the US. My hat is off for you guys.

Now, do I think Saddam Hussain has weapons of mass destrution? YES he does. He has still some of that US supplied gas available. He does not have any nuclear weapons…..simply out of the question. Is he going to use it??? Yes he probably will. Where is he going to use it? Probably against his own people as he has done in the past….He does not have the platforms for anything else. Does he pose a threat to the international community? No he does not, he is just crazy. He wants to hang on to power as long as possible. Who cares about a couple of hundred thosund Iraq people? NOT the US or the UK

So What do I think about this war?? IT IS JUST CRAZY……..

Now, there is a big black van outside my door ……….hear from you from my prison cell, if I get of that lightly!