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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
For immediate release: Friday, September 27, 2002
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,scottmclarty@yahoo.com
GREENS WARN OF A CHENEY-RUMSFELD IDEOLOGY OF 'WORLD
DOMINANCE' BEHIND BUSH'S PLANS FOR THE INVASION OF IRAQ
The Bush Administration misleads the U.S. and world
about the need for preemptive strikes, charge Greens; Congress urged to
vote NO on giving Bush war powers
WASHINGTON, DC -- Greens today warned that the likely
U.S. attack on Iraq is part of the Bush Administration's ideology of
global military dominance and disregard for international law. The
Green Party of the United States, taking the lead as a national party in
opposing President Bush's planned invasion, adopted a statement last
week condemning the invasion and demanding measures based on
multilateral cooperation and re-admittance of U.N. inspectors to Iraq.
"The invasion of Iraq can only be understood if
we look past Bush's shifting and implausible stated justifications, and
instead recognize the anti-constitutional, imperialist designs of Bush's
Cabinet and closest advisors," said John Rensenbrink, U.S. Green
Party Representative to the Global Greens Conference in 2001.
Ironically, Greens agree with conservative Republican
opponents of the invasion who foresee a collapse of civil liberties and
constitutional law under the Bush plan for world order, but Greens also
warn of a looming humanitarian and environmental disaster.
"Many Democrats have fallen over themselves in
their zeal to endorse the Bush Administration's plan to violate
constitutional and international law and the U.N. Charter," said
Tim Harthan, Iowa Green candidate for the U.S. Senate. "These
Democrats are quite comfortable with Bush's quest for U.S. global
military domination and disregard for law. The vote in Congress on
giving Bush war powers will show the extent to which the Democratic
Party has embraced the Cheney-Rumsfeld ideology. Bush is relying on
Democrats, since the main opposition he faces comes from conservatives
within his own party."
"Bush officials base their arguments on
misinformation, just as then-Secretary of Defense Cheney misinformed
Congress and the American people in 1990 when he falsely warned that
Iraqi forces were lined up and ready to invade Saudi Arabia," said
Dick Kaiser, Green candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's 8th District.
Greens cited the following evidence of Bush
Administration's obfuscation, deception, and destructive ideology of
global domination:
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Ex-Inspector Scott Ritter doubts that Iraq is
capable of effectively producing and deploying chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons. "The truth is Iraq is not a threat to its
neighbors and it is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone
outside its borders," Ritter has said. "Military action
against Iraq cannot be justified." Ritter's assessment disputes
Bush's mention of Iraqi weapons capability as a reason for the U.S.
to invade. It's unlikely that Saddam would (or could) attempt
anything as suicidal as an assault on the U.S. or its allies, except
in the cause of his own survival; Saddam's own willingness to allow
new inspections hasn't slowed Bush's zeal for an invasion.
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The White House lied in accusing Saddam of aiding
Al Qaeda and supporting anti-U.S. terrorism. Bush has offered no
credible evidence of meetings between Iraqi representatives and Al
Qaeda. Osama bin Laden considers Saddam, a Muslim moderate running a
secular government, an infidel to be deposed.
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Little discussion has taken place on possible
outcomes of an invasion: numerous U.S. and civilian Iraqi casualties
in the ground war; a retaliatory attack by Saddam on Israel that
could escalate into an exchange involving weapons of mass
destruction; motivation for thousands of Iraqis and other Arabs to
join terrorist networks like Al Qaeda; destabilization of the
region, from Palestine and Israel to Pakistan and India, and
probable collapse of the Jordan government; likely installation of a
post-Saddam regime headed by military thugs with bloody resumes
comparable to Saddam.
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The Bush Administration refuses to admit
responsibility by its own officials and by past U.S. administrations
in aiding Saddam. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld served as
special envoy promising secret military assistance to Saddam in the
Iran-Iraq War under Reagan, even though it was known that Saddam was
using chemical weapons to wipe out entire populations. The
Halliburton Company, under Cheney's reign as CEO, did $23.8 million
worth of business with Iraq between 1998 and 2000, in violation of
U.S. law.
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Bush's future cabinet drafted plans to invade
Iraq even before Election Day 2000, according to a policy blueprint
titled "Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And
Resources For A New Century," drafted in September 2000 by the
think tank Project for the New American Century. The blueprint
called for U.S. control over the Persian Gulf region to protect U.S.
interests (i.e., oil), and also favored government takeover of the
Internet, possible U.S. use of bio-warfare, and 'regime changes' in
China, North Korea, Libya, Syria, and Iran. Among those involved in
its draft were Cheney, Rumsfeld, and advisor Paul Wolfowitz. The
call for U.S. global military supremacy by threat of pre-emptive
strike was reaffirmed in Bush's 33-page national security policy
paper submitted to Congress on Friday, September 20.
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The "Defense Planning Guidance" series
of policy reviews from the Defense Departments of both Bush
Administrations shows an evolving post-Cold-War doctrine of global
'full spectrum dominance' by the U.S. Drafted variously by Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and other
ideologues, the documents outline an ideology based on the
protection of global corporate interests, such as oil in the Persian
Gulf.
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The Cheney-Rumsfeld ideology expressed in
"Defense Planning Guidance" embraces global military
superiority that gives the U.S. coercive power over friends and
enemies alike; abandonment of treaties, arms control agreements, and
international law (e.g., the Antiballistic Missile Treaty; the
International Criminal Court); unilateralism and disregard for
coalitions and alliances; preemptive invasion of sovereign nations;
national missile defense ('Star Wars'); and possible use of nuclear
weapons.
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"We in the U.S. have our own dangerous
extremists, and some are in the White House," said Annie Goeke,
co-chair of the Green Party's International Committee and a member
of the NGO Women's Caucus delegation on the International Criminal
Court who was present when the court was signed into effect at the
U.N. on September 10, 2002. "We shudder to think about what
they'll do next, and what the backlash against Americans might
be."
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Green Party Statement in Opposition to U.S. Plans
to Invade Iraq
http://gpus.org/press/pr_09_20_02.html
"The Case Against War"
By Stephen Zunes, in The Nation, September 12,
2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020930&s=zunes
"Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before
becoming President"
The Sunday Herald (Scotland, UK), September 15,
2002
http://www.sundayherald.com/27735
"Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies,
Forces And Resources For A New Century"
Project for the New American Century, September
2000
http://www.newamericancentury.org/defensenationalsecurity.htm
"Dick Cheney's Song of America: Drafting a plan
for global dominance"
By David Armstrong, in Harper's Magazine,
October, 2002
"The dishonest case for war on Iraq"
(Counter-Dossier disputing Prime Minister Blair's
Dossier on the threat of Iraqi Aggression)
By Alan Simpson, MP, Chair of Labour Against the
War, and Dr Glen Rangwala
http://www.traprockpeace.org/counter-dossier.html
"Unveiled: the thugs Bush wants in place of
Saddam"
The Sunday Herald, September 22, 2002
http://www.sundayherald.com/27877
Index of Green Party candidates in 2002
http://www.gp.org/patience.html
search: pce, fpol, gbl, cpr,
cmp
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