American official Paul Wolfowitz emphasized this week that the “war on terrorism” is now focused on Iraq. But he failed to explain by what definition Iraq was part of the war, other than as a victim of U.S. state terrorism, a fact readily understood by peoples all over the world. Perhaps Wolfowitz was referring to Iraqi victims of the unlawful occupation, who have seized arms and killed a few American troops in resisting the illegal preemptive war for oil and resultant looting of their homeland by American corporate interests and the US / Chevron / Texaco /Bechtel / Halliburton army. Perhaps that is why U.S. Air Force jets proudly wear “the Texaco star”.
And in all the hype and news coverage in Iraq, it appears that a true, committed, anti-US terrorist, Osama bin Laden has been more or less forgotten. The same bin Laden who appeared on 60 Minutes and warned the U.S. population of his agenda of destruction of the “great Satan” cannot even get any sound bites on the U.S. media these days, whereas deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is not only the lead story in countless reports, but has thousands of U.S. troops hot on his trail, even though he has little ability to hurt U.S. interests at this point.
The War on Terrorism now appears to be a diversion from warring on terrorism! For all we know, bin Laden and his generals are finalizing a new plot to disrupt the American economy. Economic pain is the most effective pain a terrorist can cause for America. The deaths of a few thousand citizens seems bad, but in the Big Picture, the loss of a few billion dollars from the economy means far more to U.S. politicians. Proof of that is in the subsidization of the coal industry in the U.S., which admittedly has conspired to avoid emissions controls on its factories and energy producing plants, resulting in the deaths and illnesses of millions of Americans. Yet the government refuses to appropriately regulate the industry, solely because of economic “harm” that such regulations would cause.
No doubt Bush is now looking for an excuse to attack another Middle Eastern nation, maybe Syria. But Syria is poor and has no oil to speak of, while Iran has lots of oil and a nuclear program. If the Bush government can find enough corrupt Iranians to bribe, maybe he can set up a military victory like the Iraqi victory — the first time in modern warfare a nation lost a war because its senior generals were paid off by the victorious army prior to a decisive battle.
No matter what happens next, it seems amazing to know that the prime threat to U.S. security is now out of sight, out of mind of the U.S. government and media, while corporate priorities get all the coverage.
The writer is a member of several falconry and ornithological clubs and organizations. He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from California, USA.
