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Part 2:
Invading Iraq to Appease Bin Laden
By Ahmed Amr
Editor
NileMedia.com
Long before the September 11th terrorist assault on the WTC, the Clinton and Bush administrations were aware of their Saudi base problem. Arab rage at the sanctions and the repression of the Palestinians were reaching a boiling point. The alarm bells had gone off many times. The Khober towers, the USS Cole, the 1993 attack on the WTC and the attacks on the African embassies. After each attack, the judgment was made to stay the course, keep the Saudi bases, tighten the sanctions and ignore the Palestinians.
After 9/11, the Bush administration could have squared with the American people and let them know the losing score. Americans were as ready as they will ever be for a dose of political reality. Instead, with the able assistance of FOX and CNN, the neo-cons came up with a brilliant campaign to avoid any serious probing of the cause of Arab rage. They launched a 24/7 song and dance routine about how the terrorists hate 'our freedom, democracy and values' not our foreign policy. They never quite explained why Canada and Sweden had no quarrels with Bin Laden.
The United States could have made a plausible and public case for taking out Saddam as a necessary requirement for closing the Saudi base, ending sanctions and permanently reducing America's military foot print in the Middle East. Had the Bush administration also proposed taking aggressive steps to end the land grabbing Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the whole world would have applauded. And the international coalition that then supported the United States would have been solidified.
But that wasn't going to happen, because the administration had no intention of removing their military foot print from the oil colonies. The most they were willing to do was to shuffle the offending foot to a less politically contentious part of the Gulf, Qatar. Moreover, seriously dealing with Bin Laden's third contention would have involved restraining Sharon's expansionist real estate fantasies. When it comes to the vision of a Greater Israel, the neo-cons are more Catholic than the pope. Focusing on Saddam took the heat away from the Israeli occupation.
The Bush administration knew that Saddam did not have WMDs. Even when Iraq actually possessed them during the First Gulf War, Saddam did not use them for fear of massive retribution. Perhaps the greatest irony of the war is that Iraq was the only major player in the Middle East that did not possess WMDs. Israel has all three varieties with a nuclear arsenal that rivals China. Libya was working on them. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Syria, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia probably all have some kind of chemical warfare capabilities. Only Iraq was empty handed.
All the same, as a result of the war, Bin Laden's followers can no longer gripe about genocidal sanctions or foreign bases on sacred Saudi soil. Neither will they grieve over the departure of the bearded lady of Tikrit. The only contentions they have these days concern the Yankee occupation of sacred Iraqi soil and Sharon's murderous goon squads shooting up Gaza refugee camps and building an American subsidized apartheid wall. The first installment for this new and improved national security environment amounts to 550 young American lives, uncounted thousands of Iraqi dead, a few hundred billion in devalued greenbacks and a new generation of potential Al Qaeda candidates. The next installment for appeasing Bin Laden has yet to be calculated. Keep that public purse wide open. It is way too early to measure the cost in blood and treasure.
Ahmed Amr is the editor of NileMedia.com. This article can be published at will.
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