By Brian Carnell

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair turned their attention at Counterpunch to George W. Bush ordering air strikes on Iraq. As they put it,

Bombing the Iraqis should properly be listed as part of the Inaugural ceremonies, a man not being truly President of the United States till he drops high explosives on Baghdad or its environs.

If the continued U.S. war against Iraq weren't so tragic, the actions of Bush administration would be comical. For example, only a few days after the U.S. attack on Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Israel where he met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and called for an end to violence in the Middle East. Nothing like a little consistency.

Not that the U.S. attack was very effective. Apparently almost all of the "smart" missiles that were fired at Iraqi targets missed because their computer guidance systems couldn't take into account high speed winds in the area quickly enough. Of course, that didn't stop the Pentagon from pronouncing the attacks a success just a few hours afterward.

This problem with inaccuracy of missiles is an ongoing problem. As Counterpunch notes, in Bill Clinton's first air strike on Iraq, eight of the twenty-one missiles launched against targets went astray and homed in on residential neighborhood in Baghdad, killing artist Leila al-Attar among others.

Thanks to a gullible media, however, such air strikes usually serve their ultimate purpose -- after Clinton's initial 1993 attack, his approval rating jumped 10 points (and what's a few dead artists and hundreds of thousands of dead children from sanctions as long as American presidents can enjoy high approval ratings?)

Cockburn and St. Clair also provide a good look at just how obsessive the sanctions are. According to Counterpunch, "For example, the Iraqi Ministry of Health once ordered $25 million worth of dentist chairs, said order being approved by the sanctions committee--except for the compressors, without which the chairs are useless and consequently gathering dust in a Baghdad warehouse" (supposedly the compressors could be retooled to help make weapons of mass destruction). Or consider that the United States opposed a proposal to import fifteen bulls from France on the grounds that the animals would require vaccinations which could be diverted into Iraq's biological weapons program.

When are we going to see the isolationist George W. Bush that Clinton and Al Gore promised would be our fate if America elected the Texas governor?

Source:

W: First Blood. Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch, February 26, 2001.

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