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The latest hand
of high-stakes Baghdad bluff poker is really getting interesting. Here's
an update:
 Just as the Texas Crusader, President George W.
Bush, was about to invade Iraq, ostensibly for refusing to admit weapons
inspectors, the slippery Iraqis agreed to inspection. How dare Saddam
Hussein co-operate! Fight fair, you swine! So now Bush says he will block
UN inspectors from going to Iraq.
How confusing. If the U.S.
is now blocking UN arms inspectors, can Iraq go to the UN and get approval
to invade the U.S. and do a regime change in Washington, maybe putting
Rev. Jesse Jackson in the White House?
Bush has blasted
Saddam for "undermining and weakening the UN." In his very next sentence,
Bush vowed to ignore the UN Security Council and invade I-raq, as he calls
it, if the UN didn't give him a green light to attack. Bush is determined
to destroy a nation whose name he can't even pronounce.
No
problemo, however, with the supine U.S. Congress. The special interests
that have bought Congress demand war on Iraq. More importantly, Bush and
Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike) fear the minute Iraq war fever
subsides, they will be crucified over the scandals engulfing Wall Street
and corporate America. The Clinton and Bush administrations and Congress
all took huge donations from the super crooks at Enron, Worldcom, Global
Crossing and their Wall Street co-conspirators, and were thus party to the
most massive swindle in American history.
November's mid-term
elections are only six weeks away. Bush and Congress must keep voters
terrified by the bogeyman of Baghdad or the folks in Peoria will exact
revenge on the politicians who enabled the Mother of all
Frauds.
Meanwhile, Saddam says Bush is taking orders from
Israel and wants to rob him of his oil. Saddam's trusted aides are burying
a few old cans of chemicals and toxin deeper in the desert. Showing
untypical diplomatic agility, Saddam has temporarily split the great
powers and is busy offering oil deals to Russia, China and France. However, on a down note, Iraqi Life Ltd. just cancelled his insurance
policy.
Double-dealing British
In Britain last
week, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accused the Iraqis of being
"duplicitous." That's a $5 word that means two-faced. Talk about the
kettle calling the pot black. The British invented duplicity. In fact,
double-dealing British imperialists created many of the world's chronic
problems. Thank the Brits for Palestine and Israel, Belfast, India,
Pakistan, and Kashmir, Iraq and much of the mess in Africa. London is
determined to grab a share of Iraq's oil once Saddam is overthrown. That's
why Tony Blair, known far and wide as "Bush's poodle," is barking so
loudly.
In Russia, clever President Vladimir Putin has told
unclever George Bush that maybe he'll give him a green light to invade
Iraq, but the price will be allowing Russia to invade Georgia and smash
the Chechen independence fighters, plus about $12 billion in cash, and a
chunk of Iraq's oil. By the way, hearty thanks from my old pals at the KGB
for branding the Chechens "terrorists."
The French are too
clever to stand in the path of the charging American bull, so they are
temporizing and hedging, trying to slow down the rush to war while making
sure that if Bush does invade Iraq, French oil firms and arms producers
will get a share of the plunder.
In a stunning act of
independence, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, locked in a tight
re-election campaign, has strongly opposed any U.S. invasion of Iraq, a
position supported by a majority of Germans. Never before has subservient
postwar Germany stood up to Washington. Europeans are delighted;
Washington is furious. Expect more Hollywood films about World War
II.
 Israel is being very low key in all this, but has put its
mighty U.S. lobby into high gear to press for a war against Iraq...then
against Iran, then Syria, then Lebanon, then Libya. Once the Arab states
are shattered, Israel will dominate the Mideast. "The Israel-Iraq Oil
Company" ...now, that has nice ring to it.
Throughout all
this, the Arab rulers are cowering in their palaces. They can't decided
whether they are more petrified of a Bush administration run amok or their
own angry people. Most Arab leaders will come down against Saddam, since
their personal protection and fortunes are assured by the U.S., and they
know they're next to be "liberated" if they don't obey. Never have the
Arabs looked more impotent or pitiful. The only Arab leader showing an
adequate level of male hormones is Saddam.
Turkish
politicians say, "We are totally opposed to an illegal U.S. invasion of
Iraq! Totally! We are a people of principle. However, if you would forgive
$15 billion of our debts, make a paltry contribution of another $10
billion or so, give us some of your nifty new arms, and allow us to
'liberate' Iraq's northern oil fields, well, then anything is
possible."
And the United Nations? It may think the Americans
have gone crazy, but, hey, the Yanks pay almost half of the UN's bills.
There's no way the UN will endanger its expense accounts for the sake of
miserable Iraq.
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