Bush Bombs Syria Mike Whitney

Opinion, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Bush Bombs Syria

Mike Whitney

Al-Jazeerah, 1021/03

The Bush Administration is as guilty of the unprovoked Israeli attack on Syria as if George Bush had personally flown the F-18s himself. It is impossible to imagine Ariel Sharon took such a bold step as a deliberate act of war against a sovereign country without the expressed consent of his benefactor in Washington. Comments from President Bush about Israel’s “ right to defend herself” only confirm this basic point. The implications of this action are really quite dramatic.

The US, which has increasingly distanced itself from the world community and international law, has now effectively bestowed its highest honor, the right to wage preemptive war, on its most trusted ally, Israel. (Preemption in this case should be understood as the unqualified privilege to pummel unsuspecting and defenseless victims whenever it suits your economic or geopolitical objectives) Undoubtedly, the bestowing of this honor has not passed unnoticed in the capitals around the world, a world that is steeped in denial about the ultimate goals of the Bush-Sharon alliance.

Recent developments in the UN reflect just how extreme the fanaticism that passes itself off as foreign policy has become for the Bush Administration.

First, the US rejected a resolution that would have condemned the possibility of the Israeli government assassinating Arafat. (This has been written into US law ever since the Ford Administration)

Second, the US refused to condemn the unprovoked aggression against alleged terrorist camps in Syria, an act that creates the credible threat of a regional war. (This can only be taken to mean that the attack somehow serves the interests of the powerbrokers in DC)

Third, it looks as if the US will not condemn the construction of the Apartheid Wall, which threatens to illegally seize more Palestinian land and dash whatever hopes remain of a two state solution.

The last of these is particularly concerning as it demonstrates the mendacity of the Administration in promising a Palestinian homeland but, in reality, endorsing the ongoing repression and settlement activity in the occupied territories.

The vicious attack in the Rafah refugee camp further demonstrates that Sharon has been given carte blanche by George Bush to pursue whatever “jackbooted” solutions he may choose to annex more land and destroy the lives of innocent Palestinians.

As long as one invokes the hack kneed platitudes of “national security” or “the war on terror”, there is virtually no crime that that is too extreme. It should be added, that the racist underpinnings of the current campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, has posed little if any problem for either Bush or Sharon.

The war on terror has been so transparently anti- Muslim that Bush rarely even bothers to make his usual perfunctory remarks trying to distance himself from that sad fact. As for Sharon, his antipathy to Muslims and Arabs is simply of matter of record and deserves no further elaboration. The actions in Rafah and Syria should send a chilling message to the world’s leaders, who have so far decided to keep their heads safely tucked in the sand.

The aggression we all saw so demonically exposed in Iraq is not going away anytime soon. The lumbering Superpower has given its tacit endorsement to its handmaiden, Israel, for any future campaign of brutality or reprisal. The war on terror has morphed into the war on human rights, civil liberties, international law and national sovereignty. “Fanaticism is always busy, and needs feeding.” The path ahead looks darker, indeed.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).