Bush administration’s deception, push for war, threaten democracy

It is very curious to me why nobody has highlighted the
anti-Americanism of President Bush and his fellow anti-peace
warriors.

The Bushites have demonstrated an absolute contempt for
democracy, even as they spew idealistic rhetoric about
disseminating it throughout the Middle East. I agree with columnist
Molly Ivins that if the warhawks were sincere in their conviction
to bring democracy to Iraq, they should make it their first item of
business to allow the Iraqi people to vote on whether they would
rather be ruled by a brutal dictator or incinerated by exploding
American missiles.

Perhaps it is too much to expect Bush to respect democracy when
he was not in fact elected by the democratic will of the people,
but by the ideological agenda of five conservative Supreme Court
judges.

Now, I understand that our system of government is not a pure
democracy in which the majority will rules in all cases. Leaders
can ““ and often do ““ act contrary to popular opinion
when their convictions lead them elsewhere. Nonetheless, we expect
those leaders who act in such a manner to hold off from
acting until they have persuaded a majority of people to support
or, at the very least, not oppose their plans. This mode of
operating should hold especially true when the issue at hand is
war.

For seven months now, the beat of the war drums has been
emanating from the White House, and the mounting opposition to war
is proof the warhawks have failed to make their case.

This failure is made all the more spectacular by the egregious
amount of lies, deception and propaganda the administration has
employed to build a backing. Here’s a quick recap of some of
the whoppers they’ve been caught telling so far.

Back in late September 2002, Bush cited an IAEA report claiming
that in 1998 Iraq was six months away from developing a nuclear
weapon. Soon after the IAEA denied having ever produced such a
report.

In early February of this year, chief U.N. weapons inspector
Hans Blix rejected Secretary of State Colin Powell’s claim
that there was evidence the Iraqis had mobile biological weapons
laboratories and were trying to foil inspectors by moving equipment
before his teams arrived.

Later that month CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips
interviewed disgruntled U.N. weapons inspectors, who had found
nothing following U.S. tips on where to find hidden weapons.
Phillips reported that one of the inspectors had called the tips
“garbage after garbage after garbage.”

Finally, and most recently, the United Nations’ chief
nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, accused the United States of
providing fabricated evidence to his agency. ElBaradei deemed
documents showing that Iraqi officials had shopped for uranium in
Africa two years ago “not authentic.” ElBaradei also
rejected claims repeatedly made by Colin Powell that Iraq had tried
to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges in
uranium enrichment.

With so much unearthed deception, I find it increasingly
difficult to believe anything coming from the White House.

Our democracy cannot survive much more mendacity, and all those
who believe in democracy and the other ideals this country stands
for must demand honesty and protest Bush’s anti-American
craving for war.

Tang is a third-year political science student.