Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Licence needed for work use Learn More

World Video | Defence | Foreign Affairs | Natural Events | Trade | NZ in World News | NZ National News Video | NZ Regional News | Search

 

Images: Playing Card Deck Shows Way To Regime Cha

April 25, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PLAYING CARD DECK SHOWS WAY TO REGIME CHANGE

The deck: http://www.gatt.org/regime/usregimecards.pdf - PDF Version
& http://www.gatt.org/regime/cards.html - JPG Version
Info and ordering: http://www.gatt.org/regime/
Contact: mailto:playingcards@gatt.org

In the wake of the U.S.'s "pre-emptive" destruction of Iraq, her people, and her culture, the Trade Regulation Organization is issuing a "55 most wanted" playing-card deck ( http://gatt.org/regime/) similar to the one that the Pentagon issued two weeks ago in Iraq ( http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2003/pipc10042003.html).

The TRO, estimating that the U.S. governing regime is no longer consistent with world peace or prosperity, hopes that the playing cards will show the way to regime change and, eventually, large-scale war crimes proceedings.

According to the TRO, the victims of the unprovoked U.S. war fall into three categories:

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

* People. In the 1991 Gulf War, 100,000-200,000 civilians and 80,000-150,000 soldiers were killed directly by bombs.

In addition, poisoning from the U.S.'s depleted uranium (DU) weapons - banned by the Geneva Convention - has led to hundreds of thousands more Iraqi cancers and deaths; the 80,000 cases of "Gulf War syndrome" among U.S. veterans are most likely also due to DU exposure.

In the 2003 Iraq War, the U.S. once again used massive amounts of DU in its weapons. Iraqi death counts are unknown or unpublicized. (See http://gatt.org/regime/ for links.)

* Culture. Because of a U.S. policy giving carte blanche to looters - only the Oil Ministry and Interior Ministry were protected - the Middle East's leading archaeological museum lost almost all of its unique ancient artifacts, and two libraries full of irreplaceable medieval manuscripts were destroyed. (See http://gatt.org/regime/ for links.)

* Prospects. The U.S. is now considered the primary world criminal by the vast majority of the world's citizens. The implications for the U.S.'s long-term prospects are grim.


Many of those featured on the "55 most wanted" cards are in government, and removing these people from power will go a long way towards making the world a safer place.

Others include corporate CEOs; in those cases, the corporations themselves must be dissolved or otherwise rendered incapable of further harm.


"If one day the people on these cards are indeed brought to justice, 'just following orders' or 'supporting our troops' will be no excuse for the rest of us," said TRO spokeswoman Hedwig Ixtabal-Mono.

The Trade Regulation Organization, committed to making trade benefit poor people, is the World Trade Organization's successor; see http://gatt.org/irelease.html for more details.

# ENDS #


© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
World Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.