Soak up that propaganda

Saddam's regime is on the brink, a joyous occasion to be sure, after years of tyranny, supported by the US, UK and other western governments while committing his worst crimes, and then 12 years of sanctions which made his regime stronger and ordinary Iraqi people weaker. Sadly it means nothing to the thousands killed by US and UK bombing campaigns, the hundreds of thousands killed by sanctions and, if we take a cursory look at history we know, despite what you'll be told by corporate media, it doesn't mean much for the future of those left alive either.

Since the Second World War the United States Government has bombed 21 countries. None of these bombing campaigns led to the establishment of humane democracies in the countries involved. What most of them did lead to was the crushing of any semblance of a challenge to North American dominance and capitalism, and democracy in most cases.

China (1945-46 & 1950-53)

Korea (1950-53)

Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967-69)

Indonesia (1958)

Cuba (1959-61)

Congo (1964)

Peru (1965)

Laos (1964-73)

Vietnam (1961-73)

Cambodia (1969-70)

Lebanon (1983-84)

Grenada (1983)

Libya (1986)

El Salvador (right through the 1980s)

Nicaragua (right through the 1980s)

Panama (1989)

Bosnia (1995)

Iraq (1991-2003)

Sudan (1998)

Former Yugoslavia (1999)

Afghanistan (2001-02)

How many more are they planning to bomb? Bush's advisers say Iraq is just a 'battle in the wider war'. They have named North Korea, Iran, and even Syria, Cuba and Libya as possible future targets. They call it a war without end.

The images you see on your TV will subside. The people celebrating on your screens, mostly of the Shiite majority will be forgotten just as those in Afghanistan and many other countries have been forgotten, while the US Government moves onto the next target. The US Government won't for a minute entertain the idea of Shiite (Islamic) self-determination in Iraq. Prepare now for the installation of a US puppet regime in place to ensure democracy does not ensue. Prepare now for US military occupation. Prepare now for US Evangelical Christian missionaries ("relief workers"). Prepare now for asset stripping of oil reserves by US corporations and lucrative reconstruction contracts awarded to US corporations, all of which have close ties to the US Government. Prepare now for Iraqi resistance to US occupation. The Star-Spangled Blindfold draped over the head of a Saddam Hussein statue by a young US marine pretty much sums up the hidden imperial nature of North American motives. Prepare now for the next target. What will the pretext be? Another terrorist attack?

The lesson learnt by those on the US hit list? Arm yourself and arm yourself to the hilt with Nuclear weapons because, judging by the different ways in which North Korea and Iraq have been dealt with, that is, ironically, the only way you might avoid a US lead invasion in the short term.

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