by James Glaser
February 11, 2003

It seems so strange to me that so many Editorialists, columnists and TV commentators have praised Colleen Power's speech before the United Nations, even before they had any time to check out his facts to see if he was telling the truth. In recent history the United States has been less than honest about reasons to go to war. From the fake Gulf of Tonkin attack before 58,000 young Americans lost their lives in Vietnam, to the fake photos of Iraqi troops massed on the Saudi border before the last Gulf War, American officials have never needed the truth on their side in order to start killing people.

America has always held up our Judicial system for the world to see and use as an example of what Justice is. Colin Powell trashed that image of our system of Justice before the whole world last week.

Almost every thing Secretary Powell said in support of a war with Iraq would have been thrown out of any American court. Very little material was new, nor did the accused, Iraq, get to refute or examine the evidence against it. This was a trial of Iraq and its people before the United Nations and the out come of this trial could be a death sentence for thousands of innocent Iraqi people. I don't care what happens to Saddam Hussein as he is a ruthless dictator, but America should care about the innocent people we will be killing in any type of war.

George Bush and his Administration seem to forget about these people in their lust for war. In fact those innocent Iraqi women and children are never even mentioned in this war buildup, but the attack on Baghdad with thousands of missiles is all planned out. Baghdad is a city of 5,000,000 people.

This is where our government just does not get it. They want to get rid of Saddam so much that they fail to remember in war, every war, thousands of innocent people are killed. It really does not matter that the military tries as hard as they can to target only military targets because we just are not that good. We still, with all of our new technology kill thousands of women and children who are just trying to live in this world. Washington believes that they have the right to kill little infants and children for the "greater good" of removing Saddam.

Most of Colin Powell's testimony was just that, Colin Powell. Most of his words were "old news" wrapped in new words. About the only new information was Powell's assertion that Iraq was in cahoots with al-Qaeda through a terrorist group called Ansar al-Islam that he claimed was operating in Iraq.

Of course Secretary Powell failed to tell the world that Ansar al-Islam is located in an autonomous region of Northern Iraq controlled by our friends the Kurds. This region of Iraq is not controlled by Saddam Hussein or Iraq's military. Maybe he forgot.

Now a week later, a week of the world looking at Powell's testimony, British Journalists have gone to the very compound that Powell said was controlled by this connection to al-Qaeda.

Luke Harding of the London Observer writes "The US Secretary of State last week confidently described the compound in north-eastern Iraq-run by an Islamic terrorist group Ansar al-Islam as a terrorist chemicals and poisons factory." After visiting this compound at the groups request Harding wrote, "Yesterday however, it emerged that the terrorist factory was nothing of the kind-more a dilapidated collection of concrete outbuildings at the foot of a grassy sloping hill." "There is a bakery. There is no sign of chemical weapons anywhere."

Sure the US can say the chemicals at this compound were hidden, but the location certainly was not and that location is outside of the control of Saddam Hussein. Also the fact is this group of terrorists is fighting against Saddam. Mohammad Hasan, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam told Harding, "We don't have any drugs for our fighters. We don't even have any aspirin. How can we produce any chemicals or weapons of mass destruction?"

This terrorist group is fighting the Kurds in daily attacks and has 500 fighters. This is the same group Powell claimed was linked to Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Powell hinted that Ansar al-Islam is a menace to the world and the link between Saddam and al-Qaeda.

This "terrorist" group invited journalists into their territory in hope that that they will be able to prevent an American missile strike on their compound. One would wonder if Powell really believed all he testified about this group, why that attack has not taken place already. Here in Secretary of State Powell's own words is a chemical and poisons factory run by terrorists and we know right where it is.

I am sure that the men in this compound are pretty "bad" men. However I don't think that they are international terrorists, but I do think that they represent just one of the groups that America will have to contend with if we take over Iraq. Iraq is in a civil war right now and we will have to settle that just like we are trying to do in Afghanistan today.

When Americas own Secretary of State tells the world that it must go to war with a really pitiful country like Iraq, he could at least have his facts straight and be honest. Tell the world that we need this countries oil to be flowing to our corporations in a steady and cost effective method. Saddam Hussein is an impediment to that and we must remove him. That would be honest and the world would believe us.