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Megalomaniacs vs Official Monster #1
New information about Swedish RoRo (Roll on/Roll off) vessels indicates the build up of US troops in Mideast is on track and even increasing. A report from Sweden´s biggest circulation paper Aftonbladet on the 26th says that four vessels of the Wallenius Line in Gothenburg (but owned by US subsidiary American Roll on/Roll off Carriers, and sailing under US flag), Faust, Fidelio, Tellus and Tanabata, are contracted to sail on the mideast and are reported to transport war materials for the war against Iraq. (All vessels are listed by the US Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration). Two further vessels, Tosca och Aniara, idle for two years, are suddenly to be hurriedly overhauled for the same use. The shipping line claims the vessels will be used to meet demands for increased car exports, an explanation dismissed by automotive experts. The Wallenius Line have for ten years shipped tanks and other heavy equipment for US Departement of Defence.
For some time, reports have been coming in about US/UK troops build up in the Middle East. Some differences can be noted in the exact number of troops and which countries are involved, but a reasonably good picture can be drawn when all available information is pieced together. Reports come from many sources. Asia Times, Washington Post, NY Times, Sunday Express´ Yvonne Ridley, DebkaFiles (watch out, the two latter based on Israeli military sources), The Guardian and The Independent in Britain, wellknown foreign correspondent of Toronto Sun, Eric Margolis and many others.
What seems to be the case, as far as can be determined, is that between 100.000 and 200.000 US troops joined by lesser numbers of British and Turkish forces are gathered in strategic positions in the countries surrounding Iraq. Around 10.000, mostly US but also Turkish, troops are inside the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, building and repairing runways and training Kurd forces. The usual bombing raids by US/UK go on and some minor fighting on the ground has taken place. More troops and material are coming in to the area daily. Reports from Israeli sources about Dutch and certain other troops taking part is very uncertain and the claim that Iraq has a stockpile of 50-150 nuclear devices seems to be a piece of desinformation. Saddam Hussein´s forces have so far avoided direct confrontation. CIA is under orders to eliminate the Iraqi leader and effect a regime change. An illegal aggression or WAR is, in all respects but formal, going on, while president Bush pretends to be “reviewing options and consulting friends and allies”. Lies to the world, and lies to American people!
The megalomaniacs in Washington try, in the meantime, to paint Saddam with the blackest colors possible, to motivate, not the ongoing covert aggression, but the coming overt one, when the B52s will darken the skies and innocent civilians will again be turned into burned bodies and children who never gave any support to Saddam will have their bodies pierced and slashed by shrapnel. The other day Dick Cheney, in front of the cameras, repeated the cliches of “gassing his own people”, “has weapons of mass destruction”, “threat to the world” and other, largely unproven, accusations, most of which could more correctly be attributed to the US. The silly claim that Saddam Hussein “tries to dominate the middle east [where large parts of the world´s oil reserves are]”, coming from the old oil-man Cheney was such a perfect description of US policy that all writers of satire must be speechless.
American mainstream media are dominated by speculations on when the war will start, if it should start and for the rest filled with the Bush junta's parrot-like rhetorics and “Al Qaeda threat of the week”. The recent warnings from Kissinger, Scowcroft and other elder republicans get coverage enough, but have little effect on the junta. The only aspect about the war on Iraq that media just doesn't bother with is: How can Bush Jr start a war that is already going on? And who can stop it?
The first war of the century is taking place, when the majority of citizens in the attacking country don't even know it is happening!
Hopefully at least some US soldiers will remember the precedence from the Nuremberg war crimes trials after WWII. “I was just following orders” is no excuse for committing war crimes or taking part in illegal war!
Their commander in chief and his mad junta don't have that excuse.
What do you think? Leave your feedback:
What was that again Georgie-boy, about “freedom and democracy” and “We're gooood”?
