Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Erlich has a section devoted to wheather this coming war is about oil. He notes that the U.S. would greatly prefer to get its hands directly on Iraqi oil: a post-Saddam Iraqi government would probably privitize the industry into the hands of U.S. companies and adopt the oil policies the U.S. likes at OPEC. He quotes an article from the British press apparently sourced from British Petroleum that Ahmad Chalabi, head of the INC met with officials from three American oil companies and promised to divide Iraq's oil resources between them as a reward for the U.S. toppling Saddam. Not that they wouldn't want to do business w/Saddam...Dick Cheney as head of Haliburton advocated lifting sanctions on Iraq before he became the VP canidate. Haliburton stands to get huge reconstruction contracts for Iraq's oil industry after the war.

Solomon points out how the U.S. got security council authorization in the last war. Yemen lost 70 million dollars in aid in late 1990 for vetoing a U.S. rough draft resolution and other rotating security council members were threatened w/a similar fate. Similarly in late 2002 Mauritius withdrew its UN ambassador after he opposed a U.S. rough draft, not willing to risk a cut-off of U.S. aid.

Seth Ackerman of FAIR has a section on media treatment of the U.S. using inspections to spy and scout targets for bombing.

Appendix 2 is an analyses by Institute for Public accuracy experts of George W. Bush's speech in Cincinanti on October 7th. They respond to the president's pieties about stopping evil dictators from terrorising the world by pointing to the U.S. funding of Suharto's bloody rule and occupation of East Timor, the U.S. support for perpetrators of aggression like Morroco, Turkey and Israel and its own invastion of Panamma in contravention of UN resoultions and its refusal to pay billions in reparations to Nicaragua as called for by the World Court for its support of the terrorist contras. Others point out that the U.S. authorized the sending to Iraq of the seed stock of Iraq and many other lethal biological agents in the 80's when Saddam really was dangerous.

The experts like Phyllis Bennis, Francis Boyle, Mahajan, Glen Ragwala and James Jennings point out how resolution 1441 calls for the Iraq to grant access to stuff it has never been required to give accounting of before like possible unmanned aerial veichles, their parts and paperwork related to them as well as all Ballistic missle parts and records instead of just missles with a range of over 150 KM. It required Iraq to turn over all materials and records related to its chemical manufactuers even those unrelated to WMD within thirty days, a very impossible task to create 100 percent accounting for, giving the U.S. the opportunity to declare Iraq in material breach. It called for the inspectors to bring any equipment into Iraq that they wished obviously including devices that could be used for spying and the power to declare unspecified areas "exclusion zones"...The inspectors have the right to demand any Iraqi citizen and their families be taken out of the country for questioning about SAddam's WMD. Many are going to likely take this route for they want to get out of Iraq and will exagerate Saddam's threat, telling the U.S. what it wants to hear so they can get prestige. 1441 implies the continuation of U.S. policy through the UN of refusing to lift the sanctions once Saddam fully accounts for his WMD as called for in resolution 687, thus giving the Iraqi regime a heavy incentive to continue not to completely cooperate

As an integrity test this book rings even truer with the passage of time and onrush of events than when it was first published shortly prior to the invasion of Iraq. The authors adroitly cite the rush to war and the falsehoods asserted by Bush and minions, focusing on the "weapons of mass destruction" charge. The authors hit very hard the American contention that the inspections carried out by UN forces were not working, taking the same position as former UN inspector Scott Ritter.

The chapter dealing with Depleted Uranium alone is worth the price of the book. The authors cite the dangers of an eventual epidemic breaking out among invading forces and the general populace, classifying Depleted Uranium as "America's Dirty Secret." As the authors state, "Depleted uranium is the material left over from the processing of nuclear fuel. The U.S. military uses DU as a substitute for lead to fill the core of special ammunition. Depleted Uranium is 1.7 times denser than lead ... "

In addition to stressing the potential risk to Iraqi civilians resulting from Depleted Uranium, along with citing the deferential treatment from the media concerning invasion plans, as well as showcasing American unilateralism, the authors also cover the important oil issue.

All you had to do was read this book before the war and you would not be one scintilla surprised over the kind and beneficent manner with which Bush and cronies dealt with Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, which received such a glorious windfall in post-war Iraq, all without having to go through the bother of competitive bidding.

In TARGET IRAQ, Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich address our flawed media in two ways. First, they expose the forces that create bias in your average journalist--from pushy editors to career ambition to staying on the good sides of those in power. Second, they pick up some of the stories that have gone under-reported since the first Gulf War. They cut through the rhetoric on issues like oil and preemption and replace it with clear, fact-based analysis. They unearth stories that the major media passed over, like the effects of depleted uranium left behind from the first war and the real effects of 12 years of sanctions--cancer patients without medicine, water treatment plants that can't treat water, children without adequate nutrition.

This is not some ultra-lefty, tree-hugging plea for peace under any circumstances. This is a straight presentation of facts collected by veteran reporters who've been on the ground in Iraq. No one should consider themselves fully informed about the issues surrounding the impending war until they've read this book.