US and Iraq, and the US Mafioso Racket

Today's New York Times reported: "Western officials said after the meeting
between Mr. Cheney and Mr. Blair that the British leadership agreed with the
American assessment of the Iraqi threat and also that the removal of Mr.
Hussein would be the surest way to eliminate it."

When we speak of the US Mafioso Racket, and how the US creates regional
instabilities that seemingly justify US military presence everywhere,
justify US military industry and arms sales to allies, justify protection
payments from allies, and brings in foreign capital to the safe shores of US
financial markets -- Iraq is a good example.

Today the US can convince some of its allies, at least Blair, that Hussein
is the bad guy and gain their financial and military support for a US attack
on Iraq.  But this despite the fact that the US was arming Iraq in the 1980s
(recall the dual-use issue), had fought with Iraqi forces against Iran in a
war which in 1987 US special operations sunk half of Iran's navy while Iraqi
forces launched an offensive on Iran with US tactical aid.  All that and
more was uncovered following the investigation of the shooting down of an
Iranian airliner by the US Vincennes, killing some 200 civilians on board,
while the ship was engaged in offensive maneuvers against Iranian naval
forces in *Iranian waters.*  All top US officials, from Bush down blatantly
lied about the incident, falsified documents, keep records secret, and
claimed that the Vincennes was in international waters and protecting
itself.

It was amazing to hear Ted Koppel say, "We know the US government lies to us
sometimes.  Tonight's broadcast is about the cover up of..."  Policy maker
Armitage called these events, "playing one wolf off of another."  And then
came the ambivalence of the US position regarding Iraq's intentions to
invade Kuwait in which the US indicated that it would not interfere in any
military confrontation with Kuwait (recall the famous meeting between
Hussein and US Ambassador Glaspie in 1990).  It would appear that the US saw
that as an opportunity was developing in which it would have the opportunity
to launch an offensive against Iraq and thus have not only a considerably
weakened Iraq and Iran, but also, as long as Hussein and a fundamentalist
regime in Iran were in place, a situation in which the occupation of US
forces and sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia that would continue for the
foreseeable future.

So when the US talks about the perils of rogue states as part of the current
war on terrorism, one wonders who the bad guy really is, and how the
culmination of these strategies add up to deliberate policy that is nothing
other than a Mafioso protection racket.