George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

troop buildup almost two weeks before the invasion, but on the other that the invasion
came as a bolt from the blue. There was no follow-up on this theme.
The final portion of the press conference was devoted to the very important theme of the
UN sanctions railroaded through the Security Council by the Anglo-Americans with the
help of their willing French, Soviet and Chinese partners. The sanctions were in
themselves an act of genocide against Iraq and the other populations impacted in the
region. The sanctions, maintained after the war had ceased with the pretext that Saddam
Hussein was still in power, have proven more lasting than the war itself, and they may yet
prove more lethal. The Congressional debate in January was fought almost exclusively
between the stranglers of the Democratic Party, who wanted to "give the sanctions more
time to work," and the bombers of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party
who wanted to initiate an air war. Both positions constituted high crimes against
humanity. Bush wanted to argue for the inviolability of these sanctions, but he did so in
such a way as to underline the monstrous and hypocritical double standard that was being
applied to Iraq:
...And that's what has been so very important about this concerted United Nations effort,
unprecedented, you might say, or certainly not enacted since-- what was it, 23 years ago?
23 years ago. So I don't think we can see clearly down that road.
What Bush has in mind here, but does not mention by name, were the United Nations
sanctions against the racist Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia. Perhaps Bush was reluctant to
mention the Rhodesian sanctions because the United States officially violated those
sanctions by an act of Congress, and UN Ambassador George Bush as we have seen, was
one of the principal international apologists for the US policy of importing strategic raw
materials from Rhodesia because of an allegedly pre-eminent US national interest. Bush's
final response shows that he was fully aware that the economic sanctions designed by the
State Department and the Foreign Office would mean genocide against Iraqi children,
since they contained an unprecedented prohibition of food imports:
Well, I don't know what they owe us for food, but I know that this embargo, to be
successful, has got to encompass everything. And if there are-- you know, if there's a
humanitarian concern, pockets of starving children, or something of this nature, why, I
would take a look. But other than that this embargo is going to be all-encompassing, and
it will include food, and I don't know what Iraq owes us now for food. Generally
speaking, in normal times, we have felt that food might be separated out from-- you
know, grain, wheat, might be separated out from other economic sanctions. But this one
is all-encompassing and the language is pretty clear in the United Nations resolutions. [fn
46]
As a final gesture, Bush acknowledged to the journalists that he had "slipped up a couple
times here," and thanked them for having corrected him, so that his slips and gaffes
would not stand as a part of the permanent record. Bush had now done his work; he had
set into motion the military machine that would first strangle, and then bomb Iraq. Within