A U.S. INVENTION: THE NEW IMPERIALISM

The confrontation with North Korea began with one of the first acts of the Bush administration: the arrogant halting of the ongoing talks between them. Then, by cutting off the supply of fuel oil to North Korea, the U.S. precipitated the current crisis, which was reinforced by including North Koreans in that garbled phrase by [George W. Bush]--"axis of evil." In fact, during his visit to South Korea, Bush was very surprised when his aggressive words against North Korea were rejected. Rumsfeld, apparently ignorant of South Korea's concerns, boasted that the U.S. could carry out two successful simultaneous wars against Iraq and North Korea. He did not care about the cost in civilian deaths, or the possible unleashing of nuclear weapons, which the U.S. has now justified for use against NNWS. The U.S. now plans to request that the UN Security Council sanction North Korea for violation of NPT, which is an exercise in hypocrisy. Meanwhile, the U.S. and British attack on Iraq has actually begun on the excuse of patrols over the so-called "no fly zones." There has been an enormous increase in U.S.-British attacks; many of their bombs have hit civilian targets. This type of activity has gone on, uninterrupted, since 1991. The participants of these actions have even lied about the legality of these patrols, arguing that they were sanctioned by UN Resolution 688 in 1992. The truth is that the issue of "no fly zones" was never included in any UN resolution. The U.S. and Britain have even suggested that their purpose is to protect the Kurdish population of Iraq. In fact, Turkey, a member in good standing of NATO and necessary ally of the U.S. in a projected war against Iraq, has murdered an estimated 30,000 Kurds. In 1995 and 1997 as many as 50,000 Turkish troops occupied what the West called "Kurdish safe havens." In certain cases the U.S. and Britain suspended their patrols to facilitate the Turkish slaughter of the Kurds. The above patrols are a clear violation of international law. By 1999 the official U.S. figures demonstrated that the Americans had flown 30,000 sorties over Iraq, often killing civilians. Even the conservative Wall Street Journal reported that few targets remain. One U.S. official protested, "We're down to the last outhouse." The former senior United Nations official on Iraq, Hans von Sponeck, protested that the "patrols" were attacking civilian structures. The U.S. forced him to resign by threatening to withdraw their support of the UN. (I am gra