The
World Can Halt Bush’s Crimes
By Dumping The Dollar
By Paul Craig Roberts
14 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
What
would be the consequences of a US or Israeli attack on Iran’s
nuclear energy sites?
At the 2006 Perdana Global
Peace Forum, Australian medical scientist Dr.
Helen Caldicott provided an authoritative analysis: [VIDEO]
of the devastating impact on human life that would result from the radiation
release from such an attack.
Dr. Caldicott described the
catastrophic deaths that would result from a conventional attack on
nuclear facilities and the long-term increase in cancer deaths from
the radiation release.
Should the attack be made
with nuclear weapons--as some of Bush’s criminally insane neoconservative
advisers advocate--the populations of many countries would suffer for
generations from radioactive particles in air, water, and food chains.
Deaths would number in the many millions.
Such an attack justified
in the name of “American security” and “American hegemony”
would constitute the rawest form of evil the world has ever seen, far
surpassing in evil the atrocities of the Nazi and Communist regimes.
Dr. Caldicott detailed the
horrible long-term consequences for the Iraqi population from the US
military’s current use of depleted uranium in explosive ammunition
used in Iraq. Caldicott explained that “depleted” does not
mean depleted of radiation. She explained that each time such ammunition
is used, radioactive particles are released in the air and are absorbed
into people’s lungs. We are yet to see the horrific civilian casualty
rate of the American invasion--or the true casualty rate among US troops.
Dr. Caldicott expressed bewilderment
why the rest of the world does not stand up to the US and force a halt
to its crimes against humanity.
One man heard her--Vladimir
Putin, President of Russia.
On February 10 at the 43rd
Munich Security Conference, President Putin told the world’s assembled
political leaders that the US was trying to establish a “uni-polar
world,” which he defined as “one single center of power,
one single center of force and one single master.”
This goal, Putin said, was
a “formula for disaster.”
“The United States,”
Putin said, truthfully, “has overstepped its borders in all spheres”
and “has imposed itself on other states.”
The Russian leader declared:
“We see no kind of restraint--a hyper-inflated use of force.”
To avoid catastrophe, Putin
said a reconsideration of the entire existing architecture of global
security was necessary.
Putin’s words of truth
fell on many deaf ears. US Senator John McCain, America’s most
idiotic and dangerous “leader” after Bush and Cheney, equated
Putin’s legitimate criticism of the US with “confrontation.”
America’s new puppets--the
states of central and Eastern Europe and the secretary general of NATO,
no longer a treaty for the defense of Europe but a military force enlisted
in America’s quest for empire--lined up with McCain’s argument
that Russia was in fundamental conflict “with the core values
of Euro-Atlantic democracies.”
Even the BBC’s defense
and security correspondent, Rob Watson, jumped on the American propaganda
bandwagon, tagging Putin’s speech a revival of the cold war.
No delegate at the security
conference stood up to state the obvious fact that it is not Russia
that is invading countries under pretexts as false as Hitler’s
and setting up weapons systems on foreign soil in order to achieve military
hegemony.
The reception given to Putin’s
words made it clear to Russia, China, and every country not bribed,
threatened or purchased into participation in America’s drive
for world hegemony that the US has no interest whatsoever in peace.
Intelligent people realize that American claims to be a moral and democratic
force are mere pretense behind which hides a policy of military aggression.
The US, Putin said, has gone
“from one conflict to another without achieving a fully-fledged
solution to any of them.”
Putin has repeatedly stressed
Russia’s peaceful intentions and desire to focus on its economy
and to avoid a new arms race. In his speech on the 60th anniversary
of the victory over Nazi Germany, Putin said: “I am convinced
that there is no alternative to our friendship and our fraternity. With
our closest neighbors and all countries of the world, Russia is prepared
to build a kind of relationship which is not only based on lessons of
the past but is also directed into a shared future.”
In his 2006 state of the
nation speech, Putin noted that America’s military budget is 25
times larger than Russia’s. He compared the Bush Regime to a wolf
who eats whom he wants without listening. Putin is being demonized by
US propagandists, because he insists upon Russia being a politically
and economically independent state.
The Bush Regime has taken
the US outside the boundaries of international law and is acting unilaterally,
falsely declaring American military aggression to be “defensive”
and in the interests of peace. Much of the world realizes the hypocrisy
and danger in the Bush Regime’s justification of the unbridled
use of US military power, but no countries except other nuclear powers
can challenge American aggression, and then only at the risk of all
life on earth.
The solution is nonmilitary
challenge.
The Bush Regime’s ability
to wage war is dependent upon foreign financing. The Regime’s
wars are financed with red ink, which means the hundreds of billions
of dollars must be borrowed. As American consumers are spending more
than they earn on consumption, the money cannot be borrowed from Americans.
The US is totally dependent
upon foreigners to finance its budget and trade deficits. By financing
these deficits, foreign governments are complicit in the Bush Regime’s
military aggressions and war crimes. The Bush Regime’s two largest
lenders are China and Japan. It is ironic that Japan, the only nation
to experience nuclear attack by the US, is banker to the Bush Regime
as it prepares a possible nuclear attack on Iran.
If the rest of the world
would simply stop purchasing US Treasuries, and instead dump their surplus
dollars into the foreign exchange market, the Bush Regime would be overwhelmed
with economic crisis and unable to wage war. The arrogant hubris associated
with the “sole superpower” myth would burst like the bubble
it is.
The collapse of the dollar
would also end the US government’s ability to subvert other countries
by purchasing their leaders to do America’s will.
The demise of the US dollar
is only a question of time. It would save the world from war and devastation
if the dollar is brought to its demise before the Bush Regime launches
its planned attack on Iran.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate
Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor
of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
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