The Case For Regime Change
by Ted Rall
| Moreover,
the economy will have to be retooled from its current military dictatorship
model — in which a third of the federal budget goes to arms, and taxes are
paid almost exclusively by the working class — to one in which basic human
needs such as education and poverty are addressed.
|
Making the case for United Nations intervention against the United States,
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami told the organization yesterday that
military action will be "unavoidable" unless the U.S. agrees to destroy its
weapons of mass destruction.
In a much-anticipated speech to a special session of the U.N. General
Assembly held in Brussels, Khatami launched a blistering attack against
American leader George W. Bush, accusing him of defying U.N. resolutions and
using his country's wealth to line the pockets of wealthy cronies at a time
when the people of his country make do without such basic social programs as
national health insurance.
"Nearly two years ago, the civilized world watched as this evil and corrupt
dictator subverted the world's oldest representative democracy in an illegal
coup d'état," said Khatami. "Since then the Bush regime has continued
America's systematic repression of ethnic and religious minorities and
threatened international peace and security throughout the world. Thousands
of political opponents and ordinary citizens have been subjected to
arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. Basic civil rights have been violated.
This rogue state has flouted the international community on legal, economic
and environmental issues. It has even ignored the Geneva Conventions on the
treatment of prisoners of war by denying that its illegal invasion of
Afghanistan — which has had a destabilizing influence throughout Central
Asia — was a war at all."
Khatami said the U.S. possesses the world's largest arsenal of nuclear
weapons, weapons "that, when first developed, were used immediately to kill
half a million innocent civilians just months after acquiring them. No
nation that has committed nuclear genocide can be entrusted with weapons of
mass destruction."
"Bush has invaded Afghanistan and is now threatening Iraq. We cannot stand
by and do nothing while danger gathers. We can't wait for this tyrant to
strike first. We have an obligation to act preemptively to protect the world
from this evildoer," Khatami said.
As delegates punctuated his words with bursts of applause, Khatami noted
that U.S. intelligence agencies had helped establish and fund the world's
most virulent terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, and the Taliban
regime that harbored them. "The U.S. created the Islamist extremists who
attacked its people on September 11, 2001," he stated, "and Bush's
illegitimate junta cynically exploited those attacks to repress political
dissidents, make sweetheart deals with politically-connected corporations
and revive 19th-century-style colonial imperialism."
Khatami asked the U.N. to set a deadline for Bush to step down in favor of
president-in-exile Al Gore, the legitimate winner of the 2000 election, the
results of which were subverted through widespread voting irregularities and
intimidation. "We favor not regime change, but rather restoration and
liberation," he said.
In addition, Khatami said, the U.S. must dismantle its weapons of mass
destruction, guarantee basic human rights to all citizens and agree to abide
by international law or "face the consequences."
Most observers agree that those "consequences" would likely include a
prolonged bombing campaign targeting major U.S. cities and military
installations, followed by a ground invasion led by European forces.
"Civilian casualties would likely be substantial," said a French military
analyst. "But the American people must be liberated from tyranny."
Khatami's charges, which were detailed in a dossier prepared by French
President Jacques Chirac, were dismissed by a representative of the American
strongman as "lies, half-truths and misguided beliefs, motivated by the
desire to control a country with oil, natural gas and other natural
resources." National Security Minister Condoleezza Rice denied that the U.S
maintains weapons of mass destruction and invited U.N. inspectors to visit
Washington to "see for themselves that our weapons are designed only to keep
the peace, subject of course to full respect for American sovereignty."
The U.N. is expected to reject any conditions for or restrictions on arms
inspections. Experts believe that the liberation of the United States will
require a large ground force of European and other international troops,
followed by a massive rebuilding program costing billions of euros. "Even
before Bush, the American political system was a shambles," said Prof.
Salvatore Deluna of the University of Madrid. "Their single-party plutocracy
will have to be reshaped into true parliamentary-style democracy. Moreover,
the economy will have to be retooled from its current military dictatorship
model — in which a third of the federal budget goes to arms, and taxes are
paid almost exclusively by the working class — to one in which basic human
needs such as education and poverty are addressed. Their infrastructure is
a mess; they don't even have a national passenger train system. Fixing a
failed state of this size will require many years."
Ted Rall is an editorial cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate and writes
an on-line opinion column.
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