A Noble Nobel Prize

Last week the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mohamed el Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Once again the politics of peace and nuclear weapons inspections made the news, but only for a short time.

A colleague asked me if the choice was a slap in the face of the Bush gang, since the IAEA repeatedly said that Iraq had no weapons of the mass destruction. This was clear in February 2003 when the United States tried to justify the invasion because Iraq had nukes and germs and chemicals to throw around. I remember el Baradei’s address to the UN Security Council: it was clear, concise and direct.

“As I have reported on numerous occasions, the IAEA concluded, by December 1998, that it had neutralized Iraq's past nuclear program and that, therefore, there were no unresolved disarmament issues left at that time. Hence, our focus since the resumption of our inspections in Iraq, two and a half months ago, has been verifying whether Iraq revived its nuclear program in the intervening years.

We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear related activities in Iraq.”

The US government made a choice regardless of what the IAEA reported. “Facts are stupid things” Ronald Reagan once said, and the Bush gang wasn’t interested in facts, only invasion. Their performance at the UN in 2003, starring Colin Powell, was a distraction, designed to give the Pentagon more time to mobilize its forces for the invasion. They were going in regardless of the truth, and in spite of the United Nations.

Should we be surprised by the Empire’s motives and moves? No. The United States government is the last imperial power in the world. They conquer when they need to support the crumbling economy of the rich.

It’s all about turning millionaires into billionaires. And I don’t mean sardines!