Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(April 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Liberation or aggression - the Bush Doctrine
for War.
The official commencement of the war against
Iraq was, 9:30pm Washington time, 2:30am GMT, and 5:30am
Baghdad time, on Monday the 17th of March, (United States
dateline), and Tuesday 18th of March, (British and Iraqi
dateline).
 President
Bush announced that diplomacy had failed and consequently
the United States has the right to enforce United Nations
resolutions to overthrow brutal regimes. He argued that
in the case of enemies or regimes conducting acts of war
without formal declaration, the United States had the
right to conduct pre-emptive strikes against such enemies
or regimes.
Thus the President has created the first new national
security strategy in fifty-odd years - the doctrine of
pre-emptive military action against countries involved
in warlike terrorist acts which would affect the security
of America and its people. The President stated that it
was the duty of the United States to police the world
if the United Nations was unable to perform this function.
 Mr
Bush in his speech was obviously not talking to the people
of Europe, and went on to say, "In a free Iraq there
will be no more wars of aggression against your neighbours,
no more factories producing chemicals and poison gasses,
no more execution of dissidents. The day of liberation
and days of jubilation for the Iraqi people under a new
American led administration are near."
The President was quoted as saying that the war will be
quick and decisive and President Saddam Hussein will be
ousted in days.
He cajoled the Iraqi soldiers to give up, as it would
be foolish to risk their lives for a dying regime.
Comment: There is no room in the
United States charter for the Presidents doctrine of pre-emptive
strikes for anticipatory self defence.
What he didn't say is that the United States will have
to put in place a dissident puppet government, and that
American troops and administrators will have to spend
years in Iraq as an army of occupation. This will not
be like the  occupation
of post-war Japan or Germany and it will be an unbelievable
drain on the American economy and resources. Mr Bush is
obviously relying upon so called Allies to help pick up
some of the tab for the war and the rebuilding of the
Iraqi infrastructure, but whether this will happen is
very doubtful, due to the ever widening breach between
the United States/British coalition and a majority of
the rest of the world powers.
If Saddam Hussein gets pushed into a corner and
does respond with chemical and biological weapons, (providing
of course he has such weapons), in retaliation against
America and Britain in the coming days and kills many
of the youthful American and British soldiers, which will
be a tragedy of major proportions, then I’m sure
that the people of America will have a change of heart
and their support of such a war will diminish considerably.
 Question:
Does the President intend to take his doctrine to the
next logical step, war against other countries, such as
say North Korea, Iran, both countries who pose potential
threats to the United States and a far greater threat
of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction than Iraq?
Then of course there is my worst case scenario, which
I predict will occur during the next decade, the incursion
into Taiwan by the Republic of China.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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