[Oe List ...] Helen Thomas hasn't deserted her post

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Attack on Fallujah can't be justified

  By HELEN THOMAS
  HEARST NEWSPAPERS

  11/12/04 -- "Seattlepi.com" -- WASHINGTON -- Do Americans of good 
conscience really believe that we are making the United States more 
secure by bombing and killing the people of Fallujah?

  That's the justification President Bush and his hawkish circle have 
given for their brutal offensive against the Sunni stronghold as they 
push ahead for the total military occupation of Iraq.

  Why are we killing Iraqis in their own country? And why are our forces 
being killed?

  Of course it was convenient and the better part of valor for the 
president to wait until after the election to start dropping the 
500-pound bombs on Fallujah as well as raking the streets with 
artillery and aircraft firepower.

  Bush, who has never been in war, flaunted his commander in chief 
status during the campaign. But clearly he did not want to put it to 
the test at Fallujah before Election Day.

  Had he done so, the president would have had to explain why he took 
the United States into Iraq and why he was targeting innocent Iraqis.

  From day one, the U.S. government has been hard-pressed to find legal 
justification for being in Iraq by force. U.S. military moves were 
contrary to the U.N. Charter and the laws that came from the Nuremberg 
Tribunal after World War II.

  Under the U.N. Charter, armed force by a state against the 
sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of another state is 
a violation of international law.

  Does anyone believe that hand-picked interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad 
Allawi, on the CIA payroll for years, is a free soul? Did we really 
make war against Iraq out of the goodness of our hearts to ensure free 
elections for Iraqis?

  The silence of the Democrats is playing into the president's hands. As 
was the case with the original October 2002 congressional resolution 
authorizing war, Democrats are unsure of themselves and therefore 
unwilling to challenge the president.

  Once the offensive was under way, many Americans were appalled to 
learn that among our first major targets were the hospitals in 
Fallujah.

  By now everyone in this country must know that every reason Bush gave 
to attack Iraq has turned out to be a false. No weapons of mass 
destruction were found after two task forces took months and spent 
millions to hunt for them.

  There was no imminent threat by Iraq against the United States. And 
virtually nothing has been found to connect al-Qaida with deposed Iraqi 
dictator Saddam Hussein.

  Presidential credibility used to have some meaning in this country. 
The president visited the soldiers wounded in Iraq at Walter Reed 
Hospital Army Medical Center on Tuesday for the first time since March. 
He told reporters that the U.S. soldiers in Fallujah were doing "the 
hard work necessary" for a free Iraq to emerge.

  And he said the coalition forces were moving into Fallujah "to bring 
to justice those who are willing to kill the innocent, those who are 
trying to terrorize the Iraqi people and our coalition (and) those who 
want to stop democracy."

  The Bush administration has no count on civilians who have lost their 
lives in the current massive assault on Fallujah, but some 900 
civilians reportedly died in the fighting last April when the U.S. 
retreated temporarily from Fallujah.

  White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters he knew of 
"no specific estimate of civilians" who may have been killed in the 
recent fighting.

  But he added: "I know the military goes out of its way to minimize the 
loss of civilian life, and what we are working to achieve in Iraq is an 
important cause that will make America more secure."

  Thousands in Fallujah fled their homes and are living in tents, 
knowing that the U.S. attack was about to begin.

  Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers are going from house to house in urban street 
fighting -- something Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, wanted 
to avoid as a way of reducing the human cost of the first Gulf War. For 
that reason he resisted going on to Baghdad after the liberation of 
Kuwait.

  To understand the Iraqi resistance, I suggest reading the Scottish 
poet Sir Walter Scott. He wrote: "Breathes there a man with soul so 
dead who never to himself has said this is mine own my native land."

  Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: 
helent at hearstdc.com. 

  Copyright 2004 Hearst Newspapers.

(In accordance with Title 17  U.S.C. Section 107, this material is 
distributed without profit to  those who have expressed a prior 
interest in receiving the  included information for research and 
educational purposes.  Information Clearing House has no affiliation 
whatsoever with the  originator of this article nor is Information 
Clearing House  endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

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