Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

Matthew Dulin        Ray Hafner       Geronimo Rodriguez
         Shaun Salnave          Cara Sarelli

Just smoke, no gun

What seemed like it would be pro-hostility, war propaganda turned out to be just that, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made his much-awaited case against Iraq to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Powell alleged that Iraq had created seven mobile laboratories for breeding dangerous germs and has been hiding projects for building nuclear weapons from inspectors. He also brought back the claim that Iraq tested poison gas on its own people in the mid-1990s.

But the biggest one of all, the one everyone has been waiting for proof of, at least, was to see a link established between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. 

In his hour-and-a-half-long speech, Powell did not give one iota of proof to link Saddam with al-Qaida. 

Even the taped phone conversations presented as evidence had little substance; the people speaking were left unidentified and what was said was interpreted radically by Powell in a sensationalist manner. 

This is not to say that Powell is wrong, but the public opinion polls have shown us that two-thirds of Americans want cause to go to war, and want to try to solve problems with Iraq diplomatically above all else if possible.

In the State of the Union Address, President Bush twirled his guns and brought attention to Powell, with a wait-and-see attitude. Well, we waited, but we have yet to see anything that shows we should go to war. 

When put on the spot after Powellis Power Point-fest, Muhammad Abdallah Ahmad Shati Duri, Iraqi Permanent Representative to the United Nations, gave his rebuttal in rational terms. Of course, he claimed all of what Powell alleged to be false, and that is expected, but he did so in a logical, methodical way, like a good lawyer with attention to fine detail, details that Powell seems to have a knack for ignoring.

The Iraqi representative, in a translated statement at The New York Timesi Web site <I>www.nytimes.com<P> said that inspections since November 2002 have showed claims by the United States and Britain that Iraqi needs to disarm are false. Inspectors have not found anything. 

Until Americans and the rest of the world are shown proof, <I>real proof<P>, not just a fancy charade of government figures taking media attention to shake their fingers at others across the globe for unfounded reasons, we should shed no blood for oil.
Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu