US has almost no Security Council support

It would be one thing if only China and Syria opposed US action against Iraq. But it appears as though Britain is the only nation backing Bush's sudden desperation to attack Iraq.

Bush and Co. are launching a PR offensive aiming to build support for war -- an effort that has borne little fruit in its first 12 hours. Efforts such as these are ripe for parody:

The 32-page document released today, titled "Apparatus of Lies," purports to document the elaborate ways in which Mr. Hussein has deceived his people, world leaders and Western journalists — all in the name of enriching himself, building his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and oppressing Iraqis.

And then there's this:

To help get its message out around the world, the White House formally announced today that Mr. Bush had established an Office of Global Communications to guide United States government agencies in how to "disseminate truthful, accurate and effective messages about the American people and their government" to audiences around the world.

I might use the word "Orwelian", but that is far too obvious. What is clear is that the US government didn't need any PR agency to "disseminate" information to build support for ousting Slobodan Milosevic, or to wipe out the Taliban. When war is justified, it tends to be self-evident.

But no amount of PR can avoid the fact that UN inspection teams are finding nothing on the ground. The US claims it has information on WMD sites, but it neither gives any relevant intelligence to the UN, nor uses bombing raids to take out such sites (a legitimate use of force). No amount of PR can mask the fact that the entire US case for war rests on absolutely nothing.

Posted January 21, 2003 09:57 PM | Comments (25)