The American People Object (Archived)

In order to win public opinion, the American administration, in coordination with the University of Ohio,held a seminar about Iraq in February 1998. The US administration was represented by the minister of foreign affairs Albright, the minister of defense Cohen and the national security advisor Berger.

What happened was unexpected, as the public opinion was against that of the US administration, and here are some of the questions that were raised and the reaction of some attendants in the hall.

Question: the US administration has the power and the means to attack the country of Iraq, but does it have the ethical right to attack the people of Iraq? (cheers and applause)

Question: Former president Carter mentioned yesterday that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians might be killed as a result of the attack; do you, Mrs. Albright, (cheers and applause) also think that it is possible?

Question: What is the reason behind the hesitation and failure of the members of the UN to support the decision to attack Iraq except Britain?

Question: Since we are uncertain of the location of the Iraqi weapons, how do we direct the attack?

Question: There are reports indicating that Iraq has moved most weapon factories to other countries in the region, is it an option to attack those factories as well?

Question: Why should Iraq be attacked while other countries made similar violations? And why does America practice double standards with those countries? (cheers and applause)

Question: what I want to say is that there is a need to apply the American international policies based on one non-volatile principle (cheers and applause)

“We should not support other countries who commit such violations just because they are political allies, this is unacceptable.”

“And we should not go against the UN resolutions when doing so is in our favor and goes with our wishes.”

When the minister of foreign affairs responded with “We do not…” the asker said “Madam Albright, you did not answer my question.”

Question: If we did not reach a peaceful solution to the problem and attacked Iraq and increased its destruction, are we, the American people – the taxpayers – going to pay financial compensations to reconstruct Iraq? (cheers and applause)

Question: President Clinton admits that he cannot stop Saddam and get rid of all the destructive weapons, but he wants to send a message to Saddam, and that we – the American people – do not want to send a message with the blood of the Iraqi men, women and children, and if we wanted to deal with Saddam we would deal with him personally, not with the Iraqi people (applause, cheers, acclamations and encouragement).

After this debate, the US administration quickly fabricated two plays in meeting with the University of Tennessee and South Carolina, only this time the management of these universities selected the participating students and ruled out all elements of opposition, while the PR manager in each university taught the students and trained them on how to behave in the presence of the minister, and encouraged them to applaud her and agree on what she said.

These facts were published in the Washington Post on Friday, 20 February 1998.

OKAZ Newspaper – Tuesday 27 Shawwal 1418 AH falling on 24 February 1998 AD