Representative Press Blog

One of the Reasons for the War on Iraq

Although not the exclusive reason for attacking Iraq, Israel is very clearly one of the reasons for the war on Iraq. The major reason is control of the Middle East because of the oil. In fact, support of Israel is also part of the strategy for control in the region and we pay a price for that.

It would be wrong to say that no Americans died in Iraq because of Israel because we know, although mainstream US media basically suppressed it, that the four US contractors who were killed in Iraq were killed in retaliation for Israel's "targeted liquidation" of wheelchair-bound 75 year old Sheikh Yassin. [1] Seven other people not targeted were also killed by Israel's "targeted liquidation."

Israel's killing of Yassin was condemned by many in the world including Kofi Annan, and by European leaders, including British foreign minister Jack Straw.


Israel's "targeted liquidations" are war crimes. Two leading Israeli civil rights attorneys have written, "It greatly pains us to say the following, but we do not have any choice, because the legal and moral truth obligates us to present these facts, in their full severity, before the honorable court: liquidation is a war crime, the consistent, widespread policy of targeted liquidations bounds on a crime against humanity and the State of Israel has turned its pilots into war criminals" - Haaretz 'One day in five, the IDF attempts assassination' By Aryeh Dayan quoted in Hegemony or Survival p26

Condoleeza Rice, speaking for the Bush administration, refused to criticize Israel's killing of Yassin.

[1] "The assassination of Sheikh Yassin certainly harmed the US in Iraq, quite directly. Though the media are keeping pretty quiet about it , the murder of the four US security contractors in Fallujah appears to have been retaliation for the Yassin assassination ; responsibility was taken immediately by a previously unknown group in Iraq called "Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin." - Noam Chomsky

It has been pointed out by several people that one of the reasons for the war on Iraq is serving Israel's interests. Senator Ernest Hollings, Wesley Clark and Philip Zelikow are some of the people that have explained this and again the media has been reluctant to report these facts.

"With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel." - Senator Ernest Hollings

"Those who favor this attack [by the US against Iraq] now will tell you candidly, and privately, that it is probably true that Saddam Hussein is no threat to the United States. But they are afraid at some point he might decide if he had a nuclear weapon to use it against Israel." - Wesley Clark

In reference to Iraq, Philip Zelikow said during a war-on-terror forum at the University of Virginia Law School on Sept. 10, 2002: "Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us?" he asked a crowd at the University of Virginia on Sep. 10, 2002", Philip Zelikow explains, "I'll tell you what the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel. And this is the threat that dares not speak its name because...the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically because it's not a popular sell." - Philip Zelikow

"So just why did Bush choose war?
From the evidence before us today, there is no one single reason. Rather, there are three converging and tightly interwoven reasons: oil, Israel and military transformation. The Cheney energy strategy required Iraqi oil; AIPAC and the Christian right wanted to weaken the Arab world to strengthen Israel; and Don Rumsfeld wanted to expedite the transformation of the U.S. military." -
Bush's Real Rationale for War by Patrick Doherty