Doing Business With Saddam's Backer : U.S. About to Pump Billions into the Main International Supporter of Saddam Hussein's Regime
November 19, 2002
International News Analysis Today Exclusive Report
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2002 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
U.S. business interests are preparing to invest billions of dollars into Russia - Iraq's largest importer - as Moscow is undermining American efforts to end Baghdad's capacity to develop and use chemical, biological, and atomic weapons.
There will be "a significant American investment in Russia within the next year," declared the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Russia, Andrew Sommers, according to a report by the Voice of Russia World Service, the official broadcasting service of the Russian government.
Currently, U.S. investment in Russia stands at $1.5
billion per year, but is expected to soon rise sharply.
Ford and General Motors already produce cars in Russia,
and Exxon is beginning to open gas and oil deposits,
with an eventual total investment reaching $12 billion.
The amount of oil Russia ships to the United States
is slated to increase sharply - and soon.
U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet
with Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 22,
2002, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Discussions between
the two leaders will cover not only international politics
and the war on terror, but also include an announcement
of "increased ties" between the U.S. and Russia in the
production and sale of oil, Voice of Russia reported.
The United States and Russia are "at the very beginning of their truly advantageous rapprochement," declared the Voice of Russia.
Despite an apparently amicable business relationship, Moscow continues to use Cold War rhetoric in describing U.S. foreign policy, including the war on terror.
As Washington focused attention upon Baghdad's biological,
chemical, and nuclear capabilities, Moscow continually
maintained that there was "no evidence" that Iraq possessed
or was developing weapons of mass destruction. Moscow,
however, characterizes Washington's war on terror as
an attempt to establish a global "Pax America."
Following the attacks of 9-11, the United States began
vigorously investigating Iraqi's potential for chemical,
biological, and nuclear weapons development. Shortly
after September 11, Russia became the top importer of
Iraqi exports.
As America observed the six-month anniversary of the
attacks on New York and Washington, Moscow condemned
the Bush Administration's concept of an "axis of evil"
as "arrogance" and a "betrayal of the memory of those
who died on September 11," according to a Voice of Russia
broadcast received in the United States on March 11,
2002.
Following Saddam's capitulation to U.N. requests and America's threat to invade, Moscow remained Iraq's defender.
Moscow is placing responsibility for the present Iraqi
crisis squarely on the shoulders of the U.N. weapons
inspectors, both past and present. Moscow is already
questioning the competence of the present group of inspectors,
while condemning the actions of past inspectors.
The questions raised by earlier weapons inspectors
eventually led to the threat of U.S. military action
against Iraq.
As U.N. weapons inspectors enter Iraq, Moscow is asking if the inspectors "will prove impartial," adding that impartiality is "something the experts …used in the past lacked altogether."
The present group of weapons inspectors should be "quiet," as well as "impartial," according to Moscow.
Moscow did not define the term "quiet", nor explain
how earlier weapons inspectors lacked "impartiality"
as they pursued their work of tracking down indications
of clandestine Iraqi weapons programs.
Moscow is also balking at the latest U.N. arms inspection resolution, calling it "tough and hard-to-comply-with."
Moscow is urging the U.S. to ignore possible connections
between Baghdad and terrorist networks; disregard any
indications of Iraqi chemical, biological, or nuclear
weapons development; and to "tone down the war rhetoric."
The U.S. should seek to engage in "fence mending" and
"confidence building" with Saddam, Moscow declared.
As Moscow disregards all of Washington's concerns about Iraq, U.S. foreign policy is generally characterized in the darkest of Cold War era terms.
Less than three months before Bush's planned November
22nd meeting with Putin, Moscow declared that the war
on terror exists because, "Washington needs an enemy,
as much as it needed an enemy in the Cold War."
Bush "invented" the "axis of evil," as much as President Ronald Reagan "discovered" the "evil empire" [the Soviet Union], to "shift" public attention "from other priorities," and establish U.S. "global superiority," declared Moscow.
Moscow's periodic use of Cold War rhetoric in describing U.S. foreign policy is not confined to describing Washington's war on terror, but extends to virtually all aspects of U.S. foreign relations.
The Bush-Putin meeting this month will probably lead to increased American dependence on Russian oil,
yet -- beyond the staged photos and the diplomatic parlance
-- Moscow continues to employ Cold War rhetoric against
the U.S. This rhetoric -- more accurately, propaganda
-- is broadcast across the globe, eleven years after
the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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