On the eve of an election campaign, the Blair government is attempting,with mounting desperation, to suppress a scandal potentially greater than the arms-to-Iraq cover-up. This is the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps many more, caused by decisions taken in Whitehall and Washington.
Moreover, the evidence of deceit and lying points to at least two Cabinet ministers and three junior ministers. At its centre is the unerring, wilful destruction of a whole society, Iraq, the aim of which is to keep the regime in Baghdad weak enough to be influenced by the west and yet strong enough to control its own people.
This is longstanding Anglo-American policy. Contrary to the propaganda version about protecting Iraq’s ethnic peoples, the objective is to prevent a Kurdish secession in the north and the establishment of a Shi’ite religious state in the rest of the country, while maintaining the west’s dominance of the region and
— source john pilger | | 19 Jan 2001