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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: October 8, 2002
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For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
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Beware of government propaganda, say Libertarians
in response to Bush's latest Iraq speech

WASHINGTON, DC -- As Americans consider the merits of the case against 
Iraq as laid out by President Bush last night, they should keep these 
five words in mind, Libertarians say: Babies being pulled from 
incubators.

The explosive allegation that Iraqi troops had invaded a Kuwaiti 
hospital in 1990, pulled babies from incubators and left them on the 
floor to die - a charge made on national TV by Bush's father - later 
turned out to be patently false government propaganda.

"There's no way for ordinary Americans to determine whether all of Mr. 
Bush's claims about Iraq are true," said Libertarian Party 
Communications Director George Getz. "But we do know that past 
presidents have told the public bald-faced lies in order to whip up war 
hysteria."

Seeking to shore up public and congressional support for a resolution 
authorizing him to use force against Iraq, President Bush warned the 
nation on Monday that Saddam is a "murderous tyrant" who poses an 
immediate threat to U.S. lives. Bush repeated claims that Saddam is 
developing weapons of mass destruction, has invaded his neighbors, and 
has repressed his own people.

Bush also listed several specific acts of cruelty that he says were 
perpetrated by Saddam: that opponents have been decapitated, women have 
been "systematically raped," and "political prisoners have been forced 
to watch their own children being tortured."

While it's understandable for Americans to be horrified by such 
allegations, Libertarians are urging the nation not to accept the 
charges uncritically.

"As Bush continues to build the case for war, it's important to 
remember that politicians itching for war often have been less than 
candid with the public," Getz said.

One example is the notorious babies-being-pulled-from-incubators hoax 
that was perpetrated in 1990 by a Washington public relations firm, 
with a little help from President George Bush.

"As Bush tried to rally public support for pushing Iraqi troops out 
Kuwait, he recounted the horrors that occurred when Iraqi troops 
invaded a hospital in Kuwait City," Getz said. "In a nationally 
televised speech, the president said: 'Babies have been ripped off of 
incubators and those incubators [were] shipped off to Baghdad.'

"There's only problem with the story," Getz continued: "It wasn't true. 
It had been fabricated by Hill & Knowlton, a PR firm that had been paid 
$10.7 million by the government of Kuwait to sway U.S. public opinion 
in favor of the war.

"Understandably, the story outraged the public and helped advance the 
march toward a war that claimed 148 American lives."

And George Bush isn't the only president to employ wartime propaganda 
to trick the public, Getz noted. Lyndon Johnson's claim that the North 
Vietnamese fired on a U.S. ship in the Gulf on Tonkin in 1964 was 
instrumental in getting the Senate to vote for a war resolution, though 
historians now agree that the shooting incident never happened.

"Over 58,000 U.S. servicemen were killed in the Vietnam War, a tragedy 
that might not have happened if an unscrupulous U.S. president had not 
lied to the American people," Getz said.

That's why the American people have every right to demand proof from 
the president as he tries to persuade them to risk the lives of their 
sons and daughters in battle, Libertarians say. 

"Do the satellite photos that Bush mentioned in his speech last night 
really show the construction of a nuclear power plant outside Baghdad? 
Did Iraqi intelligence agents really meet with senior al Qaeda 
operatives? Does Saddam really behead his political opponents and 
torture children in front of their parents?

"Unfortunately, we may never know. But we do know that before 
presidents launch military attacks against foreign nations, they 
sometimes launch propaganda attacks against the American people."

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