MER LIE of the WEEK:

MER - Washington - 25 February, 1998:

    The maneuver and counter-manuevering have been underway for months actually; the current "crisis" goes back at least to last November when the Americans first declared their intent to further prostrate and disarm Iraq with missiles and bombs.  Now the "Clinton Doctrine" is upon us -- the U.S. will unilaterally decide who can arm and who cannot in this Pax-Americana "new world order".

    France and the Soviet Union -- with a few other countries including China and India playing minor supportive roles -- are attempting to gently and carefully stand-up to US behemoth. The United Nations and the Security Council are now the main forums for diplomatic wrangling; the U.N. having mistakenly
allowed itself to be all but taken over by the Americans since the end of the Cold War.  All in all it's quite a diplomatic two-step that's going on -- and its hardly over, indeed it's only beginning.

   Secretary-General Kofi Annan is trying mightily; and for that he should be applauded and supported -- so far anyway.  He's been dealt a rather bad hand; but he's playing it well -- so far anyway.

   Even so, if the Secretary-General thinks some sweet-talking diplomatic lies about Bill and Tony are going to rule the day, he's probably heading for quite a rude awaken down the road a bit.  The words above -- his first when he reentered the U.N. building from his "sacred mission" -- may have been his way of letting us all know who really is pulling the strings.  After all, the institution Annan heads has been badly tarnished and battered in recent years; and thus his overall position is quite precarious, his "victory" of sorts in recent days may yet prove quite transient.

    Everyone is well aware that Annan was put in place by Washington when the Americans decided to abort Boutros-Ghali.  Fewer are aware that Annan has been coming to Washington regularly, hat in hand since the American's have stiffed the U.N. about $1 billion in recent years.  Annan has literally been
reduced to beggar on his frequent visits to the American capital; even accepting the unenviable, and undignified, job of conducting personal negotiations with the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jesse Helms.

    The Americans remain cocked, their bombers fueled, their missiles and smart-bombs targeted.  The next chance they get, the next opportunity that get to further manipulate and deceive, they are quite likely to strike, harshly and quickly.

    It is when that end-game comes into sight that we're going to really find out what Kofi Annan and today's U.N. are really made of.

    And anyone placing bets against the U.S. in the short run better be able to afford to lose it all.  American might, technology and duplicity rule for the moment; however arrogant, however bullying, however duplicitous -- and however genocidal to the people of Iraq.