positioned to go north and east as well as south and west, meaning that the Poised Hammer force
had to be regarded as pre-positioned for a possible move into the southern, Islamic belt of thecrumbling Soviet empire.
On April 16 and April 29, Iraq, having complied with most of the cease-fire conditions imposed by
Bush through the UN Security Council, requested that the economic embargo imposed in early
August, 1990 begoods on the world market, and to sell oil in order to pay for them. But Bush's committment to finally lifted so as to permit the country to buy food, medicine, and other basic
genocide was truly implacable. Bush first obstructed the Iraqi requests with a debate on the
conditions for the payment of Iraqi reparations and the country's international financial debt, and
then stated on May 20: "At this juncture, my view is we don't want to lift the sanctions as long as
[Saddam Hussein] is in power." In the CongreGonzalez of Texas offered resolutions to relax the sanctions or to end them entirely, but the Bushss, Rep. Tim Penny of Minneosta and Rep. Henry (^)
machine blocked every move in that direction. Here Bush risked isolation in the court of world
public opinion. On July 12, the Aga Khan returned from a visit to Iraq to propose that the sanctions
be lifted. The lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children were in danger because of the lack of
clean water, food, min Iraq rose almost 400% oveedicine, and basic health services; during the summer of 1991, ir the pre-war period. An international effort launched by Mrs. Helganfant mortality
Zepp LaRouche, the international Committee to Save the Children of Iraq, was able to send
planeloads of medical supplies and infant formula into the country, and to focus international
attention on Bush's ongoing high crime against humanity.
The spring of 1991 brought a political signal that was very ominous for Bush's future. This bad
omen for George came in the form of a New York Times op-ed written by William G. Hyland, the
well-known Kissinger clone serving as editor for the magazine Foreign Affairs, the quarterly organ
of the New York Council on Foreign Relations, and one of the flagship publications of the Eastern
Anglophile Liberal Establishment. The article was entitled "Downgrade Foreign Policy," andappeared on May 20, 1991. Hyland's thesis was that "The United States has never been less
threatened by foreign forces than it is today. But the unfortunate corollary is that never since the
Great Depression has the threat to domestic well-being been greater." Hyland demanded that Bush
pay more attention to domestic policy, and his proposals for US military disengagement abroad
were radical enough to raise the eyebrows of the London FHyland's catalogue of Bush's "disastrous domestic agenda: crime, drugs, education, urbainancial Times,; which called attention ton crisis,
federal budget deficits and a constant squeeze on the middle class, the backbone of our democracy."
What Hyland's backers had in mind as remedies for these problems boiled down to modern versions
of the Mussolini fascist corporate state. Hyland's litany that Bush had to pay more attention todomestic crises and especially the battered US economy soon became the stock rhetoric of
Democratic presidential candidates demanding a transition from Bush's voluntary corporatism (the
"thousand points of light") to the compulsory corporatism of Gen. Hugh Johnson's National
Recovery Administration, with an economy organized into obligatory, state-controlled cartels to
reduce wages and cut production. This was the reality that lurked behind the edifying rhetoric aboutpoverty, joblessness, and the decline of the middle class purveyed by the official Democratic
presidential contenders who finally emerged by the end of 1991. But for Bush, the Hyland article
was a clear indication that Wall Street was becoming disenchanted with his policies.
On a number of occasions, Bush threatened to renew the air war against Iraq. One threat of airstrikes came between July 25 and July 28, using the issue of alleged Iraqi concealment of nuclear (^)
programs. Then, in what amounted to an early campaign foray into a number of western states,
Bush made new threats between September 18 and September 20, including an enraged monologue
at the Grand Canyon in the company of the ghoulish Scowcroft.