of NATO in Europe; without this the buildup would have lasted until the summer of 1991
and beyond.
It was during these August days that Scowcroft coined the slogan of Bush's Gulf war. On
August 23, Scowcroft told reporters, "We believe we are creating the beginning of a new
world order out of the collapse of US-Soviet antagonisms." [fn 47]
Bush was now conducting a systematic "mind war" campaign to coerce the American
people into accepting the war he had already chosen. On August 20, Bush introduced a
new rhetorical note, now calling the American citizens detained in Iraq "hostages." Under
international law, the imminent threat of acts of war against a country entitles that
country to intern enemy aliens as a matter of self-defense; this had been the rule in earlier
wars. Henceforth, Bush would attempt to turn the hostage issue on and off according to
his propaganda needs, until Iraq freed all the Americans in early December.
On August 27, Bush opined that "Saddam Hussein has been so resistant to complying
with international law that I don't yet see fruitful negotiations." [fn 48] Statements like
these were made to cloak the fact that Bush was adamantly refusing to negotiate with
Iraq, and preventing other nations from doing so. Bush's diplomatic posture was in effect
an ultimatum to Iraq to get out of Kuwait, with the Iraqi departure to come before any
discussions. Bush called this a refusal to reward aggression; it was in fact a refusal to
negotiate in good faith, and made clear that Bush wanted war. His problem was that the
US military buildup was taking longer than expected, with ship convoys forced to turn
back in the Atlantic because freighters broke down and were left dead in the water. Bush
strove to fill the time with new demagogic propaganda gambits.
Bush returned to Washington at the end of August to address members of Congress. In
the public part of this meeting, Bush reiterated that his goal was to "persuade Iraq to
withdraw." There followed an executive session behind closed doors. The next day Bush
recorded a broadcast to the US forces in the Gulf, which was beamed to Saudi Arabia by
the Armed Forces Radio. "Soldiers of peace will always be more than a match for a tyrant
bent on aggression," Bush told the troops. During early September, it became evident that
that the US and Soviet approaches to the Gulf crisis were beginning to show some signs
of divergence. Up to this point, Foreign Minister Shevardnadze had backed every step
made by Bush and Baker, but the US Gulf intervention was not popular among Red
Army commanders and among Soviet Moslems who were disturbed by the infidel
occupation of the holy places. On September 9, Bush met with Gorbachov in Helsinki,
Finnland in order to discuss this and other matters of interest to a condominium in which
the Anglo-Saxons were now more than ever the senior partners. Gorbachov spoke up for
"a political solution" to the conflict, but his government willingly took part in every vote
of the UN Security Council which opened the way to the Gulf war. A few days later, on
September 15, Bush received precious support from his masonic brother Francois
Mitterrand, who exploited a trifling incident involving French diplomatic premises in
Kuwait -- the sort of thing that Bush had done repeatedly in Panama -- massively to
escalate the French troop presence and rhetoric in the Gulf. "C'est une aggression, et nous