林德宜：美国故技重施？

新冠病毒源头来自于中国武汉实验室泄漏的指责，再次成为美国及其盟国的头条新闻。最近的攻击，来自《华尔街日报》的一项报导，该报导援引美国早前的一份情报，指中国实验室的数名研究人员早在2019年终时，曾染上“拥有类似新冠肺炎和常见季节性疾病症状”的疾病。

从美国有线电视新闻网之前的报道，拜登政府今年春季以没能有效运用资源为由，结束了国务院调查特朗普时代所声称的新冠病毒来自武汉实验室的工作，可近日拜登却命令美国“情报机关加倍努力收集和分析可能让我们更接近确定的结论，并在90天内向我报告。”

无疑的，这挑起了西方主流媒体读者的新一轮评论狂潮，他们指责中国从一开始就掩盖一切，并要对美国人和英国人的死亡负责。这些读者再次呼吁美国，英国和世界其他国家惩罚中国，一些评论员更提出向中国索赔；取消美国对中国的债务；还有各种更极端的建议，包括尽可能在多方面对中国宣战。

与此同时，两名显然正在为其病毒研究谘询工作寻求资金的西方科学家，以缺乏根据和未获支持的研究结果，指中国科学家在实验室中制造了新冠病毒，然后对病毒进行改造，使病毒看起来像是从蝙蝠处自然进化而来的。

可以预见，会有更多耸人听闻的虚假信息和所谓的“揭密”，来自拥有意识形态动机的机构和个人，他们企图从所谓有关中国对西方展开生物战的“揭密”中，获得金钱利益或名声。

再加上持续指责中国在新疆实施所谓“种族灭绝政策”的反华运动——这一指控已被世界上绝大多数国家，包括大多数穆斯林国家否认——这一连串的反华举动，让人想起当年美国小布什总统、英国首相布莱尔和西方盟友对萨达姆侯赛因领导下的伊拉克发动的宣传战。

2003年，美国在没受挑衅，也没合法理由下入侵伊拉克。为了开战，必须捏造战争理由或原因。美国给予的说法是，这场战争是必要的，以消除“一个发展和使用大规模毁灭性武器，藏匿并支持恐怖分子，残酷侵犯人权，无视联合国和世界的正义诉求之政权”。

在对伊拉克发动战争前几年，也精心策划的在舆论造势，声称萨达姆侯赛因正在开发大规模毁灭性武器，并对邻国和自由世界构成威胁。在声势浩大的西方媒体支持下，指责伊拉克拥有大规模毁灭性武器宣传，被形容为“现代宣传战的原型，其关键组成部分就是奖励那些助长此谎言的人”。

这场宣传战最杰出的“啦啦队”成员包括多数来自美国自由派和保守派两大阵营的编辑、记者、政客和知识分子。美国还向全球各地媒体机构、其人员以及有影响力的舆论领袖，提供了丰富的资金和支援，以便用大规模毁灭性武器向萨达姆侯赛因发动战争的理由，拥有合法性和得到全球支持。

而哪一些国家与美国和英国联手，指责伊拉克拥有大规模毁灭性武器，并向萨达姆侯赛因宣战，推翻其政权？这份“友好联盟”的清单，指的是在军事或政治上支持美国入侵伊拉克和随后驻军的国家，最初31个国家如下：

阿富汗、阿尔巴尼亚、澳洲、阿塞拜疆、保加利亚、哥伦比亚、捷克、丹麦、萨尔瓦多、厄利垂亚、爱沙尼亚、埃塞俄比亚、格鲁吉亚、匈牙利、冰岛、意大利、日本、韩国、拉脱维亚、立陶宛、马其顿、荷兰、尼加拉瓜、菲律宾、波兰、罗马尼亚、斯洛伐克、西班牙、土耳其、英国和乌兹别克斯坦。

此后新增的包括：哥斯达黎加、多米尼加共和国、洪都拉斯、科威特、马绍尔群岛、密克罗尼西亚、蒙古、帕劳、葡萄牙、卢旺达、新加坡、所罗门群岛和乌干达。

在“友好联盟”中，最重要两大成员英国和澳洲，也出动军队、战舰、飞机和其他军事支援。日本也是联盟的重要成员。日本放弃了二战后的和平主义政策，不只出兵，更重要的是提供了数十亿美元支援在伊拉克的军事行动和政权过渡时期的行动。

日本支付的大部分资金似乎已从分配给日本公司的利润丰厚重建项目中收回。美国本身却因伊拉克战争和战后占领而丧生了5000名军事人员，同时据报导，为了这场战场，美国共耗费了超过2兆美元／8.25兆令吉，或等于美国纳税人平均每人须负担8000美元／3.3万令吉。

伊拉克平民伤亡人数估计更多，但最可靠的数据表明，共有20万人死于冲突，也有指高达30万人，包括战斗人员和平民。

伊拉克战争不仅突显了一场完全不必要，但出于政治动机，而建立在谎言和欺骗之上的战争，带来的可怕人命伤亡代价，其还凸显了，那些战争贩子和利用“外国威胁”制造危机的人，如何从主导国际舆论中获利，而且还是有利可图的商机。

当美国拜登总统近日指中国想在2035年“掌控”美国时，我们是否又在目睹美国故技重施，以散播谎言的抹黑手段对付中国？

《美国故技重施？》（Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Replay?）原文：

The obsession with pinpointing the origins of the coronavirus 19 to a leak from a Wuhan lab has again dominated headlines in the United States and its allies.  The latest news onslaught comes after a Wall Street Journal report quoted an earlier US intelligence report which said that several researchers at the lab became sick in late 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.” 

Taking his cue from a followup CNN report that he had killed a Trump-era probe into whether the virus started in a Wuhan lab, the new President Biden has now ordered the US “intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion and to report back to me in 90 days”. 

Predictably a new frenzy of readers’ comments has re-emerged in the western mainstream media accusing China of covering up from the beginning and of being responsible for the deaths of Americans and Britishers. Readers have again called for the US, Britain and the rest of the world to punish China with some commentators demanding compensation; the cancellation of US debt to China; and various more extreme suggestions including waging a war on China on as many fronts as possible. 

Meanwhile two western scientists apparently seeking funding for their consultancy work on the virus have weighed in with the results of their unsubstantiated amd unsupported study that makes the baseless claim that Chinese scientists created covid-19 in a lab and then tried to reverse-engineer versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats. 

More sensationalistic disinformation and disclosures can be expected from ideologically-motivated agencies and individuals with many seeking to make a fast buck or name for themselves from new disclosures about China’s alleged biological warfare against the west. 

Together with the continuing campaign against China’s so-called genocide’ policies in Xinjiang - an allegation rejected by the great majority of the world’s nations, including most Muslim countries - the anti-China bashing is reminiscent of the propaganda campaign waged by George Bush, Tony Blair and western allies from around the world against Iraq under Saddam Hussein.  

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without cause or provocation. However, to engage in a war, a casus belli or a case for war had to be made. The US case was that the war was necessary to remove “a regime that developed and used weapons of mass destruction, that harbored and supported terrorists, committed outrageous human rights abuses, and defied the just demands of the United Nations and the world."

The softening of public opinion towards the war was orchestrated several years earlier with the claim that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to neighbouring countries and the free world. Supported by a vociferous western media, the WMD campaign has been described as “the archetype of a modern propaganda campaign, a key component of which is the rewarding of the people who sell the lie.” The most prominent cheerleaders of this campaign included most American editors, journalists, politicians, intelligentsia from liberal and conservative camps. US funding and favours were also provided in abundance to media agencies and their personnel, as well as influential opinion leaders around the world so that the war against Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction could have credibility and global support.    

Coalition of the willing

Which countries were partners in the US and British waged war to bring about regime change against Saddam Hussein and his alleged WMD?  A list of the “coalition of the willing" to refer to the countries who supported, militarily or politically, the invasion of Iraq and subsequent military presence initially contained the following 31 countries:

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

Additions since then included: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kuwait, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Portugal, Rwanda, Singapore, Solomon Islands and Uganda.

The most prominent members of the “coalition of the willing” were Britain and Australia 
which provided troops, ships, planes and other military support. Japan also became a prominent member of the coalition. Turning its back on its earlier pacifism policy, Japan provided troops but more importantly contributed billions of dollars to support the military and transition effort. Much of the Japanese funding appears to have been recouped in lucrative reconstruction projects allocated to Japanese companies. The US itself suffered 5,000 military deaths from the Iraq war and post war occupation whilst US taxpayers reportedly paid an average of $8,000 each and over $2 trillion total for the war. Iraq civilian casualty estimates range widely but the most reliable indicates a total of 200,000 violent deaths and a higher figure of 300,000 which includes combatants and civilians. 

The Iraq war highlights not only the horrendous cost in human life and suffering from a totally needless politically motivated war built on a mountain of lies and deception. It also shows how war mongering and the exploitation of manufactured threats from foreign ‘enemies’ can be a rewarding and lucrative business by those swaying international public opinion. 

Are we witnessing a similar process of selling the big lie take place against China now described by President Biden as wanting to own the US by 2035?