We are in the rapids. Powerful forces in Washington are clearly determined to launch this war. And this moment demands that millions of people respond with an even more powerful determination to resist.

The Revolutionary Worker salutes all those who manifest bold resistance to this war on the National Moratorium to Stop the War on March 5 and in the days ahead.

Richard Perle, a Likudnik, is a shadowy figure in the Bush administration. Back in 1996, he helped to author a warmongering policy paper for the Israelis, that urged, inter alia, the U S. to take out Iraq. On 02/26/03, President George Bush, in a speech before the American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative think tank, demonstrated how Perle’s “Get Iraq Doctrine” had become holy dogma. Iraq, with or without its consent, will now get “democracy” via a massive U.S. military invasion. No Arab country is presently safe from Bush’s War Party. One major effect of Perle’s intriguing, along with the other Likudniks, (Washington Post, 02/09/03)l, is to make the world safe for Ariel Sharon’s Israel.

Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, Late-Victorian Holocausts and other works, reflects on the U.S.'s drive toward war with Iraq. David concludes that "the United States is becoming a terror state pure and simple: a 21st century Assyria with laptops and modems."

A new CNN system of 'script approval' suggests how the Pentagon will have nothing to worry about from the press. As the U.S. drive for war on Iraq moves closer, Robert Fisk asks how will the news be censored this time?

Author/activist James Petras offers an analysis of the coming U.S. war against Iraq. He argues that it is "not simply an imperialist colonial conquest--though it is that. It is a clash between barbarism and civilization: the outcome and consequences of which will not be limited to the military result in Iraq." It is up activists and intellectuals committed to the human community to prevent further genocides.

Americans' continued purchases of SUVs and light trucks really are a problem. Oil purchases are essentially the only form of financial support the simplistic economies of the despotic Middle Eastern countries have. It's not like the Saudis and Saddam are making a killing off of their fashion industries and brilliant management consulting firms. SUV's and light trucks are all so fuel inefficient that their mere existence on our roads guarantees our continued dependence on Arab Oil.

Round-up of reports from Europe and the Middle East

Public dissent may soon be a crime, if columnist Mona Charen has her way. In rant after rant, she has demonized patriotic Americans, who believe a U.S. war with Iraq is not in our national interest. On Feb. 24, 2003, Charen, in the Baltimore Sun, again smeared the Peace Movement. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is preparing a sequel to the U.S.A. Patriot Act, that may further threaten our civil liberties.