How did defeating al-Qaida become a “war against terrorism” and now Iraq?

Whatever happened to domestic stories, such as 41 million Americans without health insurance and an economy growing worse by the day?

Iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world. How much of the impetus for war comes from America's oil companies?

The media have explained many of the concerns about our forthcoming big Iraq attack. Here are three examples.

• “Preemptive wars” – attacking nations that have not attacked us – violate 200 years of American policy, the UN Charter, NATO Treaty, and substantially increase the probability of global conflicts. (What nation does not have some suspicion of another?)

• “Victory” in Iraq has yet to be defined, let alone assured. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman reminds us, “break it and it’s yours” applies beyond the pottery store. We not only have no exit strategy, we have no rebuilding and governing strategy once Iraq is “ours” – even if we had the wealth and will to execute one.

• Continuing to thumb our nose at traditional allies and Arab states seriously disserves our national interests in building democracies, improving global trade and maintaining military power. It increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks within the United States.

Is Iraq a diversionary "Wag the Dog"?

Germany’s justice minister observed that politicians with domestic problems use diversions, such as wars, to shift media focus. History provides hundreds of examples.

Unfortunately, she chose Hitler to make her valid point – a name detonating so much emotional explosive, nothing else is heard.

Clearly, the Bush Administration’s words and actions have diverted the media from the nation’s domestic agenda one month before a national election for control of the House and Senate.

Moreover, this diversion is to war – something pollsters tell us voters think Republicans do better than Democrats. The President’s approval rating is bouncing up.

When did you last read about the tactics of outrageous greed by corporate officials – including those used by the president and vice president? The cuts in social programs to pay for corporate welfare and tax breaks for the rich?

The media needs to explain two stories: (a) continuing major domestic needs, and (b) the way in which this administration, like all before it, tries to manipulate news media and public focus.

How did the media so quickly forget those responsible for 9/11?

The ones responsible were, and remain, al-Qaida, a 45-nation global network. We experienced what they want to do to us -- and can.

Admittedly, we responded by bombing Afghanistan, even though most of the terrorists and money came from Saudi Arabia. There’s lots of terrorism around. We may deplore it all. But the group that targets us, the enemy in our “war,” is al-Qaida. It’s not “terrorism.” It most certainly is not Iraq.

Our real war isn’t going so well. We’ve never found Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar. Al-Qaida took a hit, but is still active and recruiting, aided by the increasing Arab anger we’re fomenting. Our regime can’t control the Afghanistan countryside, and is now under attack even in Kabul.

Since when did our military’s war colleges start teaching that when a war isn’t going well, the winning strategy is to start another?

Feel something greasy? Smell your hands. It may be oil.

This administration is riddled with oil men and their friends. As Halliburton CEO the now-forgetful Vice President Dick Cheney helped rebuild Saddam’s oil industry.

The Talaban refused our guys’ request to build an Afghanistan pipeline.

Are these primarily vengeful wars for oil? It's the media's job to investigate and tell us.

The president has spoken.

What Americans now need to hear is what Paul Harvey calls “the rest of the story.”

Nicholas Johnson of Iowa City is a former director of the War Shipping Authority and now teaches at the University of Iowa College of Law.