On any New Year's Day it is good to look backward as does the Roman god Janus, god of beginnings and transitions, and guardian of doors and gates.
My retro-gaze today is on the beginnings of the $2 trillion Iraq War. Remember the hype about the "mobile biological weapons laboratories," part of the massive campaign to sell the war to the always-distracted American public? They turned out to be refrigerated railroad cars carrying slabs of beef; and trucks used to generate hydrogen for weather balloons.
But, you say, it was the best intelligence at the time. Consider this: the single, initial source of the information was an Iraqi who was designated a "fabricator" of disinformation, and unreliable, by Britiish intelligence, German intelligence, and analysts in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA-- BEFORE the war started. The Bush administration was briefed to this effect. Yet, Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice repeated the disinformation multiple times--Bush in a State of the Union address.
See this excellent website: http://www.leadingtowar.com/claims_facts_nomobile.php
I pray for few things. One thing I do fervently pray for is a world at peace. Sometimes this means an awakened American public; one willing to gaze backward to beginnings.
My retro-gaze today is on the beginnings of the $2 trillion Iraq War. Remember the hype about the "mobile biological weapons laboratories," part of the massive campaign to sell the war to the always-distracted American public? They turned out to be refrigerated railroad cars carrying slabs of beef; and trucks used to generate hydrogen for weather balloons.
But, you say, it was the best intelligence at the time. Consider this: the single, initial source of the information was an Iraqi who was designated a "fabricator" of disinformation, and unreliable, by Britiish intelligence, German intelligence, and analysts in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA-- BEFORE the war started. The Bush administration was briefed to this effect. Yet, Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice repeated the disinformation multiple times--Bush in a State of the Union address.
See this excellent website: http://www.leadingtowar.com/claims_facts_nomobile.php
I pray for few things. One thing I do fervently pray for is a world at peace. Sometimes this means an awakened American public; one willing to gaze backward to beginnings.
1 comment:
Leaving the U.S. in 2006, I had two goals (or at least wishes). First was to stay out until George Bush was gone. Completed: Jan. 2009. Second was to stay out till the Iraq War was over. Completed: Dec. 2011. But in the meantime, Obama has decided to turn back to Afghanistan, escalating involvement there. And that's why I'm not planning to go back to the U.S. anytime soon. Still, there's news about which pacifists can be cautiously optimistic: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/us/pentagon-to-present-vision-of-reduced-military.html?ref=todayspaper Panetta for 2016, anyone??
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