[Vision2020] 935 False Statements Made Before War

[Ted Moffett]

All-

Many people were deceived by the coordinated effort to hype Iraq's WMD
capability in the late 1990s up to the 2003 invasion.  And it seemed many
forgot that the US supported Iraq's weapons programs with aid, during the
Reagan administration (why Reagan is such a huge hero I can't fathom, given
his involvement with the US Constitution violating Iran/Contra scandal, aid
to Saddam, support for Central American death squad dictators, and ill
advised support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the mujahideen 'freedom
fighters,' and other black marks).

Former Bush administration Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shook hands
with Saddam Hussein in 1983 when he served in the Reagan administration:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s092002.html

But being ill informed or deceived about Iraq's WMD program and ties to Al
Qaeda is one thing.  Cheney, Bush and others in the Bush
administration, using the power of the executive branch, deliberately
deceived the US public in hyping this danger, to justify an invasion and
occupation of another nation by the US military, killing, given a
conservative estimate, over 100,000 civilians, with over a million Iraqis
now refuges or internally displaced (one reason the level of violence is
down, with neighborhoods now ethnically cleansed into exclusive Sunni or
Shite areas, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled for their
lives).  This is an impeachable offence, linked to the commission of war
crimes, especially with the justifications and commission of torture, Abu
Ghraib prison horrors, etc.

The media, the vaunted Fourth Estate, along with the US Congress, failed
utterly to expose the fabrications (yellow cake uranium from Niger),
distortions (Iraq with ties to Al Queda and links to 9/11), and well known
falsehoods (false claim Iraq had obtained centrifuge tubes for nuclear
material processing), in the run up to the invasion.  Even former Secretary
of State Colin Powell has admitted he presented erroneous information to the
UN in his presentation before the US invasion regarding Iraq WMD capability:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D9143FF934A25756C0A9629C8B63

Pakistan's nuclear weapons are more of a threat to world security, it can be
argued, than Saddam's WMDs ever were, given Pakistan has Islamic militants
operating inside its borders, with sympathizers in the Pakistan military,
who once supported the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Amazing that a government
with known ties to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden suspected to be
in hiding near or within its borders, is a US alley receiving millions in
US military aid, while Saddam had no substantial ties to the Bin Laden/9/11
Islamic militants.

There are serious questions regarding why the US shifted the focus away from
catching Bin Laden in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area after the post
9/11 invasion of Afghanistan, while pushing for the invasion of Iraq with a
demonization of Saddam as a threat to US national security.   And that the
US public did not question this refocus of our military, when the job of
catching Bin Laden was left undone, suggests a disturbing susceptibility to
simple minded sound bite scare tactic propaganda coupled with a very short
attention span.

Ted Moffett

On 1/24/08, Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Glenn--
>
> (1) Whose false statements did Kerry rely on in coming to the
> conclusion that Hussein presented a "particularly grievous threat?"
>
> (2) What was the result of Clinton's Iraq policy, including threats of
> force? Was it (a) an active WMD program, or (b) an inactive WMD
> program?
>
> -- ACS
>
>
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