Iraq War Planned for Years
West Virginia Gazette

Saturday 19 April 2003

As the carnage of the Iraq war fades, and TV commentators cease 
applauding the conflict, thoughtful Americans might see that the war 
had little to do with terrorism u it was carefully planned by George 
W. Bush's "neoconservative" clique long before the 9/11 tragedy.  

"We have been dragged into this war by a president surrounded by 
super-hawks, who intended from the beginning to attack," Sen. 
Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., declared.  

Back in 2000, before Bush gained the presidency, his Republican 
mentors in the Project for the New American Century outlined a 
master plan to use America's colossal military power to enforce U.S.
"interests" around the planet. Part of the plan included removing 
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a mortal enemy of Bush's father.  

After Bush II was in the White House, and the PNAC leaders were given 
top federal posts, the 9/11 attack provided a reason for waging U.S. 
military campaigns. The first assault, against Afghanistan, was fully 
justified, because that nation's fanatical Taliban rulers harbored the 
al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the suicide strike on America.  

Then Bush issued a new defense policy, saying he had a right to 
unleash opre-emptiveoe wars against any nation suspected of posing 
danger to America.  

Starting last fall, Bush made dozens of claims that Iraq possessed 
horror weapons and was in league with al-Qaida. These dubious 
accusations were pretexts for a war already planned. Although he 
repeatedly said during the winter that he had "made no decision" 
about invading Iraq, it wasn't true. More than a year ago, Bush 
crudely told senators in the White House: "Fuck Saddam. We're 
taking him out."

Obviously, his attack on Iraq had been envisioned for years u but 
Americans never were told what was coming. Only perceptive observers 
could see that Bush deliberately was starting a war. U.S. diplomat John 
Brady Kiesling resigned from the State Department Feb. 27 with a bitter 
letter saying:  

"We have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such 
systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. 
We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, 
arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq ... 
The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with 
American values but also with American interests. When our friends are 
afraid of us rather than afraid for us, it is time to worry."

In the March 18 Washington Post, columnist David Broder wrote:

"Looking back, the major landmarks of the past year appear to have 
been carefully designed to leave no alternative but war with Iraq."  

The current Washington Monthly, the national journal created by 
Charleston native Charlie Peters, says the Bush "neocon" clique 
secretly plans to remove many other Mideast regimes and install 
White House-approved governments. In a cover story titled 
"Practice to Deceive," the magazine says:  

"The great majority of the American people have no concept of what 
kind of conflict the president is leading them into. The White House 
has presented this as a war to depose Saddam Hussein in order to keep 
him from acquiring weapons of mass destruction - a goal that the 
majority of Americans support. But the White House really has in mind 
an enterprise of such a scale, cost and scope that would be almost 
impossible to sell to the American public. The White House knows that. 
So it hasn't even tried. Instead, it's focused on getting us into 
Iraq with the hope of setting off a sequence of events that will 
draw us inexorably toward the agenda they have in mind."

The hidden plan, the magazine says, is to install an elected democracy 
in Iraq, then spread this transition - by military force, if necessary
- to all neighboring Arab countries. But the strategy could go haywire, 
it says, because enraged Muslims in those nations might elect fanatical 
regimes.  

"Citizens of these countries generally hate the United States, and show 
strong sympathy for Islamic radicals. If free elections were held in 
Saudi Arabia today, Osama bin Laden would probably win more votes than 
Crown Prince Abdullah."

Disturbingly, Americans aren't being told of the traumatic course 
charted by the White House - or the motives impelling the president. 
ConsortiumNews founder Robert Parry observed:  

"Bush apparently sees his mission in messianic terms, believing 
that he is the instrument of God as he strikes at Saddam Hussein 
and other U.S. adversaries. In a profile of Bush at war, USA Today 
cited Commerce Secretary Don Evans, one of Bush's closest friends, 
describing Bush's belief that he was called on by God to do what 
he's doing."

Incredible. Bush never told Americans that he had been planning 
the Iraq war for years - and he didn't reveal his innermost reasons 
for craving it. If his Mideast strategy proceeds as The Washington 
Monthly forecasts, ominous times lie ahead.  

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is 
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest 
in receiving the included information for research and educational  
purposes.)

(c) : t r u t h o u t 2003

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Source: Truthout - http://truthout.org/docs_03/042103I.shtml


Cheers, Steve..

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