Gaijinian
?~??????
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/14/bush.iraq/index.html
Literally thousands of Americans, not to mention Iraqis, have died in The Iraq War, of which the reason is based on false pretences. On March 16, 2003, just for days before the invasion of Iraq began, Dick Chaney stated on ‘Meet the Press,’ “We believe he (Saddam) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." The leaders of The United States sent tens of thousands to fight in Iraq; they told us Iraq had killer weapons- but we now know they do not, ant therefore The War in Iraq is unjust.
Fear was a very important tact in selling this war to the American People. With fresh, horrible memories of “9-11,” such tactics proved very effective. The Bush Administration linked Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda or bin Laden. In fact, on the third anniversary of 9-11, Donald Rumsfeld, The Secretary of State, confused Saddam Hussein for Osama bin Laden twice. Rumsfeld said, “Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is spending a whale of a lot of time trying to not get caught. And we've not seen him on a video since 2001." Such confusion is mostly likely a result of The Bush Administration’s constant remarks linking Hussein and al-Qaeda. Here are a few examples of the connections made.
2002: Bush, Oct. 7: “We know that Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist
a common enemy ― the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al- Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade.”
2003: Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28: “And this Congress and the American people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda.”
2004: Cheney, Jan. 21: “I continue to believe ― I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I'm very confident that there was an established relationship there."
Let’s consider other “evidence” The Bush Administration told The American people about the situation in Iraq.
Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq was the selling point of the war. The undeniable main justification. As Condoleezza Rice put it:
“Let us be very clear about why we went to war against Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world. This was a regime that had pursued, had used, and possessed weapons of mass destruction."
The Bush Administration used iffy at best images to convince The American People that Iraq not only had WMD, but was able to use them, and was an eminent threat to The US. However, when the bipartisan Iraqi Survey Group (ISG) wrote the over 520 page document formally called ‘The Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq,’ it sated it’s conclusions about prewar intelligence concerning WMD as:
The major key judgments in the NIE [National Intelligence Estimate], particularly that Iraq “is reconstituting its nuclear program,” “has chemical and biological weapons,” was developing an unmannered aerial vehicle (UAV) “probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents,” and that “all key aspects- research and development (R&D), production, and weaponization- of Iraq’s offensive biological weapons (BW) program are active and that most elements are larger and more advanced then they were before the Gulf War,” either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting provided by the Committee. The assessments regarding Iraq’s continued development of prohibited ballistic missiles were reasonable and did not accurately describe the underlying intelligence.
Based on this report, it can be said that Iraq posed no threat to the United States. This leads me to believe that it was in Bush’s agenda to invade Iraq even before he was president, an 9-11 was a convenient time to sell his case. As Bush said, “I’m a war president." I imagine Bush selected to go to war in Iraq was, again to quote him, “After all, this is the guy (referring to Saddam) who tried to kill my dad."
The Iraq war is far from over; Dick Chaney recently predicted that the insurgency, while being in it’s “last throes,” could remain for more than a decade. However, in a similar fashion as they did playing with words to get support for this war, The Bush Administration had used imagery to trick The American People that the war is going our way.
Remember that one time on that one war ship? Bush conveyed a not-too-subtle message: Mission Accomplished. He declared that major combat operations had ended in Iraq-- this does not exactly coincide with Chaney’s more recent estimate. Other images are examples of toying with reality. In one photograph, the empty spots were electronically filled to make the crowd larger. It is things such as this that make me seriously question the current administration’s honesty.
Concerning Iraq, I think the invasion loses any validation when one considers that the same argument could have been used for many other countries. Consider North Korea, for example. The have claimed to have nuclear weapons, and it is believed they have about six to eight (Living With the Bomb). In addition to that, North Korea has some very serious human rights issues. But surely Bush is not crazy enough to invade a country that we believe actually had such deadly weapons-- that would be too risky. The US has taken the stance that freedom will spread if we can stabilize Iraq. Yet, I find my self asking, why Iraq? Why know? In my mind there is no clear answerer.
The leaders of The United States sent tens of thousands to fight in Iraq; they told us Iraq had killer weapons- but we now know they do not, ant therefore The War in Iraq is unjust. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; despite being there for nearly three years we have not freed the people; we have no reason to be in this war--it is the wrong war at the wrong time, and we should save a lot of bloodshed by bringing our troops home immediately.
Literally thousands of Americans, not to mention Iraqis, have died in The Iraq War, of which the reason is based on false pretences. On March 16, 2003, just for days before the invasion of Iraq began, Dick Chaney stated on ‘Meet the Press,’ “We believe he (Saddam) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." The leaders of The United States sent tens of thousands to fight in Iraq; they told us Iraq had killer weapons- but we now know they do not, ant therefore The War in Iraq is unjust.
Fear was a very important tact in selling this war to the American People. With fresh, horrible memories of “9-11,” such tactics proved very effective. The Bush Administration linked Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda or bin Laden. In fact, on the third anniversary of 9-11, Donald Rumsfeld, The Secretary of State, confused Saddam Hussein for Osama bin Laden twice. Rumsfeld said, “Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is spending a whale of a lot of time trying to not get caught. And we've not seen him on a video since 2001." Such confusion is mostly likely a result of The Bush Administration’s constant remarks linking Hussein and al-Qaeda. Here are a few examples of the connections made.
2002: Bush, Oct. 7: “We know that Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist
a common enemy ― the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al- Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade.”
2003: Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28: “And this Congress and the American people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda.”
2004: Cheney, Jan. 21: “I continue to believe ― I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I'm very confident that there was an established relationship there."
Let’s consider other “evidence” The Bush Administration told The American people about the situation in Iraq.
Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq was the selling point of the war. The undeniable main justification. As Condoleezza Rice put it:
“Let us be very clear about why we went to war against Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world. This was a regime that had pursued, had used, and possessed weapons of mass destruction."
The Bush Administration used iffy at best images to convince The American People that Iraq not only had WMD, but was able to use them, and was an eminent threat to The US. However, when the bipartisan Iraqi Survey Group (ISG) wrote the over 520 page document formally called ‘The Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq,’ it sated it’s conclusions about prewar intelligence concerning WMD as:
The major key judgments in the NIE [National Intelligence Estimate], particularly that Iraq “is reconstituting its nuclear program,” “has chemical and biological weapons,” was developing an unmannered aerial vehicle (UAV) “probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents,” and that “all key aspects- research and development (R&D), production, and weaponization- of Iraq’s offensive biological weapons (BW) program are active and that most elements are larger and more advanced then they were before the Gulf War,” either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting provided by the Committee. The assessments regarding Iraq’s continued development of prohibited ballistic missiles were reasonable and did not accurately describe the underlying intelligence.
Based on this report, it can be said that Iraq posed no threat to the United States. This leads me to believe that it was in Bush’s agenda to invade Iraq even before he was president, an 9-11 was a convenient time to sell his case. As Bush said, “I’m a war president." I imagine Bush selected to go to war in Iraq was, again to quote him, “After all, this is the guy (referring to Saddam) who tried to kill my dad."
The Iraq war is far from over; Dick Chaney recently predicted that the insurgency, while being in it’s “last throes,” could remain for more than a decade. However, in a similar fashion as they did playing with words to get support for this war, The Bush Administration had used imagery to trick The American People that the war is going our way.
Remember that one time on that one war ship? Bush conveyed a not-too-subtle message: Mission Accomplished. He declared that major combat operations had ended in Iraq-- this does not exactly coincide with Chaney’s more recent estimate. Other images are examples of toying with reality. In one photograph, the empty spots were electronically filled to make the crowd larger. It is things such as this that make me seriously question the current administration’s honesty.
Concerning Iraq, I think the invasion loses any validation when one considers that the same argument could have been used for many other countries. Consider North Korea, for example. The have claimed to have nuclear weapons, and it is believed they have about six to eight (Living With the Bomb). In addition to that, North Korea has some very serious human rights issues. But surely Bush is not crazy enough to invade a country that we believe actually had such deadly weapons-- that would be too risky. The US has taken the stance that freedom will spread if we can stabilize Iraq. Yet, I find my self asking, why Iraq? Why know? In my mind there is no clear answerer.
The leaders of The United States sent tens of thousands to fight in Iraq; they told us Iraq had killer weapons- but we now know they do not, ant therefore The War in Iraq is unjust. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; despite being there for nearly three years we have not freed the people; we have no reason to be in this war--it is the wrong war at the wrong time, and we should save a lot of bloodshed by bringing our troops home immediately.
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