Based on this sexed-up and phony intelligence, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld
and the others began warning about mushroom clouds over the U.S., drone planes dropping biological agents over the East Coast (with phony photos shown to members of Congress), huge stockpiles of chemical weapons in Iraq, etc. Secretary of State Colin Powell, regarded as the most believable of the bunch, was dispatched to the United Nations to make the case, which he did, reluctantly, by presenting an embarrassingly weak litany of surmise and concocted allegations. While the U.S. corporate media was unanimous in its opinion that Powell had cinched the case, the world didn't buy it. (Powell, who resigned in 2004, has since lamented his role in this charade.) The opposition to the impending U.S. war on Iraq was palpable and huge: 10 million citizens throughout the world hit the streets to protest, and former allies publicly criticized Bush. Only Tony Blair in England eagerly hitched his wagon to the Bush war-plan, dispatching large numbers of troops, as it turned out over the objections of many of his closest aides and advisers.
10. The Big Lie & the Downing Street Revelations. We know that those advisers warned Blair that he was about to involve the U.K. in an illegal, immoral and probably unwinnable war that would put U.K. and U.S. troops in great danger from potential insurgent forces. How do we know about these inner workings of the Blair government? Because someone from inside that body leaked the top-secret minutes from those war-Cabinet meetings, the so-called Downing Street Memos.
We also learned from those minutes that Bush & Blair agreed to make war on
Iraq as early as the Spring of 2002. The intelligence, they decided, would be
"fixed around the policy" to go to war, despitetheir telling their legislative
bodies, the mass media, and their citizens that no decisions had been made. In
fact, the Bush Administration had let it be known privately that it had
decided to attack Iraq a year before the invasion. "f*ck Saddam," Bush told three
U.S. Senators in March of 2002. "We're taking him out."
We know that many of Blair's most senior advisors thought the WMD argument
rested on shaky ground, and that without specific authorization from the United
Nations Security Council, the legality of the war was doubtful. The U.N.
inspectors on the ground in Iraq were not finding any WMD stockpiles, but the Bush Administration rushed to war anyway. The haste to begin the war meant that there was little or no proper planning to secure the peace and reconstruct the country after the major fighting. Some weeks later, Bush prematurely declared, under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, that the U.S. had "prevailed" in the Iraq war. The Iraqi "insurgency" was about to blow up in their faces.
The Downing Street Memos make clear that both the U.S. and U.K. were well
aware that Iraq was a paper tiger, with no significant WMD stockpiles or link to
Al-Qaida and the 9/11 attacks. Nevertheless, the major thrust of Bush&Co.'s
justification for going to war was based on these non-existent weapons and 9/11 links. The Big Lie Technique, repeating the same falsehoods over and over and over, drummed those falsehoods into Americans' heads day after day, month after month, with little if any skeptical analysis by the corporate mainstream media, which marched mostly in lockstep with Bush policy and thinking. Wolfowitz admitted later that they chose WMD as the primary reason for making war because they couldn't agree on anything else the public might accept. But frightening people with talk of nuclear weapons, mushroom clouds, toxins delivered to the East Coast of the U.S. by Iraqi drone airplanes and the like would work like a charm in convincing Americans to go to war.
11. Iran Is Beneficiary of U.S. Policy. We know that the real reasons for
invading Iraq had precious little to do with WMD, with Islamist terrorists inside
that country, with installing democracy, and the like. There were no WMD to
speak of, and Saddam, an especially vicious dictator, did not tolerate
religious or political zealots of any stripe. No, the reasons had more to do with
American geopolitical goals in the region involving oil, control, support for its
ally Israel, hardened military bases and keeping Iran from having free rein in
the region.
However, as it turned out, the invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq removed
the one major buffer against the expansion of Iran's political and military
power in the region. In addition, because the U.S. Occupation was so
incompetently carried out, it pushed Iraq and Iran into a far closer religious and
political alliance than would have been the case if Saddam had been permitted to remain in power. CheneyBush may have sacrificed thousands of American dead, tens of thousands of American wounded, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as "collateral damage," and now the Administration, which has constantly downsized its definition of "victory," seems quietly willing to accept a stable Islamic government that may well turn out to be more attuned to Teheran than to Washington.
12. Iraq As a Disaster Zone. We know that Bush's war has been a thorough disaster, built on a foundation of lies, and bungled from the start. The 2007 "surge" of U.S. troops has eased the violence in a military sense, but the
political reconciliation that could bring peace still has not been made by the
warring sects and clans and politicians. In short, peace has not come, and billions of dollars have been (and continue to be) wasted or lost in the corrupt system of organized corporate looting that ostensibly is designed to speed up Iraq's "reconstruction." Indeed, so much has Bush's war been botched that the
"realists" in the Administration know the U.S. must get out as quickly as possible
if they are to have any hope of exercising their considerable muscle elsewhere
in the Middle East. But, so far, the neo-con strategy still rules, and
"stay-the-course" remains the operating principle, at least until the new American President is installed.
13. The Stretched-Thin Military. We know that Bush's Greater Middle East agenda also is suffering because the U.S. military is spread way thin in
Afghanistan and Iraq, the desertion and suicide rates are high, morale (especially among Reserve and National Guard troops) is way down as a result of the never-ending multiple tours of duty, soldiers are not re-enlisting at the usual clip, recruitment isn't working and deceptive scams are being used to lure youngsters (many of them gang-members, felons,psychologically damaged) into signing up. In short, there are no forces to spare on the ground. There is way too much reliance on air power or from missiles, which merely deliver a message about U.S. superiority in the air but with no successful follow-up possible on the ground. The air attacks result in making the civilian citizens of those countries even angrier at America, and with little likelihood of success in forging
U.S.-friendly "democratic" governments in Iran, Syria, et al., since bombed
populations tend to support their existing governments. In short, America's failure in Iraq and Israel's failure in Lebanon demonstrate the limits of muscle-bound, high-tech armies in the modern, nationalist-guerrillas world.
14. Hiding Facts from the Public. We know that Bush&Co. made sure that there would be no full-scale, independent probes of their role in using and abusing the intelligence that led to war on Iraq. This is the most secretive
Administration in American history, and they want no investigations of any of their mistakes or corruptions of the democratic process.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, then led by Republican Pat Roberts, held
hearings on the failures lower down the chain, namely at the CIA and FBI level,
and promised there would be followup hearings on any White House manipulation of intelligence. But, following the 2004 election, Roberts said no purpose would be served in launching such an investigation. Likewise, the 9/11
Commission did not delve deeply into how the Bush Administration misused its pre-9/11 knowledge. In short, this secretive administration made sure that everything was done to head off at the pass any investigations whatsoever.
After the 2006 elections, many years too late, the now-majority Democrats
eventually began their probe into the Administration's use of intelligence to
promote the Iraq War. The committee concluded that the Administration "repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated,
contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed."
Chairman Jay Rockefeller added: "There is no question we all relied on flawed
intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect
intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you
know is not fully accurate."
THE TURN TO TYRANNY AT HOME
15. Perilously Close to Dictatorship. We know that Bush has no great love for democratic processes, certainly not inside the United States. (On at least
three occasions, he has "jokingly" expressed his preference for dictatorship, as
long, he said, as he can be the dictator.) He much prefers to rule as an
oligarch, but to do that, he had to invent legal justifications that would grant
him the requisite power. So he had longtime lawyer-toady Alberto Gonzales, and Cheney's now-chief-of-staff David Addington, devise a legal philosophy that would permit Bush to do pretty much what he wants -- ignore laws on the books, disappear U.S. citizens into military prisons, authorize torture, spy on
citizens' phone calls and emails, declare martial law and rule by decree, etc. --
whenever Bush says he's acting as "commander-in-chief" during "wartime."
And, since "wartime" is the amorphous "war on terror," a war against a
tactic, there is no end and Bush is home free. There always will be terrorists
trying to do anti-U.S. damage somewhere around the globe, or inside America, and the "commander-in-chief" will need to respond. Ergo, goes this logic, Bush (and any successor) is above the law, untouchable, in perpetuity. Bush&Co. also
made sure that U.S. officials and military troops would not be subject to
indictment by any international court or war-crimes tribunal.
However, even with ultra-conservative Bush appointees John Roberts and Samuel
Alito on the bench, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled several times that the
Administration has gone beyond constitutional limits with regard to its
treatment of suspected terrorist "detainees." But somehow Bush&Co. always manage to postpone and delay implementation or find ways around the court rulings.
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