The Other Bomb Drops

[UpInArms]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050613&s=scahill

It was a huge air assault: Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace. At least seven types of aircraft were part of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist. This was war.

But there was a catch: The war hadn't started yet, at least not officially. This was September 2002--a month before Congress had voted to give President Bush the authority he used to invade Iraq, two months before the United Nations brought the matter to a vote and more than six months before "shock and awe" officially began.

At the time, the Bush Administration publicly played down the extent of the air strikes, claiming the United States was just defending the so-called no-fly zones. But new information that has come out in response to the Downing Street memo reveals that, by this time, the war was already a foregone conclusion and attacks were no less than the undeclared beginning of the invasion of Iraq.

...more....

I hope this is not a dupe - I hadn't seen it before -

[Oversea Visitor]

1. We is Asia knows about this

Just poor US lock behind the Bush Curtain

[rodeodance]

3. I like how he is connecting the dots--This is juicy!!

......Rear Admiral David Gove, former deputy director of global operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on November 20, 2002, that US and British pilots were "essentially flying combat missions." On October 3, 2002, the New York Times reported that US pilots were using southern Iraq for "practice runs, mock strikes and real attacks" against a variety of targets. But the full significance of this dramatic change in policy toward Iraq only became clear last month, with the release of the Downing Street memo. In it, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon is reported to have said in 2002, after meeting with US officials, that "the US had already begun 'spikes of activity' to put pressure on the regime," a reference to the stepped-up airstrikes. Now the Sunday Times of London has revealed that these spikes "had become a full air offensive"--in other words, a war.

Michigan Democratic Representative John Conyers has called the latest revelations about these attacks "the smoking bullet in the smoking gun," irrefutable proof that President Bush misled Congress before the vote on Iraq. When Bush asked Congress to authorize the use of force in Iraq, he also said he would use it only as a last resort, after all other avenues had been exhausted. But the Downing Street memo reveals that the Administration had already decided to topple Saddam by force and was manipulating intelligence to justify the decision. That information puts the increase in unprovoked air attacks in the year prior to the war in an entirely new light: The Bush Administration was not only determined to wage war on Iraq, regardless of the evidence; it had already started that war months before it was put to a vote in Congress.

It only takes one member of Congress to begin an impeachment process, and Conyers is said to be considering the option. The process would certainly be revealing. Congress could subpoena Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers, Gen.Tommy Franks and all of the military commanders and pilots involved with the no-fly zone bombings going back into the late 1990s. What were their orders, both given and received? In those answers might lie a case for impeachment.

But another question looms, particularly for Democrats who voted for the war and now say they were misled: Why weren't these unprovoked and unauthorized attacks investigated when they were happening, when it might have had a real impact on the Administration's drive to war? Perhaps that's why the growing grassroots campaign to use the Downing Street memo to impeach Bush can't get a hearing on Capitol Hill. A real probing of this "smoking gun" would not be uncomfortable only for Republicans. The truth is that Bush, like President Bill Clinton before him, oversaw the longest sustained bombing campaign since Vietnam against a sovereign country with no international or US mandate. That gun is probably too hot for either party to touch.

[Oversea Visitor]

5. Me think he is Cock teaser

Poor Bush and Blair still cant figured out what he got must still be lots more cause both of them dont seem to be saying too much.

Either that or ...... grrr we ...... :puke: dont want to that way grrr

[UpInArms]

7. for some more dot connection - here's February 13, 2002 KR article

Posted on Wed, Feb. 13, 2002

Bush has decided to overthrow Hussein

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/11809605.htm

WASHINGTON - President Bush has decided to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power and ordered the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies to devise a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps to achieve that goal, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday.

No military strike is imminent, but Bush has concluded that Saddam and his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs are such a threat to U.S. security that the Iraqi dictator must be removed, even if U.S. allies do not help, said the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity.

"This is not an argument about whether to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over. This is ... how you do it," a senior administration official said in an interview with Knight Ridder.

The president's decision has launched the United States on a course that will have major ramifications for the U.S. military, the Middle East's future political alignment, international oil flows and Bush's own war on terrorism. Russia and most of America's European allies have expressed alarm about the administration's escalating rhetoric on Iraq.

...more...

[madrchsod]

8. hello

i`ve missed your posts so hello- glad to see someone from Malaysia

[Oversea Visitor]

9. n/t

:hug:

[END_HATRED_NOW]

2. You're just noticing this? Air strikes started well before 9/11

air strikes were happening way before 9/11, check it out

http://www.ccmep.org/usbombingwatch/2002.html

http://www.ccmep.org/usbombingwatch/2000.htm

[rodeodance]

4. some of us a bit forgetful (me). thanks for the initial post--like i said-

this article is making links--connecting the dots with the minutes--.

[UpInArms]

6. no, I am not "just noticing" the bombing -

I was referring to the article (didn't want a duplicate post)

I do recall the first time that I knew *Co bombed Iraq - it was on February 16, 2001 - we (after the stolen 2000 election) were waiting for the hearing in Florida regarding the vote - instead of getting that news, we were treated with the news that while Bush was visiting Fox in Mexico, he had ordered bombs dropped on Iraq.

here's fLiesher's press conference:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/02/20010216-2.html

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 16, 2001


Remarks by Ari Fleischer in Q&A with the Travel Pool
Rancho San Cristobal
San Cristobal, Mexico

1:36 P.M. (L)

MR. FLEISCHER: Since 1991, coalition aircraft have been enforcing the no-fly zone in Iraq. Today allied armed forces conducted a routine strike associated with enforcement of the no-fly zone. Coalition aircraft struck targets that were instrumental in providing air defenses that threaten coalition aircraft that were on patrol in the southern no-fly zone.

The President authorized the strike because of the risk posed to our aircraft. All coalition aircraft have returned safely.

Q Was this planned, Ari, or was this a spontaneous --

MR. FLEISCHER: The President authorized it yesterday.

Q When did he authorize it?

MR. FLEISCHER: Yesterday.

Q Did something happen to provoke this, Ari, did some incident happen to provoke this?

MR. FLEISCHER: It was the existence of radar facilities that posed a threat to our aircraft, that identified our aircraft. There is a simultaneous briefing going on at the Pentagon as we speak. The Pentagon is briefing at 2:30 p.m. and will provide additional detailed information about the strikes and about the targets.

Q For the President to have specifically approved it indicates it's more than just a routine thing, though, because rules of engagement --

...more...

edited to add

Welcome to DU End_Hatred_Now :hi: