An Unsanitized Look at the Origins of the Iraq War

[unhappycamper]

An Unsanitized Look at the Origins of the Iraq War
Joseph A. Palermo
Associate Professor, American History, California State University, Sacramento
Posted: August 31, 2010 09:13 PM

Neo-conservatives within the Bush Administration -- Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, and others, repeatedly told us on TV that individuals who opposed President George W. Bush's attack, invasion, and occupation of Iraq value democracy and human rights less than they do.

But the people and organizations who tried to prevent this "preventive" war included the United Nations; people of faith (Muslims, Christians, and Jews); the governments of France, Germany, Russia, China; the Islamic Conference (including Indonesia, the most populated Muslim nation); the Organization of American States; the Arab League; the Organization of African Unity; former President Jimmy Carter; Pope John Paul; 133 members of the U.S. Congress; 10 to 15 million people who took to the streets for peace all over the world on February 15, 2003; Senator Robert Byrd (who articulated a critique of Bush's war aims on Constitutional grounds); a half dozen intelligence analysts and career civil servants from the State Department and CIA who either resigned or spoke out against this course; and many others.

To assuage these voices of dissent and to win over the American people to this endeavor, the neo-cons who dominated the foreign policy of the Bush Administration and their allies among the pundit and chattering classes at Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and all the rest, capitalized on the fear created by September 11, to win the support of Congress and the American people for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

The neo-conservatives said that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction. He didn't.

They said he was in league with Osama Bin Laden. He wasn't.

[dipsydoodle]

1. K & R.

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[chimpymustgo]

2. Lest we forget.