COLLECTIVE AMNESIA: MARILYN PENN
Collective Amnesia Marilyn Penn
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7881/pub_detail.asp
When it comes to the Iraq War, liberals have invested in creating a scenario of neo-con fantasies and lies used by Bush primarily to avenge his father’s failure to kill Saddam and secondarily to somehow protect that rogue Zionist state responsible for most of the world’s problems. If you see the film Fair Game, based on Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson’s renditions of her uncovering as a CIA agent, you’ll see corroboration of a cabal of White House insiders determined to take this country to war through devious and deadly manipulation of the facts. If you read Maureen Dowd in Monday’s Times, you’ll find the following quote:
“When W. could have acted to try to prevent real disasters – Osama’s attack on 9/11, the fiend’s escape at Tora Bora,the financial meltdown – he was oblivious. When he jumped in pre-emptively, as in Iraq, it was because he and Cheney had conjured up fake disasters out of their own paranoia and obsession with proving their toughness.” (my emphasis)
Although it’s reasonable to argue different points of view, it is not rational to obliterate recent history and pretend that there was no coherent background to the events leading up to the second Gulf War.
Iraq attacked Iran in 1980 and for eight years, the two nations fought a vicious war that utilized children as soldiers and killed half a million people, many by the use of chemical weapons. As early as 1975, Saddam had publicly announced that Iraq had a nuclear facility and was in the process of building a bomb. In 1981, Israel destroyed the facility at Osirik to international consternation and the disputed claim by Hans Blix that Iraq was in no way close to the capability of a nuclear weapon. After the first Gulf War, the full extent of Blix’s miscalculation and Iraq’s potential was revealed and the western world suddenly changed its mind about Israel’s foresight.
In August, 1990, Iraq sent 100,000 troops to invade and occupy Kuwait to universal condemnation and an urgent appeal from Kuwait for international aid. The UN Security Council voted 15 – 0 to declare Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait null and void. Iraq ignored all entreaties and UN sanctions until the U.S., assisted by coalition forces (including several Arab states) spearheaded Operation Desert Storm in Jan, 1991.
For more than a decade,the UN refused to lift its sanctions against Iraq unless it allowed its arms inspectors to confirm that Iraq had disbanded its production and stockpile of WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Iraq flatly refused. Charles Duelfer, the deputy chairman of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1993 – 2000 was quoted as saying, “What we have seen over the past 10 years is that simply trying to contain this regime is not working and in the long run, the regime will acquire more leverage….he (Hussein) may have biological agents now. He does not yet have nuclear weapons. But when he does get nuclear capability, everything will change.” There was plenty of reason to fear that Saddam who had already used chemical weapons and had built a nuclear facility at Osirik would not hesitate to do both again.
To attribute Bush’s decision to pre-empt that possibility to personal revenge and irrationality is akin to calling Americans Islamophobic after they have been attacked by Islamists repeatedly, have watched as attacks have proliferated throughout the world and have heard the heads of Islamist states call for jihad and death to America. Consider this statement, made in 2002: “In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability,and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of Sept 11, 2001.” The speaker was not in favor of going to war but certainly agreed that there was a casus belli to be considered.
This was none other than Hillary Clinton who, relying on international intelligence, went along with many other celebrated Democrats in her assessment of Saddam’s weapons program and intentions. History will determine whether the second Gulf War was a justifiable decision or a tragic consequence of faulty intelligence. It is doubtful that it will conclude that the president was a paranoid, trigger-happy nut seeking macho amusement with his bloodthirsty vice-president and advisers. The same people who think along these lines also were outspoken before Nov 2, describing the tea party as a bunch of disaffected crazies precariously hovering on the American fringe……
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Marilyn Penn is a writer in New York who can also be read regularly at Politicalmavens.com.
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