Newspaper coverage: never mind Al-Jazeera or the liberal European press, here's a ray of light from West Virginia:
http://wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/200304186>
Iraq War Planned for Years
West Virginia Gazette
Saturday 19 April 2003
As the carnage of the Iraq war fades, and TV commentators cease
applauding the conflict, thoughtful Americans might see that the war had
little to do with terrorism - it was carefully planned by George W.
Bush's "neoconservative" clique long before the 9/11 tragedy.
"We have been dragged into this war by a president surrounded by
super-hawks, who intended from the beginning to attack," Sen. Robert C.
Byrd, D-W.Va., declared.
Back in 2000, before Bush gained the presidency, his Republican mentors
in the Project for the New American Century outlined a master plan to
use America's colossal military power to enforce U.S. "interests" around
the planet. Part of the plan included removing Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein, a mortal enemy of Bush's father.
After Bush II was in the White House, and the PNAC leaders were given
top federal posts, the 9/11 attack provided a reason for waging U.S.
military campaigns. The first assault, against Afghanistan, was fully
justified, because that nation's fanatical Taliban rulers harbored the
al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the suicide strike on
America.
Then Bush issued a new defense policy, saying he had a right to unleash
"pre-emptive" wars against any nation suspected of posing danger to
America.
Starting last fall, Bush made dozens of claims that Iraq possessed
horror weapons and was in league with al-Qaida. These dubious
accusations were pretexts for a war already planned. Although he
repeatedly said during the winter that he had "made no decision" about
invading Iraq, it wasn't true. More than a year ago, Bush crudely told
senators in the White House: "F- Saddam. We're taking him out."
Obviously, his attack on Iraq had been envisioned for years - but
Americans never were told what was coming. Only perceptive observers
could see that Bush deliberately was starting a war. U.S. diplomat John
Brady Kiesling resigned from the State Department Feb. 27 with a bitter
letter saying:
"We have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such
systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam.
We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind,
arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq ... The
policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with
American values but also with American interests. When our friends are
afraid of us rather than afraid for us, it is time to worry."
In the March 18 Washington Post, columnist David Broder wrote:
"Looking back, the major landmarks of the past year appear to have been
carefully designed to leave no alternative but war with Iraq."
The current Washington Monthly, the national journal created by
Charleston native Charlie Peters, says the Bush "neocon" clique secretly
plans to remove many other Mideast regimes and install White
House-approved governments. In a cover story titled "Practice to
Deceive," the magazine says:
"The great majority of the American people have no concept of what kind
of conflict the president is leading them into. The White House has
presented this as a war to depose Saddam Hussein in order to keep him
from acquiring weapons of mass destruction - a goal that the majority of
Americans support. But the White House really has in mind an enterprise
of such a scale, cost and scope that would be almost impossible to sell
to the American public. The White House knows that. So it hasn't even
tried. Instead, it's focused on getting us into Iraq with the hope of
setting off a sequence of events that will draw us inexorably toward the
agenda they have in mind."
The hidden plan, the magazine says, is to install an elected democracy
in Iraq, then spread this transition - by military force, if necessary -
to all neighboring Arab countries. But the strategy could go haywire, it
says, because enraged Muslims in those nations might elect fanatical
regimes.
"Citizens of these countries generally hate the United States, and show
strong sympathy for Islamic radicals. If free elections were held in
Saudi Arabia today, Osama bin Laden would probably win more votes than
Crown Prince Abdullah."
Disturbingly, Americans aren't being told of the traumatic course
charted by the White House - or the motives impelling the president.
ConsortiumNews founder Robert Parry observed:
"Bush apparently sees his mission in messianic terms, believing that he
is the instrument of God as he strikes at Saddam Hussein and other U.S.
adversaries. In a profile of Bush at war, USA Today cited Commerce
Secretary Don Evans, one of Bush's closest friends, describing Bush's
belief that he was called on by God to do what he's doing."
Incredible. Bush never told Americans that he had been planning the Iraq
war for years - and he didn't reveal his innermost reasons for craving
it. If his Mideast strategy proceeds as The Washington Monthly
forecasts, ominous times lie ahead.
