13 Myths About The Case For War In Iraq
(Revised Version)
by
Rich Cowan
Dissident Voice
March 8, 2003
CONTENTS:
Myth 1:
Removing Saddam Will Punish 9/11 Perpetrators
Myth 2:
Powell Presented Strong Evidence at UN
Myth 3:
Saddam May Soon Threaten US
Myth 4:
Experts 'Discover' Prohibited Missile
Myth 5: Bin
Laden Tape Proves Iraq Connection
Myth 6:
Iraq Still Has Large Nuclear Program
Myth 7: If
US Pulls Out Now, It Looks Bad
Myth 9:
Wartime Press is Free and Unbiased
Myth 10:
Goal is to Free Iraqis, Not to Grab Oil
Myth 11:
War Solves the Energy Crisis
Myth 12:
UN Commitments Don't Really Matter
Myth 13:
Protesting a War is Unpatriotic
Introduction
The United States government
has now amassed over 200,000 war-ready troops in the Persian Gulf. The
government argues that the forced removal of Iraq's government is necessary to
protect us and the world from terrorism.
Other countries that have
also been the victims of terrorism have been reluctant to join the U.S. in this
war. Even in Great Britain, our strongest ally, polls show that 82-86% of the
public oppose initiating a war without approval by the United Nations. Many
British reservists are refusing to fight.
At no time in the last 30
years has our government put our troops into the battlefield in the face of
such widespread opposition. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine: why are so
many countries now opposed to a war in Iraq? Are those opposing war simply
apologists for Saddam Hussein? Do the arguments of those advocating unilateral
war stand up under scrutiny?
We are fortunate that the
U.S. Constitution includes a Bill of Rights, to ensure that we have the right
to ask questions about government. President Eisenhower, in his farewell
address, warned "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power
exists and will persist" and stated that an "alert and knowledgeable
citizenry" was necessary to preserve liberty. In that spirit, we release
this document.
References for introduction:
UK Poll Shows Opposition to
War is Growing
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12588923&method=full&siteid=50143
UK Reservists Trying to
Avoid Service
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/page.cfm?objectid=12622742&method=full&siteid=106694
Farewell Address of
President Dwight Eisenhower
http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm
1) Myth: Removing Saddam Hussein
from power would eliminate a key backer of the Al Qaeda terrorist networks
responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Response: Just four days after the
September 11th attacks, the Wall St. Journal analyzed Iraqi involvement in an
article titled "U.S. Officials Discount Any Role by Iraq in Terrorist
Attacks: Secularist Saddam Hussein and Suspect bin Laden Have Divergent Goals."
The article linked Hussein with supporting the families of suicide bombers in
Israel, but strongly doubted any linkage to Al Qaeda.
None of the hijackers came
from Iraq; 15 of the hijackers came from the same country as Osama Bin Laden:
Saudi Arabia.
Attempts to link Iraq to
9/11 or to bin Laden have failed. In April 2002 there was an announcement of a
meeting between a 9/11 hijacker and an Iraqi that supposedly occurred in
Prague. In October 2002 the New York Times quoted Czech officials who doubted that
such a meeting occurred. In August, 2002, on a mission to Japan to gain support
for an attack on Iraq, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage refused to
link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Armitage noted that al Qaeda members were in
Kurdish controlled areas in Iraq, outside the reach of Saddam Hussein's
government.
The latest claimed link -- through
Ansar al-Islam -- lacks evidence. The founder of Ansar disputes any tie to Iraq
or al Qaeda; Iraq denies supporting Ansar; and Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism
expert and author of Inside al Qaeda links Ansar with Iran. A recent New
York Times report from the front between the Kurds and Ansar al-Islam details
evidence linking al Ansar with al Qaeda; the report, however, mentions only
ties to Iran, not Iraq. Finally, such a link is unlikely for ideological
reasons: Ansar is a Taliban-style fundamentalist group; Saddam Hussein is a
secularist (see Myth #5).
The CIA and the FBI remain
skeptical of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, despite continued
political pressure to find one, according to a front page article in the NY
Times on Feb. 2, 2003.
Myth 1 References:
Pope, Hugh, "U.S. Officials Discount Any Role by
Iraq in Terrorist Attacks," Wall St. Journal, September 19, 2001.
Whitmore, Brian, "Hijacker - Iraqi Meeting
Disputed Differing Reports On Whether Prague Encounter Occurred," New York
Times, October 23, 2002
Doug Struck, "Al Qaeda Members Fled to Kurdish
Area of Iraq, State Department Says," The Washington Post, August 29, 2002
reprinted, The Tech, MIT
Don Van Natta Jr., "Mullah Who Leads Ansar al
Aslam Denies U.S. Claims," International Herald Tribune, February 7, 2003
http://www.iht.com/articles/85957.html
Iraq: Group Linked To Al-Qaeda Establishes Enclave In
North (Radio Free Europe Report)
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2002/07/17072002170855.asp
Michael Howard and Julian Borgan, "Al Qaeda Running
New Terror Camp, Say Kurds," The Guardian, August 23, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,779342,00.html
Helena Cobban, "Bin Laden's voice aside, war on
Iraq is not war on Al Qaeda," Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 13
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0213/p11s01-coop.html
A British Reporter visits Ansar al-Islam in Northern
Iraq
http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,892112,00.html
THREATS AND RESPONSES: TERROR LINKS; Split at C.I.A. and
F.B.I. On Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda By James Risen and David Johnston, The New
York Times, February 2, 2003 Section 1; Page 13
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02INTE.html
"Prisoner casts doubt on Iraq tie to Al Qaeda:
Story at odds with Powell's UN case," Chicago Tribune, February 11, 2003. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0302110307feb11,1,3163993.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed
2)
Myth:
Secretary of State Colin Powell provided a "careful and powerful
presentation of the facts. The information in the Secretary's briefing ... was
obtained through great skill, and often at personal risk. Uncovering secret
information in a totalitarian society is one of the most difficult intelligence
challenges. The Iraqi regime's violations [are] in direct defiance of Security
Council 1441." -- President Bush, Press Briefing, February 6, 2003.
Response: Many of Powell's
assertions were quickly refuted. For example, Powell said, "By 1998, UN
experts agreed that the Iraqis had perfected drying techniques for their
biological weapons programs." Actually, the UN's 1/99 report on this
matter said only that Iraq had performed drying experiments prior to the Gulf
War, in 1989 -- not that it had perfected them.
A journalist for The
Observer toured Ansar al-Islam’s alleged chemical weapons factory and found it
to be a bakery with outhouses. Powell's claims that ricin found in Britain came
from Iraq were rejected by European intelligence agencies, who said it was
crude and “homemade” in Europe.
Even more appalling was the
revelation in the British press about one of the key documents Powell used in
his UN speech, the "dossier" on terrorism prepared by the staff of UK
Prime Minister Tony Blair. Powell praised the document as a "fine
paper." However, much of it was plagiarized from source material written
before the current round of inspections, primarily from a published article
written by Ibrahim al-Marashi, a graduate student in California. The al-Marashi
article, published nearly a year ago, relied on sources that were as much as 12
years old. This is a far cry from the "James Bond 007" penetration of
Iraq's secrets alluded to by Bush.
Myth 2 References:
Status of Verification of Iraq's Biological Warfare
Programme, UNSCOM Report, July 1999
http://cns.miis.edu/research/iraq/ucreport/dis_bio.htm
Response to Secretary of State Colin Powell's UN
Presentation, by Dr. Glen Rangwala, Cambridge Univ.
http://traprockpeace.org/firstresponse.html
Europe skeptical of Iraq-ricin link
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/12/sprj.irq.powell.ricin/index.html
"Revealed: truth behind US 'poison factory'
claim," The Observer, Feb. 9, 2003.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,892045,00.html
Rangwala's Expose Of Plagiarism in British Dossier
http://traprockpeace.org/britishdossier.html
Powell's Speech
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/transcripts/powelltext_020503.html
Iraqi 'facilities of concern' yield no evidence of
violations," Associated Press, Jan. 18.
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/special_reports/iraq/inspections/story/724048p-5301910c.html
3) Myth: Saddam Hussein cannot be
contained. To prevent a repeat of the situation with Nazi Germany, we must act
immediately and preemptively before he acquires weapons with which to threaten
us.
"We don't want the
smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." -- Condoleeza Rice, Sept. 8, 2002.
Iraq's programs to create
weapons of mass destruction "are real and present dangers to the region
and to the world." -- Colin Powell, speech to the UN, Feb. 5, 2002.
Response: The comparison to Nazi
Germany is a bit of a stretch. Germany, by 1938, was number one in military
spending, and had recovered from the Great Depression well before the other
leading nations. It formed a real military alliance -- the Axis -- with two
other powerful industrial nations, Italy and Japan.
By contrast, Iraq's military
capability was largely destroyed in the 1991 Gulf War, and the "Axis of
Evil" that Iraq is supposedly part of (Iran-Iraq-N. Korea) does not really
exist as an alliance. In fact, Iran and Iraq fought each other in a 9-year war
from 1980-1989.
The $399 billion US military
budget proposed at the end of January 2003 is almost 300 times the size of
Iraq's!
The US government released
press statements in December that it is "investigating" whether Iraq
received 'weaponized' smallpox from a Russian scientist in 1990. But these
claims are widely disputed. Even if they were true, a U.S bioweapons expert
said that it would not be possible to start a national epidemic by releasing
such a strain.
Last October, CIA Director
George Tenet said that Iraq was unlikely to use chemical or biological weapons unless
it was attacked. After Powell's speech, a group of retired CIA officials
re-emphasized Tenet's letter. They also warned that "an invasion of Iraq
would ensure overflowing recruitment centers for terrorists into the indefinite
future."
Myth 3 References:
Top Bush officials (Rice) push case against Saddam
http://cgi.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/08/iraq.debate/
Germany # 1 in military spending, 1938: The Rise and
Fall of the Great Powers, Paul Kennedy, 1987, p. 296
German recovery in 1936: Timelines Of The Great
Depression
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/Timeline.htm
Iraq military strength “dramatically down”
DoD News Briefing, January 16, 1996 - 1:30 p.m:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1996/t011696_tbrfg011.html
Turkey and Saudi Arabia’s combined GDP is 11½ times
that of Iraq, combined military budgets 20 times as Iraq’s.
CIA World Factbook 2002 - Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
USA
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tu.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sa.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html
US Fiscal Year 2004 military budget in world
comparison:
http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/world-military-spending.cfm
Smallpox in Iraq?
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/Iraq_smallpox021203.html
US paper to face Russian smallpox lawsuit
http://gazeta.ru/2002/12/05/USpapertofac.shtml
Piller, Charles, Smallpox Strike Called Unlikely;
Experts say suicidal efforts to spark an epidemic would probably fail. The Los
Angeles Times, Dec 13, 2002.
CIA Director Tenet said Iraq use of CBW unlikely
unless attacked in letter to Senator Bob Graham:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2002/iraq-021007-cia01.htm
"CIA veterans' warning on Iraq war," UPI,
Feb. 9, 2003
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030209-020607-8252r
"Memo to the President," Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Feb. 7, 2003
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15127
The Wartime Deceptions: Saddam is Hitler and It's Not
About Oil
http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/012703_wartime_deceptions.htm
4) Myth: A discovery on Feb. 12 by
UN weapons inspectors revealed, for the first time, that Iraq possessed
missiles, the Al-Samoud and Al-Fatah, with a range exceeding the limits imposed
by the 1991 UN Resolution 687.
Response: Though the Feb. 12 UN
finding made the headlines, it was not really new; it was based on information
volunteered by Iraq back in December.
According to the 2/13/03 NY
Times and numerous other sources, "The inspectors learned of the range of
the missiles from test results that were provided in the 12,000-page arms
declaration Iraq delivered at the start of the inspections." Colin Powell
had also mentioned the missiles on 2/5/03 in his United Nations speech.
The missiles in question are
short range models that, all sides agree, can travel less than half of the
distance from the western tip of Iraq to the eastern tip of Israel. By
comparison, the CIA reported on the same day that North Korea's Taepo Dong 2
missile should be able to travel 50 to 100 times as far -- though as of yet
this new missile has not been tested.
UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix
reported the results of missile tests at the UN on 2/27/03. He reported that in
a test firing of 40 missiles, 27 of the missiles landed within the legal
distance of 150 km.
Iraq has argued that, fully
loaded with guidance systems and warheads, an even higher percentage of the
missiles would land within the permitted range. According to NPR, part of this
claim by Iraq is false, as the missiles are already usable with one of two
guidance systems. However, Iraq has, at last word, gone along with demands to
destroy the Al Samoud missile.
Myth 4 References:
UN Resolution 687 on elimination of certain weapons
from Iraq
http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/Chronology/resolution687.htm
Source for distance from Iraq to Israel (250 miles)
is: Candidate George W. Bush on Israel
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/Bush.html
Experts Confirm New Iraq Missile Exceeds U.N. Limit
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/13/international/middleeast/13IRAQ.html
N. Korea Missile Can Hit U.S., CIA Says
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5165021.htm
Bush Issues Challenge to UN on Iraq
http://www.msnbc.com/news/842500.asp?0cv=CA00
World Stands Divided Over War With Iraq
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=37387183
Dispute over Missile Destruction NPR Report, All
Things Considered, February 25, 2003
U.N. Finds No Long-Range Iraqi Missiles
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_missile_hunt_4
5)
Myth: Bin
Laden's recent tape proves that Bush's accusations of an Osama bin Laden -
Saddam Hussein collusion have been right all along.
Response: According to the transcript
of the 16-min. Al Jazeera tape, bin Laden called Hussein a "Muslim
apostate," i.e., a turncoat against Islam. Bin Laden has long called for
the secular Baathist Party in Baghdad to be replaced with an Islamic
fundamentalist, cleric-led government. The new words were intended to rally
support for radical Islam in the Muslim world, including factions within Iraq
that are more anti-US than Saddam Hussein.
According to Gen. Hamid Gul,
the former chief of Pakistan's spy agency InterServices Intelligence, bin Laden
and Saddam cannot work closely together because "Bin Laden and his men
considered Saddam the killer of hundreds of Islamic militants," a
reference to Saddam's attacks against domestic political rivals, including
Kurds and Shiites.
It is true that Saddam
Hussein has expressed support for suicide bombings against Israel, and that the
bin Laden tape refers to the suicide operations “that cause so much harm” in
the U.S. and Israel. However, the existence of such terrorism is quite
independent of Hussein. Many terrorism experts believe that "al Qaeda may
eventually transform itself into a 'leaderless resistance' movement" that
could have hundreds of cells.
German government spokesman
Thomas Steg found no evidence in the tapes of “an axis or close link” between
Baghdad and al Qaeda. Similar doubts were voiced by Sen. John McCain, Russian
President Vladimir Putin, and others. See Myth #1
Myth 5 References:
Text of Bin Laden tape aired an Al Jazeera, provided
by BBC
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58869-2003Feb11.html
Bin Laden Calls Iraqis to Arms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59551-2003Feb11.html
Osama Rallies Muslims, Condemns Hussein:
http://truthout.org/docs_02/021303A.htm
Bin Laden offers tips to defend Iraq:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,893903,00.html
Behind Bin Laden’s message
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/feb/15/opinion/20030215opi6.html
Ties between bin Laden and Saddam? Yes, maybe any day
now
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927799025.html
Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02INTE.html
US already knew of Bin Laden tape
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,894468,00.html
Pass the Duct Tape
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/opinion/12DOWD.html
U.S. Misreading of Bin Laden Tape May Win Iraqi War
For Al Qaeda
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=00cee82a530b9f86ef8afa8f947d2b5a
Only by Swallowing Big Lies Can Powell Justify a War
http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-scheer4feb04,0,3853474.column
Deadly Puzzle of Terrorism
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020911-30793908.htm
US, Germany Dispute Authenticity of Bin Laden Tape
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=549454EA-E478-43C7-9DE0EA626AD654A4
Even Muslim community can’t agree on Bin Laden’s
meaning:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030212-032839-3492r
Bin Laden Tape May Hint at Attack, C.I.A. Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/13/politics/13TERR.html
Paul Haven, "Disparate views make bin Laden,
Saddam unlikely pair", The Houston Chronicle, January 30, 2003 p.12
When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing (Technology to
fake a tape)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm
6)
Myth:
"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons
program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear
scientists, a group he calls his 'nuclear mujahedeen' -- his nuclear holy
warriors." - George Bush, televised speech, October 7, 2002 in Cincinnati
(1)
Dr. Khidhir Hamza, from 1987
to 1994, served as the head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program"
(2) and has said that "Iraq runs its nuclear program under the very nose
of the international community."(3) -- Quotes by Larry Elder,
Worldnetdaily.com, and Hamza
Response: Saddam did refer to a
nuclear energy program in a speech he made on 9/10/00. According to the
Rangwala memo cited earlier, Bush is taking advantage of a mistranslation of
this speech that left out the word 'energy,' among other problems.
Although it would make sense
to also forbid nuclear energy programs in Iraq, the U.S. and the U.N. have not
called for that. There is no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein's scientists
are now working on nuclear weapons, even though Hussein has wanted them in the
past.
In his Jan. 27 report to the
UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director
Mohamed ElBaradei concluded, "we have to date found no evidence that Iraq
has revived its nuclear weapons programme since the elimination of the
programme in the 1990s. .... we should be able within the next few months to
provide credible assurance that Iraq has no nuclear weapons programme."(4)
In an article for the
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Dr. Khidhir A. Hamza states that he was
"for a brief period in 1987--director of weaponization" of Iraq's
nuclear weapons program (5) Hamza also states, in his book "Saddam's
Bombmaker" and in his 'Curriculum Vitae', that he was not employed in the
Iraqi nuclear weapons program after 1989. He left Iraq in 1994. So it is clear
that he has no personal knowledge of the status of the Iraqi nuclear program
after 1994, and the extent of his personal knowledge after 1989 is open to
question.(6)(7) Other Iraqi defectors with more knowledge than Hamza have
disputed his claims.(8)(9)
The written IAEA report
version said "By the end of 1992, we had largely destroyed, removed or
rendered harmless all Iraqi facilities and equipment relevant to nuclear
weapons production... By December 1998... we were confident that we had not
missed any significant component of Iraq’s nuclear programme."(4)
Myth 6 References:
President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html
Larry Elder, "Interview with Saddam's
Bombmaker", Jan. 2, 2003.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30286
Middle East Forum, Saddam's Bombmaker, A briefing by
Khidhir Hamza, April 2, 2001.
http://www.meforum.org/article/9
"The Status Of Nuclear Inspections In Iraq:
Statement to the United Nations Security Council," Mohamed ElBaradei,
Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency Jan. 27, 2003.
http://www.un.org/News/dh/iraq/elbaradei27jan03.htm
Inside Saddam's Secret Nuclear Program, Dr. Khidhir
Hamza.
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/1998/so98/so98hamza.html
Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the
Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda (Chapter One available online)
Curriculm Vitae of Khidhir A. A. Hamza
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iraq/cvhamza.html
Saddam's Bombmaker is Full of Lies,IMAD KHADDURI, 27
Nov 2002
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2002/Khidhir-Hamza-Lies27nov02.htm
Transcript of Interview with Iraqi Defector Hussein
Kamel
http://middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html
Additional reading
Iraqi 'facilities of concern' yield no evidence of
violations," Associated Press, Jan. 18.
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/special_reports/iraq/inspections/story/724048p-5301910c.html
Counter Dossier II (nuclear section), by Dr Glen
Rangwala, an independent analyst at the University of Cambridge, UK
http://traprockpeace.org/weapons.html#nuclear
7) Myth: "If the United States
marches 200,000 troops into the region and then marches them back out . . . the
credibility of American power . . . will be gravely, perhaps irreparably
impaired." -- Henry Kissinger, quoted in NY Times, Feb. 15, 2003.
Response: Top US officials have
repeatedly stated they want to avoid war in recent weeks:
"I will tell my friend
Silvio [President of Italy] that the use of military troops is my last choice,
not my first." -- President Bush, quoted in White House News Release,
January 30, 2003.
"We still hope that
force may not be necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein... Let me be clear: no one
wants war." - Donald Rumsfeld, In Munich, Germany, Feb. 8, 2003.
The U.S. position is that
"Force should always be a last resort." -- Colin Powell, response to
weapons inspection head Mohamed El Baradei, February 14, 2003.
If the U.S. can disarm
Saddam without war -- the administration's stated objective -- how is our
credibility hurt? Even French President Chirac, a critic of war, has credited
the presence of U.S. troops with increasing Iraqi compliance.
Kissinger and top Bush
administration officials are not satisfied with this progress. However these individuals
have conflicts of interest. They have strong ties with companies that produce
weapons, drill oil, and build military bases.
The President's father, and
his 2000 recount advisor James Baker, are, respectively, 'Asian Advisor' and
Partner of Carlyle Group. According to Fortune magazine, Carlyle makes much of
its profits by buying smaller "defense" companies, assisting them in
winning huge taxpayer-funded contracts, and then selling them at a large
profit. Dick Cheney's wife, until January 2001, was on the board of Lockheed,
and 8 other administration officials had Lockheed ties before they were
appointed. Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz were involved in a think-tank
advocating for "global military dominance" that is funded by family
foundations whose fortunes came from military contracting and whose founders
included a Lockheed executive. These ties must be taken into account when
evaluating the legitimacy of 'fears' about a peaceful outcome of the Iraq
crisis.
Myth 7 References:
The Venus Trap (Quote by Kissinger)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/opinion/16DOWD.html
Powell's Response: Iraq Fails to Comply With U.N.
Terms
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/15/international/middleeast/15PTEX.html
President Bush Meets with Italian Prime Minister
Berlusconi
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030130-10.html
Chirac says U.S. military deployment laid the
groundwork to peacefully disarm Iraq
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/047/world/Chirac_says_U_S_military_deploP.shtml
Conflicts of Interest
KISSINGER QUITS AS CHAIRMAN OF 9/11 PANEL Kranish,
Michael, The Boston Globe, December 14, 2002, p.1.
Oil Ties of Bush Administration are documented here:
"Invading Iraq not a new idea for Bush
clique," Philadelphia Daily News, January 27, 2003.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/5025024.htm
Bush Team Denies Oil Link to War Policy
Bush Administration Ties to Lockheed, Military
Companies
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/reportaboutface.html
The Big Guys Work For the Carlyle Group
http://www.fortune.com/indext.jhtml?channel=print_article.jhtml&doc_id=206684
see also http://www.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Carlyle%20Group
Dick Cheney's Corporate Ties
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=2471
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=2469
http://commondreams.org/headlines02/0915-04.htm
The neo-conservative Project for a New American Century
(PNAC) includes Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby,
etc.
http://www.fpif.org/papers/02right/box1_body.html
Top Bush advisors (later in PNAC) advocated global dominance
plan over 10 years ago: "The Anniversary of a Neo-Imperial Moment"
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14099
1998 letter from members of PNAC (including Rumsfeld)
to President Clinton, urging him to invade Iraq:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
Sept. 2000 PNAC document "Rebuilding America's
Defenses" states "While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides
the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence
in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
8) Myth: War in Iraq will involve
150,000-200,000 troops and only cost $50 billion -- less than it did in 1991.
Response: Bush's former economic
advisor Laurence Lindsey estimated to the Wall Street Journal last summer that
the war would cost $100-$200 Billion. A veteran ABC News reporter revealed on
1/13/03 that the actual deployment planned was 350,000 troops.
One reason the proposed war would
cost so much more than the Gulf War is that the administration plans to occupy
Baghdad, a city of 5 million people. Another is that other countries have
declined to pay the costs of the war as they did in 1991; instead, the U.S. is
planning to pay Turkey $30 billion for its cooperation.
As Colin Powell wrote in
Foreign Affairs in 1992, "The Gulf War was a limited-objective war. If it
had not been, we would be ruling Baghdad today at unpardonable expense in terms
of money, lives lost and ruined regional relationships.”
Credible estimates of cost
of a "short" Iraq war start at $120 billion. This is on top of a 2003
military budget that is already expanded dramatically. The numbers tell the
story: the military budget in 2001 was $304 billion after 9/11 expenses were
added. The military budget in 2003 is already $407 including homeland security
and military construction. Adding the cost of the war, it could reach $527
billion or more. The cost of the increase from 2001-3 comes out to $2000 for
every family in the U.S.
The administration is
planning larger military budget increases in 2004, and is also contemplating
additional wars. The Bush administration does not seem concerned with the fact
that their own budget projections two years ago anticipated a surplus of $262
billion in 2004, but their projections now anticipate a 2004 deficit of over
$307 billion.
Myth 8 References:
Powell's Foreign Affairs article is republished in
Intervention: The Use of American Military Force in the Post-Cold War World,
Revised Edition (1999), by Richard N. Haass, as Appendix E.
http://brookings.nap.edu/books/081573135X/html/217.html
Troops Already Working in Iraq (150,000 troop minimum
reached)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/872126.asp?0cl=cR&cp1=1
David E. Sanger with Dexter Filkens, "U.S.
Pessimistic Turks Will Accept Deal on Iraq," the New York Times, February
20, 2003 p. A1.
Bigger Buildup: U.S. May Call for More Military
[350,000 troops]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/buildup030113.html
The Lindsey estimate of cost as a percentage of GNP:
Wall St. Journal, September 30, 2002. The 1991 Gulf War cost $79.9 billion; the
U.S. paid only $10-$15 billion; most of cost was paid by other countries: NY
Times, September 30, 2003.
Edmund L. Andrews, "Federal Debt Near Ceiling,
Second Time in 9 Months," NY Times, 2/20/03 p. A27
Krugman, Paul, "Is the maestro a hack?" NY
Times, February 7, 2003.
Johnathon Fuerbringer, "Nothing Like Big Deficits
to Hearten Bond Traders," NY Times, 2/5/03 p.C1
The Cost of the War on Terrorism and the Cost of Social
Security http://www.cepr.net/Social_Security/cost_of_the_war_on_terrorism_and.htm
The War and your Wallet (trifold leaflet, with
references)
http://home.attbi.com/~northtexaspeace/downloads/war_wallet.pdf
Analysis of 2004 Military Budget
http://clw.org/milspend/dodbud04.html
http://www.cdi.org/issues/usmi/
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
Project for a New American Century, Letter to
President Bush, 1/23/03
http://www.newamericancentury.org/Bushletter-012303.htm
Powell: Commitment in Iraq Would Be Long
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030213_1208.html
9) Myth: Freedom of the Press in
the U.S. exists even in times of war. The U.S. news media has been extremely
skeptical of the official stories put out by the government, in order to uphold
the truth.
Response: The last 20 years have
seen a trend towards "management" of the press by the government:
restricted access press pools, fabricated stories, fake letters to the editor,
and even violence against U.S. war reporters.
According to the Winter 2002
Navy War College Review, citing the book America's Team: Media and the
Military, the military had assigned reporters to a pool to cover the U.S.
invasion of Panama in 1989, but the Defense Secretary at the time, Dick Cheney,
"delayed calling out the pool."
During the 1991 Gulf War,
according to Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Patrick J. Sloyan, "The
Associated Press, which benefited most from a system that turned all
journalists into wire service reporters, sent photographer Scott Applewhite to
cover victims of a Scud missile attack near Dahran. The warhead had hit an
American tent, killing 25 army reservists and wounding 70... Applewhite, an
accredited pool member, was stopped by US Army military police. When he
objected, they punched and handcuffed him while ripping the film from his
cameras."
Dick Cheney, quoted in America's
Team, was honest after the Gulf War about his treatment of the media.
"Frankly, I looked on it as a problem to be managed," he said after
the war. "The information function was extraordinarily important. I did
not have a lot of confidence that I could leave that to the press."
The most famous Gulf War
media fiasco occurred right here at home. Employees of the large PR firm Hill
& Knowlton arranged for a speech to be made by a 15-year-old girl,
"Nayirah," to an unofficial "Congressional Human Rights"
group in October 1990. Her so-called eyewitness story about Iraqi soldiers
removing babies from hospital incubators was publicized by the entire news
media and even by Amnesty International. But Nayirah was actually the daughter
of Kuwait’s Ambassador to the United States; the other eyewitness recanted his
story, and other eyewitnesses have said that the story was fabricated. Amnesty
was forced to issue a rare retraction.
Myth 9 References:
Do we really have a "free" press? by Patrick
J. Sloyan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,895124,00.html
Klein, William S, Faking the voice of the people,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0131/p11s01-coop.html
America's Team: Media and the Military (Entire Book!)
http://www.fac.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=13999
'NO BAD STORIES' The American Media-Military
Relationship, Navy War College Review
http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2002/winter/art5-w02.htm
Bodies? What Bodies? by Patrick J. Sloyan
http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=14633
Collective Amnesia, from American Journalism Review,
October 2000.
http://216.167.28.193/Article.asp?id=788
See the quote by Max Uechtritz, attending a journalism
conference in the summer of 2002, “We now know for certain that only three
things in life are certain – death, taxes and the fact the military are lying
bastards.”, in News World Asia Conference Day 3 Report.
http://www.newsworld.org/conference_report.htm
Censorship of News in Wartime is Still Censorship
http://media.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4277504,00.html
Even in Wartime, Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix
http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=506&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf (Nariyah
Accounts)
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/stauber1207.html
http://www.hbo.com/films/livefrombaghdad/related.shtml
(note: thanks to http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/myths.html
for a good account of the "Nariyah" incident, which we incorporated
and trimmed.)
10) Myth: "We can give the
Iraqi people their chance to live in freedom and choose their own
Government." -- President Bush, Feb. 6, 2003 press statement.
"Iraq's oil and other natural
resources belong to all the Iraqi people - and the United States will respect
this fact." -- Stephen Hadley, US Deputy National Security Advisor, Feb.
11, 2003.
Response: The U.S. government has
made statements elsewhere asserting that we will control both Iraq's government
and its oil, for quite some time.
Excerpt from the Oil and Gas
International, an Industry Trade Publication, 1/27/03: "France and Russia
have been warned they must support the US military invasion and occupation of
Iraq if they want access to Iraqi oilfields in a post-Saddam Hussein
Iraq."
Excerpt from the Globe and
Mail, quoting US Congressional Testimony on 2/12/03: "The United States
intends to rule postwar Iraq through an American military governor, supported
by an Iraqi consultative council appointed by Washington, Iraqi opposition
leaders gathered in this northern Kurdish city said yesterday. 'While we are
listening to what the Iraqis are telling us, the United States government will
make its decisions based on what is in the national interest of the United
States,' said Mark Grossman." Grossman, the Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs, was testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A recent policy paper by the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concluded that "The
increasingly popular idea in Washington that the United States, by toppling
Saddam Hussein, can rapidly democratize Iraq and unleash a democratic tsunami
in the Middle East is a dangerous fantasy."
Myth 10 References:
Statement by the President, Feb. 6, 2003
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/17611.htm
Contingency Plans Underway For Post-War Iraq, U.S.
Official Says
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0213plan.htm
France & Russia warned support US war on Iraq or
no Iraqi oil http://www.oilandgasinternational.com/departments/world_industry_news/jan03_france.html
Plan: US general to run Iraq
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0213/p01s03-woiq.html
Plan would see U.S. rule postwar
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030212.wxiraq02
12/BNStory/International/
Democratic Mirage in the Middle East, Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, Policy Brief #20, October, 2002
http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/Democracy_PB20.asp?from=pubdate
Iraqi oil may be taken as 'spoil of war'
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/10/1041990096484.html
11)
Myth: War
will reduce energy prices and make the U.S. more independent, because oil from
Iraq would reduce the current U.S. dependence on Saudi Arabian oil (and prevent
the Saudis from pushing us around).
Response: It is true if someone
handed us unfettered control of all Iraq's oil, Saudi Arabia would have less
influence than it does now as the lead oil exporter in the world.
But acquiring that control
through war has enormous costs, and these costs have to be factored in to
assess the true cost of energy.
The Rocky Mountain Institute,
an independent research organization in Colorado, points out: "Since 1970,
oil imports have been responsible for nearly 75 percent of the U.S. trade
deficit and have resulted in a net outflow of $1 trillion to the OPEC nations -
much of which is respent on armaments... the peacetime readiness cost of U.S.
military forces earmarked for Persian Gulf intervention is around $50 billion a
year, raising the effective cost of Gulf oil to around $100 per barrel."
This was before the post-9/11 buildup (see myth #8).
If the government charged
the oil companies a larger portion of the taxpayer cost of obtaining the oil,
and subsidized a massive switch to use of off-the-shelf renewable energy sources,
it would be possible to gain energy independence, and reduce sales of weapons
to what is a very unstable region.
RMI also points out that
"increasing fuel efficiency from 20 mpg to 23 mpg would eliminate the need
for our [pre-1991 level] oil imports from Iraq and Kuwait. Increasing it to 33
mpg would eliminate the need for ALL Persian Gulf oil." Comparable
reductions could also be achieved through a combination of technologies,
including wind, solar, and energy efficiency. Technology is not a barrier.
One of the costs of
stationing so many troops in the Gulf is that the U.S. has fewer resources with
which to defend the U.S. in the case of an actual attack on the mainland U.S.
Myth 11 References:
IPS "On Oil and War" Fact Sheet
http://unitedforpeace.org/downloads/oilandwar.pdf
Fuel Savings from Energy Efficiency
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid320.php
Hypercars could increase fuel efficiency 3-5 times:
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid386.php
Renewable energy:
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid319.php
Bush budget cuts funding for renewable energy:
http://www.ucsusa.org/news.cfm?newsID=328
Why? The oil and gas industry overwhelmingly dominates
in campaign spending and skews strongly Republican.
Energy/Natural Resources:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=E
Oil & Gas: http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?ind=E01
Alternative Energy:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?ind=E1500
US Considered 'Suicide Jet Missions' (on the unavailability
of armed jets on 9/11 to shoot down the hijacked planes)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2222205.stm
12) Myth: "The course of this nation
does not depend on the decisions of others" -- George Bush, State of the
Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003.
"[UN Resolution] 1441
gives us the authority to move without any second resolution." -- George
Bush, Press Conference with Tony Blair, January 31, 2003.
Response: First of all, we should
not forget that when the U.S. was achieving independence from Britain, we did
not do it alone. France helped!
In the wake of World War II,
the US took a leading role in establishing the UN to prevent future world wars.
The recent unilateral position of the Bush administration runs counter to
decades of US policy, the language in resolution 1441, and international law.
To ignore the usefulness of the United Nations at this time would strengthen
the hand of those who want global war, including anti-U.S. terrorist groups.
As President Bush himself
said during one of the 2000 presidential debates, "If we are an arrogant
nation, they will resent us, If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll
welcome us." He went on to add, It's important to be friends with people
when you don't need each other so that when you do, there's a strong bond of
friendship. And that's going to be particularly important in dealing not only
with situations such as now occurring in Israel, but with Saddam Hussein."
Cooperation with other nations is especially vital for fighting terrorism.
The text of 1441 concludes,
“[The Security Council] Decides to remain seized of the matter,” meaning that
it retains jurisdiction, and has not given anyone else the power to act. The US
Senate ratified US agreement to the UN Charter by a vote 89 to 2 on July 28,
1945. Under Article 2 of the Charter, the use of military force is prohibited
without explicit authorization (under Article 42). Even threatening use of
force -- as the US is currently doing to Iraq -- violates the language of
Article 2.
Myth 12 References:
France Allied With American Colonies:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/revolut/jb_revolut_francoam_1.html
State of the Union Transcript:
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/sou/2003/
Text of UN Resolution 1441:
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/15016.htm
UN Charter:
http://www.un.org/Overview/Charter/contents.html
Press conference: PM Tony Blair and President George
Bush, 31 January
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page7139.asp
The Guardian: Nov 11, 2002: "To War Or Not To
War"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,837830,00.html
At The U.N., It's Not Just About Iraq
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1030/p01s03-uspo.html
Salon (premium required): Nov. 8. 2002: "U.N.
adopts new Iraq resolution"
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/11/08/resolution/
Article on Ratification of UN Charter
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x22/xr2277.html
Presidential Debate Transcript:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/debate001011_trans_2.html
13) Myth: "'Anti-war'
protesters ... are giving, at the very least, comfort to Saddam Hussein."
Therefore they can be accused of committing treason according to the
Constitution. -- NY Sun Editorial, February 7, 2003
Response: Since the American
Revolution, democracies have steadily replaced dictatorships, in part because open
debate produces a more responsive and accountable government. Punishing
dissenters is the hallmark of totalitarianism; it throws away one of
democracy’s greatest strengths.
After John McCain -- the
Senator from Arizona -- was released from captivity as a POW in Vietnam, he was
asked, "How did it feel when you heard Americans were protesting the
war?" He said, "I thought that's what we were fighting for -- the
right to protest."
It is true that courts have
not always fully supported free speech in the face of government attempts to
curtail our rights. But in 1964, thanks to Martin Luther King and the civil
rights movement, the US Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on the matter.
They ruled that the New York Times could not be sued for an ad critical of the
actions of Montgomery, Alabama police against civil rights protesters.
According to one account, the court "made explicit the principle that
seditious libel -- criticism of government -- cannot be made a crime in America
and spoke in this connection of `the central meaning of the First
Amendment.'"
The Sun's editors also
missed the fact that Osama bin Laden's terrorist group attacked New York, and
that this group wants to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. By calling for the
overthrow of Hussein, the Sun is actually supporting the position of the
terrorists who attacked Manhattan.
Myth 13 References:
Editorial: Comfort and the Protesters
http://www.nysun.com/sunarticle.asp?artID=529
The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10 of the U.S.
Constitution)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
The U.S. Constitution, Article III:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/art3.htm
Famous Quote by John McCain
http://www.life.com/Life/heroes/visions06.html
Cited in Stars & Stripes, Pacific Edition, May 4, 1997
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, Supreme Court
Decision, Mar. 9, 1964
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/nytvsullivan.html
Quote on Supreme Court Case is from Jamie Kalven,
editor's introduction to Harry Kalven's A Worthy Tradition: Freedom of Speech
in America (Harper & Row, 1988)
Investigate 'Communist-style' peaceniks, says Right
Wing Leader
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14495
See the famous quote by Nazi leader Goering, who said after
Germany lost World War II that to win people's support for war, all that was
necessary was to "tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism."
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm
Rich Cowan is an editor with 13
Myths.org (http://13myths.org), where this
first appeared. He can be reached at: info@13myths.org
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