Iraq War: Lies Expose Truths
By Farooque Chowdhury
08 September, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The Iraq War standing on lies expose truths the empire tries to hide and limits to its military might
“Justification” for the Iraq War was fabricated by Bush and Blair. The “Bush-Blair 2003 Iraq memo” or the “Manning memo”, an once secret memo, was first reported by Philippe Sands, in his Lawless World. The “extremely sensitive” document was collected by The New York Times: “Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Advisor Says” (March 27, 2006). NYT confirmed its authenticity prepared by Manning, Blair’s chief foreign advisor. It was of a White House meeting between Bush and Blair on January 31, 2003. It revealed that the Bush administration had already decided on the US invasion of Iraq, six weeks before the war started. In the meeting, Bush floated the idea of painting a U-2 spy plane in UN colors, let it fly over Iraq to provoke Saddam to shoot it down, and create pretext for the invasion. Bush told Blair, as the Lawless World said: “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach” of UN resolutions. Bush and Blair made a secret deal to carry out the invasion regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were found. According to the memo, Bush said: “The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin.” (BBC news online, March 27, 2006) A Guardian exclusive referring the memo said: Blair backed Bush when told the US was intent on war – UN resolution or not – and evidence or not that Iraq was hiding its WMD. Blair told Bush that he was "solidly" behind American plans to invade before he sought advice about its legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution. Lawless World said that the meeting focused on the need to identify evidence that Saddam had committed a material breach of his obligations under the existing UN Resolution. There was concern that insufficient evidence had been unearthed by the UN team, and by then it was clear that there was no credible evidence of WMD, the stated justification for the moves against Saddam. Bush made it clear that he would go to war irrespective of whether there was UN resolution. “The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would ‘twist arms’ and ‘even threaten’. But he had to say that if, … we failed, military action would follow anyway.”
Bush, according to the book, said it was also possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam’s WMD, and there was a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated.
In 2008, the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity identified 935 false statements made by Bush and six other top members of his administration in a "carefully launched campaign of misinformation" during the period 2001-2003, in order to rally support for the invasion. In 2004, the Duelfer Report said that Iraq did not have a viable WMD program. US diplomat Wilson found the claims of the so-called “yellow cake” uranium purchase by Iraq was "unequivocally wrong." The Bush administration made the claim and in this “endeavor” cited British intelligence sources. Wilson in his The New York Times op-ed piece in June 2003 stated that the claim was fraudulent. Wilson’s and his wife’s subsequent ordeal exposed a section of a state leadership. The Saddam’s aluminum tubes story also came out a hollow one.
A number of mainstream media confirmed Iraqi allegation that US intelligence agents included in the UN team supplied the US with information. Powell admitted presenting inaccurate case to the UN on Iraqi weapons, and the intelligence he was relying on was, in some cases, "deliberately misleading". The “Downing Street memo” (The Sunday Times, May 1, 2005) told of a secret meeting of British officials in July 23, 2002: “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” Reports also came out in media that Bush, ten days after taking office in January 2001, instructed his aides to look for a way to overthrow the Iraqi regime. A secret memo, “Plan for post-Saddam Iraq”, was discussed in January and February 2001. The document “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts” (March 5, 2001) included a map of potential areas for petroleum exploration.
Bush admitted “the intelligence failure in Iraq” which was actually the confirmation of trampling of facts and losing moral justifications by a military machine. His announcement of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq exposed an illegitimate stance of an empire. On September 16, 2004 Kofi Annan said: the invasion was “not in conformity with the UN Charter. …it was illegal.” In November 2008, Bingham, the former British Law Lord, described the war a serious violation of international law, and accused Britain and the US of acting like a “world vigilante.” (The Guardian, Nov. 18, 2008)
The Empire deconstructed facts to construct fabricated facts in an inert UN-world. Iraq was invaded. A rapid and decisive Iraq-victory expected by the mightiest empire turned into its long, unconventional war-quagmire, the second longest war in US history rivaled only by its Vietnam War. An occupation disclosed limits of military might of the occupier, manipulations in its political machinery that allowed a cabal to confuse the taxpayers. Wisdom was lost to war-mongering. A centuries-old political system disclosed its incapacity to deliver peace.
Antagonistic contradictions remain unresolved there in Iraq as the camarilla of oil robbers, arms merchants and defense contractors subdue the interests of the Iraqi people. The demise of Saddam autocracy has not still ushered in a New Dawn for the dignified Iraqi people. Bush’s Mission Accomplished assertion made in the backdrop of a 2003 May day setting sun still remains illusive for the empire.
Farooque Chowdhury,Bangladesh-freelancer, contributes on socioeconomic issues.
