Quote of the Day

[godfry n. glad]

Hans Blix and the investigators, including American investigators, said there were no WMD in Iraq. Before hostilities began. Other nations supported the investigators. We ignored them. Overnight, our purpose switched from seeking WMD (although the pretense was continued - unnecessarily) to "Liberating Iraq". So far as I can tell, the Iraqis don't appreciate being "liberated".

It's my understanding that Wolfowitz, Cheney and the neo-cons inside the administration pushed for an attack on Iraq from before 9-11, and Dubious George was in it from the get-go. Can anyone confirm that?

[The Lone Ranger]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

It's my understanding that Wolfowitz, Cheney and the neo-cons inside the administration pushed for an attack on Iraq from before 9-11, and Dubious George was in it from the get-go. Can anyone confirm that?

Are you familiar with the very hawkish Project for the New American Century? Founding members include Elliot Abrams (Deputy National Security Adviser), Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Eliot Cohen (member of the Defense Policy Board), Paula Dobriansky (Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs), Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg (Vice President Cheney's Deputy National Security Adviser), Francis Fukuyama (member of the President's Council on Bioethics), Fred C. Iklé (member of the Defense Policy Board), Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Zalmay Khalilzad (Ambassador to Afghanistan), I. Lewis Libby (Cheney's Chief of Staff), Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman (Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs), Henry S. Rowen (member of the Defense Policy Board), Donald Rumsfeld, John Vincent Weber (member of the National Commission on Public Service) and Paul Wolfowitz, among others.

The PNAC has been zealously urging the U.S. to attack Iraq since the Clinton Administration.

Cheers,

Michael

[godfry n. glad]

Thanks, Michael...

I was introduced to the Project for the New American Century by lunachick, right here at FF.

I heard a rumor that the first meeting held in the White House, once Dubious George had taken residence, was a planning session on how to pull off an invasion of Iraq.

Our government has been hijacked by war profiteers.

[The Lone Ranger]

Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer

GEORGE Bush’s former treasury secretary Paul O’Neill has revealed that the President took office in January 2001 fully intending to invade Iraq and desperate to find an excuse for pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein.


The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.


Beginning in late December 2001, President Bush met repeatedly with Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his war cabinet to plan the U.S. attack on Iraq even as he and administration spokesmen insisted they were pursuing a diplomatic solution, according to a new book on the origins of the war.

[alphamale]

Distortions.
From the Washington Post (well-known hotbed of neocons) on the 9/11 commissions conclusions (my bolding):

".... the report also appears to rebut earlier accounts that Bush coerced a reluctant Gen. Tommy R. Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, to pursue Iraq war plans while the general was busy with Afghanistan. According to the commission report, Franks wanted military planning against Iraq "because he personally felt that Iraq and al Qaeda might be engaged in some form of collusion and because he worried that Saddam might take advantage of the attacks to move against his internal enemies." Bush, Franks told the commission, turned down his request.

The commission dealt gently with the Bush administration's early interest in Iraq. The report describes that while Bush decided on September 16, 2001, to make his focus Afghanistan, "he still wanted plans for Iraq should the country take some action or the administration eventually determine that it had been involved in the 9/11 attacks."

[Godless Dave]

Originally Posted by alphamale

The commission dealt gently with the Bush administration's early interest in Iraq. The report describes that while Bush decided on September 16, 2001, to make his focus Afghanistan, "he still wanted plans for Iraq should the country take some action or the administration eventually determine that it had been involved in the 9/11 attacks."

But Iraq didn't take action and it wasn't involved in the 9/11 attacks. So why did Bush invade?