The punchline of this horrific joke of course is that they knew Iraq was a paper tiger, otherwise why would they have made these statements in 2001 just a mere few months before 9/11? Dr. Rice made it quite clear in her July 2001 statement that Saddam Hussein basically had no significant military power or arms. Powell's statement from 4 months prior to Rice's went a bit further in stating that Hussein didn't even have sufficient conventional warfare capabilities to threaten his mideast neighbors. But in the neo-cons revision of history they would have the rubes (of which there are many in this country) believe that in the 6-9 month period from the time Powell and Rice made their public statements about Iraq being a non-threat to the U.S., much less their regional neighbors, Iraq made a herculean and truly miraculous build up of weapons of mass destruction -- so miraculous that post 9/11 comments by Rice and Veep Dick Cheney menancingly referenced the probability of "imminent" nuclear mushroom clouds over American cities.
I do so tire of the litany of lies and lies upon lies that the Busheviks, their political apparatchiks, the media enablers and the 29% zombie brigades continue to peddle day after day after day. I mean, how much lying can people do before they just fucking keel over from lie fatigue? And it really is time for the mainstream media to stop enabling these liars by pretending that they too were fooled into believing that the piss-ant, tin-horn little dictator Hussein and his dusty, ass-backward country were a dire threat to the most powerful military and economic nation-state on the planet.
One of the most decorated Marines in U.S. history, Smedley Butler, wrote in his 1935 book War Is A Racket --
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."
The Halliburtons, the KBRs, the Bechtels, the Blackwaters, racketeers one and all -- they knew the truth too -- yet they willfully kicked truth to the curb when they saw an opportunity to plunder and pillage - and get away with it. And it doesn't take much of a stretch of one's imagination to think that maybe, just maybe -- they had this whole charade planned for some time. The PNAC letter to then President Bill Clinton in 1998 urged Clinton to take immediate steps, militarily if necessary, to remove Saddam Hussein from power and baselessly claimed that Iraq was stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction and therefore posed a threat to the U.S., it's Mideast allies, and most importantly of course, the regions oil resources.
Clinton, to his credit, decided instead to heed the advice of people in the know, including Bush's father George H.W. Bush and one of his senior advisers former General Brent Scowcroft who wrote and essay in Time magazine in March of 1998 explaining the reasons why they decided not to topple Hussein and invade Iraq during the 1991 Gulf conflict. Here's what Poppy Bush and Scowcroft had to say then:
While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.
That very last sentence speaks volumes, and oh what a prescient observation of the reality of the situation it was. Unfortunately, Herbert Walker Bush's dim-bulb son and his pupeteer neo-con handlers were either too stupid or too hubristic and blinded by zeal to see the same reality that poppy Bush and General Scowcroft had seen.
To this day, the lies continue to flow. And the American rubes continue to believe wide-eyed and bereft of critical analysis the plethora of lies being spoon-fed to them. When lies of such life impacting importance rule the public discourse and become ensconced tools of the ruling elites, perhaps it's time to heed the words a few important Americans wrote some 200+ years ago:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The following infamous song lyrics neatly sum up the unvarnished truth about the true meaning of the Powell/Rice video at the top of this post:
Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord, yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.
Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.
Now in darkness world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, God is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!
--Black Sabbath, War Pigs
----krazee
