13 MYTHS ABOUT THE CASE FOR WAR IN IRAQ
13 MYTHS ABOUT THE CASE FOR WAR IN IRAQ
(references below)
The Internet has certainly played a
major role in the current debate over war in Iraq. A group of online "mythbusters"
recently went one step further. They
posted a summary of key claims made by the proponents of war and then invited
hundreds of people to offer suggestions on how to respond. The following is the result of this
exchange. (The complete document, with
over 120 footnotes from mainstream and primary sources, is online at http://13myths.org.)
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 doubted any 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
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.
None
of the hijackers came from Iraq; 15 of the hijackers came from the same country
as Osama bin Laden: Saudi Arabia.
2)
MYTH: In his 2-hour presentation at the UN, 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 the 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, focused largely on the evidence of Iraq's weapons programs
as they existed in 1990, prior to the first Gulf War.
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.
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!
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 new; it was based
on information volunteered by Iraq over a month ago.
According
to the 2/13 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."
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 is designed to travel 50 to 100 times as far.)
At
last word Iraq has agreed to destroy these missiles. This agreement came after UN Weapons
Inspection head Hans Blix reported the results of Al Samoud missile tests on
2/27/03. He reported that in a test firing of 40 missiles, 27 of the missiles
landed within the legal limit of 150 km. About one-third of the missiles
exceeded the limit.
5)
MYTH: Bin Laden's tape released on Feb. 11 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, 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" within Iraq.
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.
6)
MYTH: "Saddam Hussein has held numer-ous 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
Dr.
Khidhir Hamza, from 1987 to 1994, served as the head of Saddam Hussein's
nuclear weapons program" and has said that "Iraq runs its nuclear
program under the very nose of the international community." -- 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.
British expert Glen Rangwala wrote that 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."
In
an article for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Dr. Khidhir A. A.
Hamza states that he was "for a brief period in 1987--director of
weaponization" of Iraq's nuclear weapons program 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. Other Iraqi defectors with more inside
knowledge than Hamza have disputed his claims.
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:
"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.
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, the largest
U.S. military contractor. Eight 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" 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.
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. has offered to pay Turkey $30 billion in grants and
loans, an offer Turkey has thus far refused.
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
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, before
the costs of an Iraq war are factored in.
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… 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 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.
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, 1/11/03.
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.
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 used this money to subsidize use of renewable energy,
it would be possible within 5-10 years to completely eliminate the need for
U.S. oil imports from the Persian Gulf.
RMI
calculated that raising average automobile fuel economy from 20mpg to 33 mpg
would accomplish this goal. Or, this goal could be accomplished with a smaller
fuel economy increase, combined with other wind, solar, and energy efficiency
initiatives that can be implemented with today's technology.
12)
MYTH: "The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of
others" -- George Bush, State of the Union Address, 1/28/03.
"[UN Resolution] 1441 gives us the
authority to move without any second resolution." -- George Bush, Press
Conference with Tony Blair, January 31, 2003.
RESPONSE:
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."
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).
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 the rights to dissent. 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.
CREDITS
Editors: Rich Cowan, Paul Rosenberg, Abigail
Caplovitz, and Dan Schueler, webmaster
Research and proofreading team: Deborah Conner, Bonnie
Britt, Brit Eckhart, Marc Schuler, Jules Siegel, Rodger Payne
Email: info@13myths.org
13myths.org
is a project of Organizers' Collaborative; see http://organizenow.net
for more information. Mailing list: http://rightwatch.org. Also available: Free database software for nonprofits and
organizing campaigns; see http://organizersdb.org.
Myth 1) Removing Saddam
Will Punish 9/11 Perpetrators
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," Washington
Post, August 29, 2002
Don Van Natta Jr.,
"Mullah Who Leads Ansar al Aslam Denies U.S. Claims," International
Herald Tribune, February 7, 2003
Iraq: Group Linked To Al-Qaeda
Establishes Enclave In North (Radio Free Europe Report)
Michael Howard and Julian
Borgan, "Al Qaeda Running New Terror Camp, Say Kurds," The Guardian,
8/23/02
Helena Cobban, "Bin
Laden's voice aside, war on Iraq is not war on Al Qaeda," Christian
Science Monitor, Feb. 13
A British Reporter visits
Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq
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
"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
Myth 2) Powell Presented
Strong Evidence at UN
Status of Verification of
Iraq's Biological Warfare Programme, UNSCOM Report, July 1999
Response to Secretary of State
Colin Powell's UN Presentation, by Dr. Glen Rangwala, Cambridge Univ.
Europe skeptical of Iraq-ricin
link
"Revealed: truth behind
US 'poison factory' claim," The Observer, Feb. 9, 2003.
Rangwala's Expose Of
Plagiarism in British Dossier
Powell's Speech
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
Myth 3) Saddam May Soon
Threaten US
Top Bush officials (Rice) push
case against Saddam
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
Iraq military strength
“dramatically down”
DoD News Briefing, January 16,
1996 - 1:30 p.m:
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
US Fiscal Year 2004 military
budget in world comparison:
Smallpox in Iraq?
US paper to face Russian
smallpox lawsuit
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:
"CIA veterans' warning on
Iraq war," UPI, Feb. 9, 2003
"Memo to the
President," Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Feb. 7, 2003
The Wartime Deceptions: Saddam
is Hitler and It's Not About Oil
Myth 4) Experts 'Discover'
Prohibited Missile
UN Resolution 687 on
elimination of certain weapons from Iraq
Source for distance from Iraq
to Israel (250 miles) is: Candidate George W. Bush on Israel
Experts Confirm New Iraq
Missile Exceeds U.N. Limit
N. Korea Missile Can Hit U.S.,
CIA Says
Bush Issues Challenge to UN on
Iraq
World Stands Divided Over War
With Iraq
Dispute over Missile
Destruction NPR Report, All Things Considered, February 25, 2003
U.N. Finds No Long-Range Iraqi
Missiles
Myth 5) Bin Laden Tape
Proves Iraq Connection
Text of Bin Laden tape aired
an Al Jazeera, provided by BBC
Bin Laden Calls Iraqis to Arms
Osama Rallies Muslims,
Condemns Hussein:
Bin Laden offers tips to
defend Iraq:
Behind Bin Laden’s message
Ties between bin Laden and
Saddam? Yes, maybe any day now
Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on
Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda
US already knew of Bin Laden
tape
Pass the Duct Tape
U.S. Misreading of Bin Laden
Tape May Win Iraqi War For Al Qaeda
Only by Swallowing Big Lies
Can Powell Justify a War
Deadly Puzzle of Terrorism
US, Germany Dispute
Authenticity of Bin Laden Tape
Even Muslim community can’t
agree on Bin Laden’s meaning:
Bin Laden Tape May Hint at
Attack, C.I.A. Says
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)
Myth 6) Iraq Still Has
Large Nuclear Program
President Bush Outlines Iraqi
Threat
Larry Elder, "Interview
with Saddam's Bombmaker", Jan. 2, 2003.
Middle East Forum, Saddam's
Bombmaker, A briefing by Khidhir Hamza, April 2, 2001.
"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.
Inside Saddam's Secret Nuclear
Program, Dr. Khidhir Hamza.
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
Saddam's Bombmaker is Full of
Lies,IMAD KHADDURI, 27 Nov 2002
Transcript of Interview with
Iraqi Defector Hussein Kamel
Additional reading
Iraqi 'facilities of concern'
yield no evidence of violations," Associated Press, Jan. 18.
Counter Dossier II (nuclear
section), by Dr Glen Rangwala, an independent analyst at the University of
Cambridge, UK
Myth 7) If US Pulls Out
Now, It Looks Bad
The Venus Trap (Quote by
Kissinger)
Powell's Response: Iraq Fails
to Comply With U.N. Terms
Bush Meets with Italian Prime
Minister Berlusconi
Chirac says U.S. military
deployment laid the groundwork to peacefully disarm Iraq
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.
Bush Team Denies Oil Link to
War Policy
Bush Administration Ties to
Lockheed, Military Companies
The Big Guys Work For the
Carlyle Group
Dick Cheney's Corporate Ties
The neo-conservative Project
for a New American Century (PNAC) includes Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and
Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby, etc.
Top Bush advisors (later in
PNAC) advocated global dominance plan over 10 years ago: "The Anniversary
of a Neo-Imperial Moment"
1998 letter from members of
PNAC (including Rumsfeld) to President Clinton, urging him to invade Iraq:
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."
Myth 8) A Cheap, Easy War
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.
Troops Already Working in Iraq
(150,000 troop minimum reached)
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]
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)
Analysis of 2004 Military
Budget
Project for a New American
Century, Letter to President Bush, 1/23/03
Powell: Commitment in Iraq
Would Be Long
Myth 9) Wartime Press is
Free and Unbiased
Do we really have a
"free" press? by Patrick J. Sloyan
Klein, William S, Faking the
voice of the people,
America's Team: Media and the
Military (Entire Book!)
'NO BAD STORIES' The American
Media-Military Relationship, Navy War College Review
Bodies? What Bodies? by
Patrick J. Sloyan
Collective Amnesia, from
American Journalism Review, October 2000.
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.
Censorship of News in Wartime
is Still Censorship
Even in Wartime, Stealth and
Democracy Do Not Mix
How PR Sold the War in the
Persian Gulf (Nariyah Accounts)
(http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/myths.html
for a good account of the "Nariyah" incident, excerpted here.)
Myth 10) Goal is to Free
Iraqis, Not to Grab Oil
Statement by the President,
Feb. 6, 2003
Contingency Plans Underway For
Post-War Iraq, U.S. Official Says
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
Plan would see U.S. rule
postwar
Democratic Mirage in the
Middle East, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, Policy Brief #20, October, 2002
Iraqi oil may be taken as
'spoil of war'
Myth 11) War Solves the
Energy Crisis
IPS "On Oil and War"
Fact Sheet
Fuel Savings from Energy
Efficiency
Hypercars could increase fuel
efficiency 3-5 times:
Renewable energy:
Bush budget cuts funding for
renewable energy:
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
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)
Myth 12) UN Commitments
Don't Really Matter
France Allied With American
Colonies:
State of the Union Transcript:
Text of UN Resolution 1441:
UN Charter:
Press conference: PM Tony
Blair and President George Bush, 31 January
The Guardian: Nov 11, 2002:
"To War Or Not To War"
At The U.N., It's Not Just
About Iraq
Salon (premium required): Nov.
8. 2002: "U.N. adopts new Iraq resolution"
Article on Ratification of UN
Charter
Presidential Debate
Transcript:
Myth 13) Protesting a War
is Unpatriotic
Editorial: Comfort and the
Protesters
The Bill of Rights (Amendments
1-10 of the U.S. Constitution)
The U.S. Constitution, Article
III:
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
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
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."
CREDITS
Editors: Rich Cowan, Paul Rosenberg, Abigail Caplovitz, and Dan Schueler, webmaster
Research and proofreading team: Deborah Conner, Bonnie Britt, Brit Eckhart, Marc Schuler, Jules Siegel, Rodger Payne
Email: info@13myths.org
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update june 2012: finding links for this on google again ... use em