PART II
"There is a hidden agenda at the very highest levels of our government." Unnamed
American ("The CIA and Saudi Arabia, the Bushes and the Bin Ladens. Did their
connections cause America to turn a blind eye to terrorism?" BBC Newsnight, Nov. 7,
2001)
"America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to
date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to
discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of
Al-Qaeda's plans." ("Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11: America 's most
controversial novelist calls for an investigation into whether the Bush administration
deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks to happen," the U.K. Observer, Oct. 27, 2002)
"US authorities did little or nothing to pre-empt the events of 9/11. It is known that at
least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks. . . . Was this
inaction simply the result of key people disregarding, or being ignorant of, the evidence?
Or could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September
11?"-- Former British environment minister Michael Meacher, ("This War on Terrorism is
Bogus," The Guardian, Sept. 6, 2003)
"If the real motives were made clear-that this is a grab for oil and an attempt to break the
back of OPEC -it would make our motives look more predatory than exemplary."
--Professor Michael Klare (Current History, March 2002)
"As it turns out, this is not really about Iraq. It is not about weapons of mass destruction,
or terrorism, or Saddam, or U.N. resolutions. This war, should it come, is intended to mark
the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole
responsibility and authority as planetary policeman.... Having conquered Iraq, the United
States will create permanent military bases in that country from which to dominate the
Middle East, including neighboring Iran ." -- Jay Bookman, ("The president's real goal in
Iraq," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 2002)
"A friend who specializes in foreign policy and hobnobs with subcabinet officials in the
Defense and State departments told me that the only thing that's stopped the Bushies
from storming into Iran and North Korea is the upcoming election. If Bush is re-elected,
"[Dick] Cheney and [Donald] Rumsfeld are out of the box,' he said. "They'll take Bush's
re-election as a mandate to wage the 'war on terror' everywhere and anywhere.' -- Robert
Reich, ("W.'s Second Term: If You Think the First is Bad..." the American Prospect, April,
2004)
"Going to war with improper public understanding is risky. If it's a failure, and we get
bogged down, this is one of the accusations that [Bush] will have to face when it's all
over." -- Former U.S. ambassador Richard Parker ("The impact of Bush linking 9/11 and
Iraq ," The Christian Science Monitor, March 14, 2003)
War Fever
"Saddam would do everything he could to avoid war. President Bush was doing everything
he could to avoid peace." -- Robert Fisk ("President Bush wants war, not justice - and he'll
soon find another excuse for it," The Independent, Sept 18, 2002)
"From the very beginning there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person
and that he needed to go. It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it.
The president saying, 'Fine. Go find me a way to do this.'" -- Former Treasure Secretary
Paul O'Neill ("Bush Sought "Way' To Invade Iraq?," CBS News, Jan. 11, 2004)
"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and
said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the
entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come
back with a report that said Iraq did this." -- Former counter-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke
("Clarke's Take On Terror," CBS News, March 21, 2004)
"I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war. . . It's bombs away
for Iraq and on our civil liberties if Bush and his cronies get their way" -- Helen Thomas,
speech at MIT, Nov. 4, 2002.
"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can
remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term
potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War." John le Carre ("The United States of
America Has Gone Mad," The Times/UK, Jan. 15, 2003)
"When you take a country to war, blood and treasure, no higher decision can a President
of the United States make as the Commander-in-Chief. To do it on bogus information, to
use this kind of secrecy to do it is intolerable." Former Nixon Counsel John Dean on why
Bush should be impeached (NOW with Bill Moyers, April 2, 2004)
The Defectors
"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy
that has been America 's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days
of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of
international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring
instability and danger, not security.... [We] have not seen such systematic distortion of
intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam .
. . I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my
ability to represent the current U.S. Administration." -- U .S. Diplomat John Brady Kiesling
(Letter of Resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 27, 2003)
"The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're
making us less secure, not more secure. As an insider, I saw the things that weren't being
done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and
walked out." Rand Beers ("Former Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror" The Washington Post,
June 16, 2003)
"When the president starts doing things that risk American lives, then loyalty to him has to
be put aside. I think the way he has responded to al Qaeda, both before 9/11 by doing
nothing, and by what he's done after 9/11 has made us less safe. Absolutely." -- Richard
Clarke ("Clarke's Take On Terror," CBS News, March 21, 2004)
"Starting in the fall of 2002 I found a way to vent my frustrations with the
neoconservative hijacking of our defense policy. The safe outlet was provided by retired
Col. David Hackworth, who agreed to publish my short stories anonymously on his Web site
Soldiers for the Truth. . . I was happy to have a sense that there were folks out there,
mostly military, who would be interested in the secretary of defense-sponsored insanity I
was witnessing on almost a daily basis. When I was particularly upset, like when I heard
Zinni called a "traitor,' I wrote about it . . ." -- Former Senior Pentagon Middle East
Specialist, Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski ("The new Pentagon Papers: A high-ranking
military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and
twisted the truth to drive the country to war." Salon.com, March 10, 2004)
A Statesman's Guide to Iraq
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after the war, I am certain
that had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit -- we
would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of the
occupation. This is a burden I am sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have
been happy to take on."-- Norman Schwarzkopf (from his 1993 autobiography, It Doesn't
Take a Hero)
"We should not march into Baghdad. To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition,
turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab
hero. Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and
condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it could only
plunge that part of the world into ever greater instability." -- George H.W. Bush (A World
Transformed, 1998)
"The Gulf War was a limited-objective war. If it had not been, we would be ruling Baghdad
today -- an unpardonable expense in terms of money, lives lost and ruined regional
relationships,. . . "Would it have been worth the inevitable follow-up: major occupation
forces in Iraq for years to come and a very expensive and complex American proconsulship
in Baghdad? Fortunately for America, reasonable people at the time thought not. They still
do." -- Colin Powell, 1992 (Quoted in the book, Intervention: The Use of American Military
Force in the Post-Cold War World)
"Unilateral preventive war is neither legitimate nor moral. It is illegitimate and immoral. For
more than 200 years we have not been that kind of country." -- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
("Illegitimate and Immoral," the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2002)
"I am very disturbed by President Bush's determination that the threat from Iraq is so
severe and so immediate that we must rush to a military solution. I do not see it that
way." -- Sen. Jim Jeffords, Oct., 2002
"We are rushing into war without fully discussing why, without thoroughly considering the
consequences, or without making any attempt to explore what steps we might take to
avert conflict." -- Sen. Robert Byrd, Oct. 2002
"[The War in Iraq has]" increased our vulnerability. It's helped with terrorist recruitment,
the spawning of cells in various countries. Don't take my word for it -- that's what the
security authorities have said. The directors of the CIA, FBI and DIA have all warned that
when America attacks an Arab state, the risk to America skyrockets, it doesn't go down."
-- Gary Hart ("Condi Rice's Other Wake Up Call," Salon.com, April 2, 2004)
The Media
"The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to
what's coming now. The party's over, folks.. . . [Military Censorship of news] is a given in
wartime, along with massive campaigns of deliberately-planted "Dis-information." That is
routine behavior in Wartime -- for all countries and all combatants -- and it makes life
difficult for people who value real news. Count on it." -- Hunter S. Thompson ("When War
Drums Roll," ESPN.com, Sept. 17, 2001 )
"It's an obscene comparison but there was a time in South Africa when people would put
flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you
will be neck-laced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your
neck. It's that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions
and to continue to bore-in on the tough questions so often. Again, I'm humbled to say I
do not except myself from this criticism." Dan Rather (" Is truth a victim?" BBC Newsnight
interview, June 6, 2002)
"I'm sorry to say that, but certainly television -- and perhaps to a certain extent my
station -- was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it
did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship in terms of the kind of broadcast
work we did. . . . All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration,
the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance,
about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the
highest levels." CNN's Christine Amanpour (Topic A With Tina Brown, CNBC, Sept. 14,
2003)
"As soon as I came out against Bush, that's when my rights to free speech were taken
away. It had nothing to do with indecency. . . I have two sources inside the FCC. They
know exactly what is going on. They had a meeting two weeks ago, freaking out. I seem
to be making enough noise that people are realizing we could hurt George W. Bush in the
elections. So they are trying to figure out at what point do they fine me. - Howard Stern,
("The Howard Stern Show," March 19, 2004)
"American foreign policy is not understood by the vast majority of American people. And
that this is due to a media that in this country is suppressed by Washington and by the
owners of this media, who often tend to be corporate entities close to the [White House]
and very often are arms manufacturers with a vested interest in chaos [in] the Middle
East. And as a result Americans do not actually get both sides of the story." Denis
Halliday, ("Denis Halliday: The former head of the U.N.'s humanitarian program in Iraq says
an American invasion would be an international crime -- and would make the U.S. even
less safe," Salon.com, March 20, 2002)
"What is the guy in the ball cap with no college education doing asking these questions
that the journalists and media should be asking? There's something really embarrassing and
disgusting about that, don't you think? I'm not the one that should be doing this."--
Michael Moore, WGA Theater interview, Oct. 2002)
"As the war in Iraq gets murkier and more intense, coverage on U.S. cable news stations
is, astonishingly, becoming quite simple: This war is all about "weapons of mass
destruction." Saddam Hussein is a despicable tyrant. The Iraqi people must be freed from
their shackles. Vinay Menon ("American Hawks' Plan Sounds Chilling Today," The Toronto
Star, March 26, 2003)
"I'm afraid the press has not done its job. They have not forced government officials to
explain why standard operating procedures were not followed [on Sept. 11] nor have they
pressed the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to explain why they didn't report these
hijackings as they were supposed to. -- David Ray Griffin ("Thinking Unthinkable Thoughts:
Theologian Charge White House Complicity in 9/11 Attack," The Santa Barbara
Independent, April 1, 2004)
"In case you don't understand just how bizarre the media's silence is regarding the
Bush-bin Laden connections, let me draw an analogy to how the press or Congress may
have handled something like this if the same shoe had been on the Clinton foot. If, after
the terrorist attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, it was revealed that
President Bill Clinton and his family had financial dealings with Timothy McVeigh's family,
what do you think your Republican Party and the media would have done with that one?
Do you think at least a couple of questions might have been asked, like, "What is THAT all
about?" Be honest, you know the answer. They would have asked more than a couple of
questions. They would have skinned Clinton alive and thrown what was left of his carcass
in Gitmo." Michael Moore ("George of Arabia: The unholy alliance between the Bushes and
the Saudis," excerpted from Dude, Where's My Country?, Rolling Stone, Oct. 7, 2003)
About Face
"Even if Baghdad readmits United Nations arms inspectors, the United States will still
pursue a 'regime change' policy, with or without the support of its allies." -- Colin Powell,
("Nothing Saddam does can save him, says Powell," Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 8, 2002)
"All we're interested in is getting rid of those weapons of mass destruction. We think the
Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime. But the
principal offense here are weapons of mass destruction." Colin Powell (Meet the Press,
Oct. 20, 2002)
"The Europeans have asked for some kind of concrete evidence showing that he's
producing WMD's, but no one can produce any evidence. . . . The whole weapons
inspection issue is really just a ruse. The real agenda of the Bush administration is a
regime change -- which is just a polite word for assassination. It has nothing to do with
the U.N. or weapons inspectors or even human rights." -- Denis Halliday (Salon.com
interview, March 20, 2002)
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime
continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." --
(President Bush, address to the nation, March 17, 2003)
"Basically, cooked information is working its way into high-level pronouncements and
there's a lot of unhappiness about it in intelligence, especially among analysts at the CIA."
-- Former CIA counter-intelligence head Vincent Cannistraro, ("White House 'exaggerating
Iraqi threat': Bush's televised address attacked by US intelligence," Guardian, Oct. 2002)
"[Saddam] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass
destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." -- Colin
Powell, (Feb. 24, 2001, Cairo, Egypt)
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field
commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does
not have." -- George W. Bush (Radio Address, Feb. 8, 2003)
"We are able to keep arms from him [Saddam]. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
Condoleezza Rice, (CNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer, July 29, 2001)
"We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy
theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to
shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty." George W.
Bush (Nov. 10, 2001 in a speech to the United Nations)
"The utter collapse of this Profoundly criminal Bush conspiracy will come none too soon for
people like me, or it may already be too late. The massive plundering of the U.S. Treasury
and all its resources has been almost on a scale that is criminally insane. . . You and me,
sport -- we are the ones who are going to suffer, and suffer massively. This is going to be
just like the Book of Revelation said it was going to be -- the end of the world as we knew
it." Hunter s. Thompson ("The Nation's Capital," ESPN, July 29, 2003)
Support the Troops
"Yesterday, when I read that US Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush, in a moment of
blustering arm-chair machismo, sent a message to the 'non-existent' Iraqi guerrillas to
"bring 'em on," the first image in my mind was a 20-year-old soldier. . . This is the lad who
will hear from someone that George W. Bush, dressed in a suit with a belly full of rich food,
just hurled a manly taunt from a 72-degree studio at the 'non-existent' Iraqi resistance."
-- Stan Goff ( "Bring 'Em On?": A Former Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's
Invitation for Iraqis to Attack US Troops," Counterpunch, July 3, 2003)
"And so it goes. Another war, another fight in the Gulf. I don't know how this war is going
to turn out; no one does. Uncertainty and risk are the only guarantee in war. Of one thing
I have no doubt: It is the civilians and the troops who will bear the cost of the Defense
Department's lies friends of mine who are still in uniform today, who are back in the Middle
East. . . I'm afraid for them, and I'm afraid for all of us. -- Gulf War Veteran Charles
Sheehan-Miles, ("A Vet Watches Rerun of a Bad War," Alternet, April 7, 2003)
"The reports of deaths are terrible. Any American death is a terrible thing. But I think the
American public understands that when you're fighting a war against terrorists, when
you're fighting for the security of this country, that sacrifice is something that you'd have
to expect." -- Paul Wolfowitz (Fox News Sunday, July 27, 2003)
"Iraq is like Vietnam, if for no other reason than it is the senseless exercise of enormous,
unequalled military power against another fourth-rate power for ideological reasons which
remain unfounded in reality. If it is necessary that our youth must die for our country, at
least let it be for reasons that are real if not noble. If we demand no other quality from a
president, let it be that he use America 's power in the world for realistic goals and not
squander it in needless, destructive ideological flights of fancy." -- Vietnam veteran John
Greeley ("Is Iraq Now George Bush's Vietnam?: As horror and violence spreads in Iraq, Ted
Kennedy says Iraq is now George Bush's Vietnam!," Intervention, April 6, 2004)
The Draft |
