Was revenge the real reason we went to war in Iraq?
Home News Tribune Online 04/4/06
HASSAN
MAHMOUD

During a March 21 news conference, Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House correspondents, asked President Bush: "Since the reasons you provided for invading Iraq turned out to be untrue, can you tell us why you started a war that killed tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqis? Is it oil; is it Israel or something else?"

He replied, "No president wants to go to war" and continued to rehash the tired rhetoric of fighting the terrorists over there rather than fighting them over here, and that Saddam didn't submit to United Nations resolutions to make his weapons of mass destruction available for inspection.

On the heel of the Downing Street Memos of July 2002, another memo written by David Manning, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's foreign adviser, about a White House meeting on Jan. 13, 2003, between Blair and Bush, has been revealed. Paraphrasing Mr. Bush, Mr. Manning wrote: "Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning." According to the memo, Bush and Blair also acknowledged that no WMD were found in Iraq. In order to provoke a confrontation, Bush proposed to paint an American surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations so it would draw Iraqi fire, hence, justifying the war. Blair proposed that they should lobby for a second United Nations resolution against Iraq. Bush agreed and said that the United States would "put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would twist arms and even threaten." He added, "If we ultimately failed, military action would follow anyway." That resolution was not obtained, and the invasion started thereafter.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was quoted in a book, "The Price of Loyalty," that in the first cabinet meeting after the first inauguration, Mr. Bush was obsessed by overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Mr. Bush also said, "We are going to correct the imbalance of the previous administration on the Middle East conflict. We are going to tilt it towards Israel."

Richard Clarke, the former anti-terrorism czar, wrote in his book, "Against All Enemies," that right after 9/11 attacks the president said, "I want you to go back over everything. See if Saddam was involved."

Clarke replied. "But Mr. President, Al-Qaida did this."

Clarke then quotes Bush as saying: "I know, I know, but look into Iraq, Saddam."

Clarke also mentioned that among the war's rationales attributed to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz was that it would "improve Israel's strategic position by eliminating a large hostile military." William Cohen, the former defense secretary, was quoted on March 27 that in December 2000, right after Bush won the election, he received a phone call from Dick Cheney asking him to come down to brief the president-elect on Iraq only, without delving into other regions.

After three years of a brutal war, our dead in Iraq are approaching the number killed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bush and the neo-conservatives decided to avenge those victims by attacking the wrong target, Iraq. Ironically, this misbegotten adventure has strengthened the mullahs' regime in Iran, which established a powerful influence in Iraq through its Shiite surrogates who control the Parliament majority.

Iraq has been disintegrating in a virtual civil war. Hundreds of Iraqis are being kidnapped, tortured and killed every day. People are fleeing their homes to areas where they seek protection among their sectarian population. Security is completely broken down. If we withdraw, there will be a total collapse of Iraq as a state and a wider regional war will ensue in the Middle East, threatening our interests and disrupting the oil supply of 25 percent of the world production. Unchecked oil prices will wreak havoc on the world economy. The president's inability to extract our troops from that trap is angering the American people. Fearing the voters' alienation in the coming midterm election, Republican candidates are distancing themselves from the White House. Recently, Sen. Rick Santorum. R-Pennsylvania, skipped a fundraiser for himself hosted by the president. Tom Kean Jr., Republican candidate for the Senate from New Jersey, was late to show up for his own fundraiser hosted by Cheney, to avoid being photographed with him.

Unfortunately, the Democrats are in disarray as well. They are unable to offer a solution for the war, which most of them supported, either for fear of being branded as weak on security or because of their racism toward Arabs and Muslims. The Arabs also have been weakened by this war in the face of the rising Iranian power.

columnist Hassan Mahmoud is a resident of Westfield.

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