U.S. Moved to Undermine Iraqi Military Before War

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 The United States military, the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) and Iraqi exiles began a broad covert effort inside Iraq (news - web sites) at least three months before the war to forge alliances with Iraqi military leaders and persuade commanders not to fight, say people involved in the effort.

Even after the war began, the Bush administration received word that top officials of the Iraqi government, most prominently the defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai, might be willing to cooperate to bring the war to a quick end and to ensure a postwar peace, current and former American officials say.

General Hashem's ministry was never bombed by the United States during the war, and the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s decision not to knock Iraqi broadcasting off the air permitted him to appear on television with what some Iraqi exiles have called a veiled signal to troops that they should not fight the invading allies.

But Washington's war planners elected not to try to keep him or other Iraqi leaders around after the war to help them keep the peace, a decision some now see as a missed opportunity.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=68&ncid=68&e=3&u=/nyt/20030810/ts_nyt/usmovedtoundermineiraqimilitarybeforewar

[TahitiNut]

1. "missed opportunity"??

Bullshit. The Bushoilini regime undoubtedly lied and deceived these Iraqis even more than the ROW. "Bringing democracy to Iraq"? Horse manure. "By their actions shall ye know them." The Bushoilinis have never intended that Iraq be anything other than a Corporate Plantation.

[berry]

2. For a while, at the beginning, when the fireworks over Baghdad

looked as if they might be just fireworks and not bombs, I fancifully wondered if this was going to be a virtual war--all arranged behind the scenes, but produced to certain effect. Of course, when people started dying, I acknowledged my foolishness in even momentarily thinking that even the mighty Wurlitzer could pull off such sleight of hand.

Now, I'm wondering again. Clearly, it's not one thing or the other, but a mix. This peek behind the curtain is intriguing. I do hope this excellent LONG article heralds more reporting, more details, more names.

Did anyone else notice the nice excuse Cheney is handed for his nuclear fears? Working in the DOD in 1991, after the Gulf War, he (and others) were shocked to find evidence that Saddam Hussein had been working on a nuclear device--they had had no hint of it in US intelligence. Ergo, now, no information/intelligence is no proof of non-existence (or something like that, as Rummy put it). And, after 9-11 intel failures, they were afraid NOT to believe the worst-case scenarios. Hmmm. Doesn't work for me--there's too much REAL evidence that this crew was pantingly eager to grab Iraq way before 9-11 for this excuse to fly. I suppose it was offered by "admin officials"--I couldn't tell if Pincus and Gell__? were just relaying it or thought it believable....

GREAT article, party_line! Thanks for posting it. :kick: