We did increase bombing on prewar Iraq to incite them

[MrScorpio]

I was in the USAF at time, I saw it myself.

I figured out that we planned to attack them and use their response to our attacks as a pretext.

Add that with the mythical WMDs and what do you get?

18,000 dead and injured Americans and countless numbers of innocent victims in Iraq.

[punpirate]

1. Unfortunately...

... I cannot remember the name of the general who mentioned, just in passing before the beginning of the Iraq invasion, that we'd run something near 250,000 sorties during the time between the end of the Gulf War and the beginning of the invasion.

Since Iraq had virtually no aircraft available for operation--in the no-fly zones or anywhere else, for that matter--that meant running about 55-60 sorties per day, every day, for twelve years, much of that meant to probe and destroy Iraqi air defenses, under the guise of patrolling the no-fly zones (and that activity being wholly the idea of the US and the UK, operating completely outside the auspices of and approval of the UN).

No question about it--the object of such missions was to make Iraq incapable of resisting an eventual invasion by the US.

[CJCRANE]

2. The raids were

reported in newspapers at the time, although only a few column inches and not much detail. There were links on DU and some DUers predicted that the raids were actually the real beginning of the war.

[Karenina]

3. Here's a link, just for you!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1825941

"Rear Admiral David Gove, former deputy director of global operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on November 20, 2002, that US and British pilots were "essentially flying combat missions." On October 3, 2002, the New York Times reported that US pilots were using southern Iraq for "practice runs, mock strikes and real attacks" against a variety of targets. But the full significance of this dramatic change in policy toward Iraq only became clear last month, with the release of the Downing Street memo. In it, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon is reported to have said in 2002, after meeting with US officials, that "the US had already begun 'spikes of activity' to put pressure on the regime," a reference to the stepped-up airstrikes. Now the Sunday Times of London has revealed that these spikes "had become a full air offensive"--in other words, a war."

DOWNING STREET MINUTES - OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT MINUTES OF AN OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT MEETING

[CJCRANE]

4. As if by magic!

Thank you, good link!

[Jade Fox]

5. kick

[DistressedAmerican]

6. Hey, We Were Just Prepping The Battle Space!!!

My God Scorpio! You are so cynical sometimes!!!:evilgrin:

You must hate America!!!

Love it or leave it!

[LynnTheDem]

7. Which is a war crime. But then, the "no-fly zones" were a war crime.

USA; leader in war crimes.

[JHB]

8. Trying for a new Gulf of Tonkin Incident...

Google "Gulf of Tonkin Incident" for the details, but basically the CIA and the Navy (under orders from above) provoked a brief shooting incident with North Vietnamese coastal gunboats, and in Washington this was spun as an unprovoked, sustained attack by NV against US Navy ships in international waters. It provided the political cover needed to get congress to agree to let the president send in combat forces (not just "advisors"), in quantity.

It would have made things sooooo much simpler for * if Saddam had shot down one of our planes, or better yet fired some scuds at our airbases... Wonder how upset Chim-Chim was that he didn't/couldn't do it?

[Karenina]

9. Kick!

:kick:

[CJCRANE]

10. Wonder if

the pilots knew they were bait for a casus belli?