flash back Sept '02- faked war games... pre invasion - "replay"

[salin]

when those playing the opponents start winning. Remember this item? It had a little play at the time - but in light of DSM - it ought to be revived as part not of that scenario - but the one about the lack of real war planning.

The part of the story about the higher ups not really caring about real planning - just staging it to look good.

Please re-read the story - relive the anger - especially in light of todays ongoing deaths in Iraq. And pass the item along to any fence sitters. It paints more of the picture and fuels more of the "what were they thinking?" sentiments that leads people to start questioning now "what are they doing?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,787018,00.html

Read it and snip and post your favorite absurdity (and there are many)

[Wickerman]

1. thank you

it IS so much more relevant now.

[salin]

2. hoping that more will read this

and add their thoughts.

[kittenpants]

3. Great catch! Marcy Kaptur urged everyone to look for

this type of thing during Conyers' hearing. Be sure to send this to afterdowningstreet.org too, and keep looking. Ms. Kaptur said to also look at the state national guard level to see what exercises were being performed around this timeframe. We need everyone to help on this!!!

[salin]

5. from memory - but don't know how to find:

a) August or September of 2002 - CBS 60 minutes.... looked at the 'selling' aspect of getting the public behind going to any war... up to the babies in incubators story (fake) in Kuwaiti hospitals - which was, apparently, what tipped public support - to the threat of NUCLEAR wmds in this current prewar vote effort. They looked at the aluminum tubes story - and raised big questions about it via scientists with the DOE (if I recall correctly). Interestingly they pointed out the PR person who was responsible for the Kuwaiti baby story - or at least bringing forth the "witness" (who later turned out to be related to the Kuwaiti ambassador in Washington DC, and had not lived in that country for years...) was... I don't recall if the story pointed it out but the person behind it then became the spokesperson (PR) for the Pentagon in the then-current propoganda push to get the public behind a war.

2) A letter printed in the NYT by James Baker to bush - that was read at the time to mean that bushjr was not listening to his father or his fathers advisors - but that laid out that a) they (bushco) needed international support and b) what they needed to do was essentially set the bar so high that it was impossible for Saddam to meet (conditions to avoid a conflict) - and that this way the international community would be behind and would participate in the conflict. That is a blue print for what bushco attempted to do.

3) A time line of when UN Inspectors went in - followed by a timeline of when WH spokespersons spoke to the public about how the efforts were failing (I think they began to discount the efforts within DAYS - or at least by the end of the first week of the inspections... which I believe was early December 2002.)

4) Look at the documentation about weapons that the Iraq released as part of the conditions - the immediate "proof" claimed by the US (who had one of the only - not redacted copies) - and then the disproval of that "proof" in the international press.

All of these items - taken together - give circumstancial evidence backing the claim that they were "Staging" this to make this a) sellable to the public and b) meet the 'bar' of international law.

Another item (from Memory)... that help demonstrate the administration attempts to stage stories (items that were trumpeted by admin officials such as Rumsfeld, but then disproven in the international press (rarely covered - the disproven part in the US press) that were then dropped/not mentioned again.... mostly summer of 2002...

Rumsfeld claimed an active cell of al qeada in Iraq.... and that this proved a link and a need for action... BUT it was demonstrated that the cell was in the northern area of iraq that was not under the control of the Iraqi govt - and that there was sworn animus (eg desire for ruin) between that group and Saddam's govt.

At the time there were three or four stories like this - but I can't recall them at this moment.

[kittenpants]

4. kicked and nominated!

:kick:

[salin]

6. Now too late for greatest

but can still get some discussion if others can recall some of the news items from 2002 that came out that give the inaction demonstration of war staging... or poor war planning.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. fourth paragraph from the bottom..

"One way is to march straight to Baghdad, blowing up everything in your way and then by shock and awe you cause the regime to collapse," Pike says. "That is what Rumsfeld is complaining about when he talks about unimaginative plodding. The alternative is to bypass the Iraqi forces and deliver a decisive blow."


'Shock and Awe' Seems they had this plan from the beginning.

[salin]

8. good find