August 2002 post at DU: Iraq war already underway. Sounding familiar.

[madfloridian]

From a bookmark I kept from 2002. The stuff about Iran recently rang a bell when I saw the "already underway."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=6144&forum=DCForumID38&archive=

17 August 2002
Jonathan Manthorpe
Vancouver Sun

"There is growing evidence to suggest the physical war against Saddam Hussein has been under way for nearly six months.
… … The new war against Saddam Hussein probably began early this year when Bush authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a covert operation to remove the Iraqi leader. More formal opening moves began in March when troop deployments began that have doubled the number of U.S. and British forces in the region from 50,000 to 100,000.

… …The overall picture suggests a war of the python rather than the cobra; the slow and steady squeezing of the life out of Saddam Hussein's regime rather than a quick strike.

It is a war that might well remain almost silent and invisible until it is all but over."

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id={25980C9B-5F98-45A7-A6AE-EF4AB77AF6AF}

I can not get the original link to work, but there are references to the article on the internet.

In addition, while searching I found this great page at Bush Watch from about that same time in 2002.

http://www.bushwatch.net/iraq.htm

[madfloridian]

1. Ted Koppel, 1992, says that George Bush built Iraq into present power.

Amazing quote via Bush Watch via CJR from 1993. Is this the same Ted Koppel? Just kidding. We all change.

DAILY HEADLINES ABOUT AN IRAQ ATTACK
"There's a good reason why we in the media are so partial to a nice, torrid sex scandal," he said as he opened yet another Nightline Iraqgate report last July <1992>. "It is, among other things, so easy to explain and so easy to understand. Nothing at all, in other words, like allegations of a government coverup, which tend to be not at all easy to explain, and even more difficult to understand...."It is becoming increasingly clear," said a grave Ted Koppel, "that George Bush, operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into the aggressive power that the United States ultimately had to destroy." " --CJR, April, 1993

From the Bush Watch site
http://www.bushwatch.net/iraq.htm

This is a fascinating look back at the build up to the war in 2002. Oh, yeah. They knew. We knew.

[bananas]

2. found a copy using google

someone posted it on smirkingchimp.com

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:884TT9ypYX4J:160.79.147.121/article.php%3Fthold%3D-1%26mode%3Dnested%26order%3D0%26sid%3D7839+%22Vancouver+Sun%22+%22War+on+Iraq+is+already+under+way%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://160.79.147.121/article.php?thold=-1&mode=nested&order=0&sid=7839

[madfloridian]

3. Thanks. Alarming troop build-up in early 2002.

Our congressmen had to know about it. It really did not matter, it was a done deal by the time the vote came up.