Bush-Cheney's GLARING mistakes, and monstrous POLICY FAILURES in Iraq, revisited-
Note: essential sources for the devolution of the US invasion of Iraq to the murderous, out-of-control, sectarian, terrorist-generating quagmire it is today.
Above all others, the one overriding and unifying factor of the Bush-Cheney occupation of Iraq is ARROGANCE: arroagance that the war could be launched with deliberately misleading statements and false (manufactured, perjured, exaggerated, manipulated) evidence.
The George H.W. Bush invasion of Panama, to take out his own previous trade-and-torture partner of good standing, Manuel Noriega, was also not strictly legal in international terms, but the Senior Bush had a modicum of international savy and international good will, and the US invasion quickly disappated with PANAMANIANS manning all senior official positions in that country in a relatively short time.
The George W. Bush (junior) and Dick Cheney invasion of Iraq, on the other hand, exemplified monstrous hubris on an epic scale: The Bush-Cheney military went as Roman conquerors, without the in-your-face massacres and reprisals necessary to sustain a Roman occupation against native rebellion, as the New Testament so vividly details, and as the Jewish faith continues to celebrate the legacy of both Hanukah and Mossada. (The former a Jewish rebellion against Alexander's Greek heirs, the later a Jewish zealot rebellion against Roman forces that was crushed, leading to the diaspora.)
Of course, death squads, massacres, 'targetted bombings' missile strikes, and the "collateral damage" civilians killed (such as we know much more about from Israeli rocket-attacks on senior PLO and Hamas officials, usually with three times as many civilians killed as targetted leaders) ARE an integral part of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Iraq war. The videos of British mercenaries driving a shiny, white SUV down Iraqi highways.... SHOOTING MOTORISTS and PEDESTRIANS RANDOMLY from the SUV - became instantly notorious worldwide, but an atmosphere of TERROR and SUPPRESSION is such an integral part of the Bush-Cheney vision of "bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq," that those mercenaries, and many others, get a huge, blanket, "in the name of Reich Security!" FREE-PASS from the press/media AND Bush administration, that it is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion that RANDOM KILLINGS by US and British mercenaries IS OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED US policy.
That is only off the top.
Here are some of the other HUGE FAILINGS and POLICY TRAGEDIES of the Bush-Cheney-Rusmfeld-Wolfowitz-Rove-Rice-Gonzales-Murdoch-GE-Disney-Viacom war in Iraq:
#1. Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq
Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_pf.html
Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City,"
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/342
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.
#2. In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48543-2004May22.html
When the U.S. government went looking for people to help rebuild Iraq, they had responded to the call. They supported the war effort and President Bush. Many had strong Republican credentials. They were in their twenties or early thirties and had no foreign service experience.... They had been hired to perform a low-level task: collecting and organizing statistics, surveys and wish lists from the Iraqi ministries for a report that would be presented to potential donors at the end of the month. But as suicide bombs and rocket attacks became almost daily occurrences, more and more senior staffers defected. In short order, six of the new young hires found themselves managing the country's $13 billion budget, making decisions affecting millions of Iraqis.
#3. Al Qaqaa ammunition complex looted, despite international weapons inspectors (IAEA) begging BOTH the US field command in Iraq, and the US Department of Defense (Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld) to SECURE THE weapons-grade high explosives, tagged under sealed locks, at the Al Qaaqa ammunition complex. That fact that Mr. Rumsfeld's Department of Defense had ZERO interest in the contents of Al Qaqaas contents - including the explosives that would be used to detonate a nuclear explosive - belies the Bush administration claim that "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!" were the first and foremost priority of the invasion of Iraq.
-------------------------------------------------
Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
his article was reported and written by James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/international/middleeast/25bomb.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.
-----------------------------------------------------
[Note: The New York Times was far from the lead investigator of the "looted ammunition and explosives" from Al Qaqaa story, here is Wikipedia's entry and timeline for the story, citing a US local-TV news-team coverage of the bunkers from the days when US forces first entered Baghdad, the TV news crew 'embedded' with advancing US troops.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qa'qaa_high_explosives_controversy
On October 29, 2004, the New York Times reported the existence of a videotape made by a KSTP-TV St. Paul, Minnesota television crew embedded with U.S. 101st Airborne Division troops on April 18, 2003, nine days after Hussein's fall. The television crew accompanying US troops recorded the sealed explosives containers at the site, displaying the ammunition cache of explosives and other weapons supplies. Commentators have pointed out that the complex would have been under intensive surveillance during the war as a suspected centre of WMD production. They point out that an operation involving removing 40 truckloads of materials should have been extremely visible and would probably have been attacked, had it been spotted. Some said that the materials being moved might just as easily have been WMDs being moved to the battlefront. However, there is no indication that any such transport operation was spotted by US forces. The tape displaying the sealed explosives containers, as they were being found by the 101st Airborne Division troops, was re-broadcast by ABC on October 27, and by MSNBC on October 28, 2004. The explosives, classified as "dual use" materials, had been sealed by the IAEA, and reported 18 months earlier.
-------------------------------------------------
#4 US military Command, both in Department of Defense (Pentagon) AND local US commanders "in around the points to the north, south, east, and west" of Baghdad, ALLOW the looting of Baghdad as well as ammunition complexes; ONLY Iraq OIL MINISTRY is guarded.
Dozens of sources, including this one, below:
Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad
April 16 2003, 4:26 PM
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172643895.html
Since US forces rolled into central Baghdad a week ago, one of the sole public buildings untouched by looters has been Iraq's massive oil ministry, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by troops.
The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.
The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.
Baghdad residents have complained that US troops should do more to protect against the looters, most of them Shi'ite Muslims repressed by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime who live in the vast slum known as Saddam City on the northern outskirts.
But while museums, banks, hotels and libraries have been ransacked, the oil ministry remains secure.
The symbolism is loaded, considering how vehemently the United States and Britain denied war opponents' accusations that the campaign to oust Saddam was driven by oil lust.
Above all others, the one overriding and unifying factor of the Bush-Cheney occupation of Iraq is ARROGANCE: arroagance that the war could be launched with deliberately misleading statements and false (manufactured, perjured, exaggerated, manipulated) evidence.
The George H.W. Bush invasion of Panama, to take out his own previous trade-and-torture partner of good standing, Manuel Noriega, was also not strictly legal in international terms, but the Senior Bush had a modicum of international savy and international good will, and the US invasion quickly disappated with PANAMANIANS manning all senior official positions in that country in a relatively short time.
The George W. Bush (junior) and Dick Cheney invasion of Iraq, on the other hand, exemplified monstrous hubris on an epic scale: The Bush-Cheney military went as Roman conquerors, without the in-your-face massacres and reprisals necessary to sustain a Roman occupation against native rebellion, as the New Testament so vividly details, and as the Jewish faith continues to celebrate the legacy of both Hanukah and Mossada. (The former a Jewish rebellion against Alexander's Greek heirs, the later a Jewish zealot rebellion against Roman forces that was crushed, leading to the diaspora.)
Of course, death squads, massacres, 'targetted bombings' missile strikes, and the "collateral damage" civilians killed (such as we know much more about from Israeli rocket-attacks on senior PLO and Hamas officials, usually with three times as many civilians killed as targetted leaders) ARE an integral part of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Iraq war. The videos of British mercenaries driving a shiny, white SUV down Iraqi highways.... SHOOTING MOTORISTS and PEDESTRIANS RANDOMLY from the SUV - became instantly notorious worldwide, but an atmosphere of TERROR and SUPPRESSION is such an integral part of the Bush-Cheney vision of "bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq," that those mercenaries, and many others, get a huge, blanket, "in the name of Reich Security!" FREE-PASS from the press/media AND Bush administration, that it is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion that RANDOM KILLINGS by US and British mercenaries IS OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED US policy.
That is only off the top.
Here are some of the other HUGE FAILINGS and POLICY TRAGEDIES of the Bush-Cheney-Rusmfeld-Wolfowitz-Rove-Rice-Gonzales-Murdoch-GE-Disney-Viacom war in Iraq:
#1. Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq
Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_pf.html
Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City,"
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/342
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.
#2. In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48543-2004May22.html
When the U.S. government went looking for people to help rebuild Iraq, they had responded to the call. They supported the war effort and President Bush. Many had strong Republican credentials. They were in their twenties or early thirties and had no foreign service experience.... They had been hired to perform a low-level task: collecting and organizing statistics, surveys and wish lists from the Iraqi ministries for a report that would be presented to potential donors at the end of the month. But as suicide bombs and rocket attacks became almost daily occurrences, more and more senior staffers defected. In short order, six of the new young hires found themselves managing the country's $13 billion budget, making decisions affecting millions of Iraqis.
#3. Al Qaqaa ammunition complex looted, despite international weapons inspectors (IAEA) begging BOTH the US field command in Iraq, and the US Department of Defense (Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld) to SECURE THE weapons-grade high explosives, tagged under sealed locks, at the Al Qaaqa ammunition complex. That fact that Mr. Rumsfeld's Department of Defense had ZERO interest in the contents of Al Qaqaas contents - including the explosives that would be used to detonate a nuclear explosive - belies the Bush administration claim that "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!" were the first and foremost priority of the invasion of Iraq.
-------------------------------------------------
Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
his article was reported and written by James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/international/middleeast/25bomb.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.
-----------------------------------------------------
[Note: The New York Times was far from the lead investigator of the "looted ammunition and explosives" from Al Qaqaa story, here is Wikipedia's entry and timeline for the story, citing a US local-TV news-team coverage of the bunkers from the days when US forces first entered Baghdad, the TV news crew 'embedded' with advancing US troops.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qa'qaa_high_explosives_controversy
On October 29, 2004, the New York Times reported the existence of a videotape made by a KSTP-TV St. Paul, Minnesota television crew embedded with U.S. 101st Airborne Division troops on April 18, 2003, nine days after Hussein's fall. The television crew accompanying US troops recorded the sealed explosives containers at the site, displaying the ammunition cache of explosives and other weapons supplies. Commentators have pointed out that the complex would have been under intensive surveillance during the war as a suspected centre of WMD production. They point out that an operation involving removing 40 truckloads of materials should have been extremely visible and would probably have been attacked, had it been spotted. Some said that the materials being moved might just as easily have been WMDs being moved to the battlefront. However, there is no indication that any such transport operation was spotted by US forces. The tape displaying the sealed explosives containers, as they were being found by the 101st Airborne Division troops, was re-broadcast by ABC on October 27, and by MSNBC on October 28, 2004. The explosives, classified as "dual use" materials, had been sealed by the IAEA, and reported 18 months earlier.
-------------------------------------------------
#4 US military Command, both in Department of Defense (Pentagon) AND local US commanders "in around the points to the north, south, east, and west" of Baghdad, ALLOW the looting of Baghdad as well as ammunition complexes; ONLY Iraq OIL MINISTRY is guarded.
Dozens of sources, including this one, below:
Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad
April 16 2003, 4:26 PM
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172643895.html
Since US forces rolled into central Baghdad a week ago, one of the sole public buildings untouched by looters has been Iraq's massive oil ministry, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by troops.
The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.
The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.
Baghdad residents have complained that US troops should do more to protect against the looters, most of them Shi'ite Muslims repressed by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime who live in the vast slum known as Saddam City on the northern outskirts.
But while museums, banks, hotels and libraries have been ransacked, the oil ministry remains secure.
The symbolism is loaded, considering how vehemently the United States and Britain denied war opponents' accusations that the campaign to oust Saddam was driven by oil lust.
posted by verifi at 1:54 PM
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