Powell Aide Says Case for War a 'Hoax'

PBS recently aired an interview with Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Ret), Chief of Staff at the Department of State from Aug 2002 - January 2005, addressing some of the skepticism surrounding the pre-war claims made by the Bush administration. Wilkerson claims in no uncertain terms that he "participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council." This is not the first time that Wilkerson has spoken out against the administration and intelligence community.

Comments

Re:Welcome to the real world guys.

[humina]

The trouble is that the other half are the ones running the country at the moment...

"You mean the half that wasn't involved in the unprovoked bombing of Afganistan during the Clinton administration? That didn't have anything to do with the problems we now face in the middle east does it? Or is it somehow different?"

He's talking about the half that funded and armed al qaeda to fight the soviets. Funding terrorist groups was the norm all in the name of fighting the cold war.

The clinton bombings were targeted at osama: http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/

Re:Clinton's balanced budget myth.

[Oblio]

You can always look at the bottom line: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdhisto4.htm

While Clinton didn't balance the budget, I think it is fair to say that deficit growth was largely constrained at the end of the 90s. That these numbers piggybacked off of capital growth is something that should be taken into consideration.

Regardless of how serious we were about limiting the deficit THEN, we are certainly fairly cavalier about growing it NOW. (for we = America).

Some statements that helped start the Iraq war

[KirklesWorth]

Pehaps this is only sour grapes that the Clinton administration failed to capitalize on setting up a war that would ensure Al Gore's Whitehouse instead of George Bush's. After all, look at how many statements were made about the dangers accumulating in Iraq before George Bush became President:

February 1, 1998: "We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction." - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

February 4, 1998: "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Bill Clinton

February 17, 1998: "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton

February 18, 1998: "He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser.

February 18, 1998: "If a soldier's life needs to be lost let it start with mine." - an un-named American GI expressing his support for President Clinton's policy on Iraq.

February 26 1998: "A democratic Iraq is certainly in our interest, but it is above all for the sake of the Iraqis that we must replace Saddam." - Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., said in floor speech.

February 26 1998: "Saddam's feet will be held to the fire. We'll see if he complies. If not, we'll thump him." - Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. and senior Democrat on the House National Security Committee

October 9, 1998: "We urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." - Letter to President Clinton. - Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others.

November 10, 1999: "Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

October 10, 1998: Senator Kerry speaks for quite some time about the burgeoning Iraqi threat http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/congress /1998_cr/s981010-iraq.htm

Re:What difference does it make

[Doc Ruby]

I remember that Clinton signed the treaty for membership in the International Criminal Court, though he didn't submit it for ratification to the Republican Congress. And I remember that Bush nullified Clinton's signature when he took over a couple of years later.

I don't know what you remember, but the facts show there was a big difference.

Re:Welcome to the real world guys.

[good soldier svejk]

So you're claiming that the inspection crews being booted was a hoax? hahahaha!

It most certainly is an ex post facto hoax. Iraq never expelled UN inspectors. UNSCOM was expelled from Iraq in 1998, but it was Clinton who kicked them out, not Saddam. Iraq did temporarily expel American inspectors in 1997 after they learned that CIA infiltrators in UNSCOM had passed intelligence which the US used to facilitate a coup attempt. In response, UNSCOM chief Richard Butler withdrew all his teams to Kuwait. But the crisis was short lived and everyone was back to work in a week. Inspections limped along until December 1998, when Clinton decided his purposes were better served by bombing. The US then told UNSCOM they needed to evacuate for safety reasons and Director Richard Butler happily obliged. Go back and read the news reports of the day and you will see no mention of Saddam expelling non-American UNSCOM members. That factoid developed later. Several UNSCOM officials, including director Rolf Ekeus and David Kaye, have admitted that the US illegally used the inspection program for espionage.

"As time went on, some countries, especially the US, wanted to learn more about other parts of Iraq's capacity." The US even tried to find information about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein. [Rolf Ekeus, Director of UNSCOM 1991-1997, Financial Times, 7/29/03]

Re:How to stop a suicide terrorist

[cosmo7]

IRA terrorism finally disappeared after 9/11. Up until then sympathetic Americans were happy to fund an organisation that bought weapons from Libya to kill people in England.