[Mb-civic] MUST READ: A madness for war - Derrick Z. Jackson - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  A madness for war

By Derrick Z. Jackson  |  March 29, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

PRESIDENT BUSH said he invaded Iraq to rid the world of a madman. It is 
ever more clearer Bush went mad to start it.

This week, the New York Times reported on a confidential memo about a 
meeting between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Jan. 31, 
2003. It was just before Secretary of State Colin Powell would go before 
the United Nations to convince the world of the planetary threat of 
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and ask for a second UN resolution to 
condemn him.

In his Feb. 5 presentation, Powell used excerpts of monitored 
conversations and satellite photographs to paint a picture of an Iraq 
where Saddam was feverishly concealing weapons of mass destruction. 
Powell, whose credibility lay in his image as one of the few members of 
the Bush team to have actually fought in war, said, ''We have first-hand 
descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails." He 
said Iraq's ''sophisticated facilities" could produce enough biological 
agents in a single month ''to kill thousands upon thousands of people."

Powell's punch line was, ''Every statement I make today is backed up by 
sources, solid sources. These are not assertions."

But Bush already realized the sources were not panning out. According to 
a Times review of the entire Jan. 31 memo, written by Blair's foreign 
policy adviser, David Manning, it showed that ''the president and the 
prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been 
found inside Iraq."

With no weapons, Bush talked about provoking Saddam. ''The US was 
thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over 
Iraq, painted in UN colors," the Times quotes the memo as saying. ''If 
Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."

Bush had come up with an official start date of March 10 which, 
according to the memo, ''was when the bombing would begin." The war 
actually began on March 19. The memo summarized the president as 
assuming, ''The air campaign would probably last four days, during which 
some 1,500 targets would be hit. Great care would be taken to avoid 
hitting innocent civilians."

Bush thought the impact of the air onslaught would ensure the early 
collapse of Saddam's regime. Bush thought that the air strikes ''would 
destroy Saddam's command and control quickly," Iraq's army would ''fold 
very quickly," and Saddam's Republican Guard would be ''decimated by the 
bombing." Bush also assumed in the rebuilding of Iraq that it was 
''unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different 
religious and ethnic groups."

Even though his growing fears about finding no weapons of mass 
destruction had reached the incredible point of considering fakery to 
make it look like Saddam started the war, Bush had the gall to go before 
the press on Jan. 31 after his meeting with Blair and show no doubt. A 
reporter asked Bush, ''Mr. President, is Secretary Powell going to 
provide the undeniable proof of Iraq's guilt that so many critics are 
calling for?"

Bush responded, ''Well, all due in modesty, I thought I did a pretty 
good job myself of making it clear that he's not disarming and why he 
should disarm. Secretary Powell will make a strong case about the danger 
of an armed Saddam Hussein. He will make it clear that Saddam Hussein is 
fooling the world, or trying to fool the world. He will make it clear 
that Saddam is a menace to peace in his own neighborhood. He will also 
talk about Al Qaeda links, links that really do portend a danger for 
America and for Great Britain, anybody else who loves freedom."

Powell would deliver on Bush's boast five days later, saying, ''There 
can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the 
capability to rapidly produce more, many more. . . . With this track 
record, Iraqi denials of supporting terrorism take their place alongside 
the other Iraqi denials of weapons of mass destruction. It is all a web 
of lies."

The web spun by Bush has now cost the lives of 2,300 US soldiers, 
another 200 British and coalition soldiers, and tens of thousands of 
Iraqi civilians. Iraq is closer to civil war than stability. Three years 
later, it is the United States that is not disarming, with Bush 
admitting last week that our troops will be needed there past his 
presidency. We took out a madman with madness. At a minimum, there 
should be hearings, with Bush under oath. With any more details like 
this, the next step is impeachment.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/29/a_madness_for_war/
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