Prior Research for End 2 Party Government

Brooke Clarke 2011

Why 2003 Iraq War

Wiki: Opposition to the Iraq War

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi -
although over 100,000 Iraqis have died, only the 4,000 U.S. soldiers that have died can be used as a basis for a criminal prosecution.

UN Security Council Iraq Resolutions

Year	Date	Resolution	Major Idea
1990	2 Aug	661	bans member nations from buying from Iraq or providing them services
1990	2 Aug		Iraq attacks Kuwait (Wiki)
1991	17 Jan		Gulf War starts (Wiki)
1991	31 Jan	685	The Situation between Iran & Iraq
	2 Mar	686	Iraq to rescind it's annexation of Kuwait
	3 Apr	687	8. get rid of NBC weapons (Wiki) including missiles 9i & 13. Inspections 20. bans sale of products to Iraq (except medicines & food) 24. bans arms sales to Iraq
	5 Apr	688	3. allow access by international humanitarian organizations
	9 Apr	689	Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission - UNIKOM
	20 May	692	Iraq to pay into the UN Compensation fund
	17 Jun	699	Intl Atomic Energency Agency Insp & remove NBC weapons
	17 Jun	700	Iraq denied the IAEA access (missing data on UN web page)
	15 Aug	705	Payments by Iraq capped at 30% of exports
	15 Aug	706	more about payments "
	15 Aug	707	give access to NBC inspectors
	19 Sep	712	oil exports not subject to attachment by others
	11 Oct	715	eases restrictions of 687.20 & requests a report on 687 compliance
1992	26 Aug	773	Define Iraq - Kuwait border
1993	5 Feb	806	extends UNIKOM
1993		833	Define Iraq - Kuwait border

Why Iraq War? or Why the Libyan War? (although these possible reasons were written with the 2003 Iraq war in mind they are just as valid for the 2011 war in Libya.

I can't believe that this has not been addressed officially. We've gone to war based on lies and as far as I can tell there's never been an official explanation of why.
Obama needs to address 2003 Iraq war, or . . .

The arguments Obama has given for going to war with Libya apply to many other countries. He's in violation of UN resolution 1973 that only allowed the establishment of a no fly zone (i.e. it's OK to shoot down a military plane), there was no provision for bombing. So, just like Bush in 2003, we have a president taking us to war without giving a valid reason. So this list of possible reasons applies just as well to the current situation.

Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke he was one GW Bush's victims of character assassination for writing this book. (see Imperial Presidency Ref15) & Religion below.

Paul Wolfowitz (Wiki) believed the book Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein’s Unfinished War with America by Laurie Mylroie (1 Jan 2000 Hardback) (Wiki) that claimed that Iraq was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. See the American Enterprise Institute web page where she writes.
This was investigated by Richard Clarke (Aginst All Enemies) and the FBI and CIA just prior to the 2003 Invasion and found to be a crackpot idea.
Salon.com - Wolfowitz's girlfriend problem - talks about this problem
But I think Wolfowitz already had this idea and the book just reinforced it.

The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind - Paul O'Neill was the CEO of Alcoa and took them to all time highs of profitability, prior to that he was the head of OMB and after that he was Bush43's Sec of Treasury. It's clear that starting with the first White House meetings in Jan of 2001 (just after Bush 43 moved into the White House that there was an agenda to go after Sadam Hussein. This reinforces the idea that Laurie Mylroie's book was the driving force. The second meeting of the National Security Council on was on Thursday Feb 1, 2001 and was all about going to war with Iraq. The neocon logic revolved around "asymmetric warfare" (Wiki). Rumsfeld wrote "Talking Points, FY01 and FY02-FY07 Budget Issues (6 pages)" which included the idea of asymmetric warfare.

"3. The civil sector, not the defense sector, now creates the enabling technologies for advanced military capabilities. These universally available technologies can be used to create "asymmetric" responses by samll or medium sized states to our conventional military power that cannot defeat out forces, but an deny access to critical areas of Eurpoe, the Middle East and Asia. . . "

This may have been based on a 1992 classified Pentagon paper Defense Policy Guidance (46 pages). (NYT March 8, 1992)
Also see:
Wolfowitz Doctrine (Wiki)
PBS Cronology: Evolution of the Bush Doctrine - Excerpts from 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance - Sep 13, 2001 Wolfwitz:

"I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign."

Colin Powell's assistant: The White House cabal by Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Wiki) Chief of Staff to Powell (2002, not 2001). Cabal members: very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. ...Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on the Bush Administration's National Security Decision Making Process (MP3 audio, Transcript) by Lawrence B. Wilkerson

The first meeting of the National Security Council on 30 Jan, 2001 (10 days after the inauguration) was in the White House Situation Room (Wiki)
Who were the "back seater's" for this meeting and the second meeting on 1 Feb 2001? Let me know The second meeting was all about going to war with Iraq.
Seating Diagram for the first meeting of the National Security Council on 30 Jan, 2001

Seating Diagram for the first meeting of the National Security Council on 30 Jan, 2001

YouTube -
Hijacking Catastrophe - Intro (1 of 10)

Chalmers Johnson explains the idea (see Interesting People below)

Hijacking Catastrophe: Blueprint for Empire (2 of 10)

William Hartung
Noam Chomsky
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski
Normal Mailer

Hijacking Catastrophe: Hijacking Fear (3 of 10) -

Immanuel Wallerstein
Robert Jensen
Benjamin Barber
Norman Solomon
Mark Crispin Miller
Benjamin Barber
Scott Ritter
Mark Danner
Zia Mian

Hijacking Catastrophe: "Things Related and Not" (4 of 10)

Jody Williams (Wiki)
Mark Danner
Richard Clarke
Paul O'Neill
Robert Jensen
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski - worked in Pentagon 2000 -2003
Robert Jensen
Daniel Ellsberg
Scott Ritter
William Hartung
Norman Solomon

"Robert Jackson, the Justice from the U.S. Supreme Court who went to Neurmberg in 1945, made it very clear that the Natzi leaders were being put on trial not because they lost but because they launched an aggressive war and he described it as a crime aginst humanity that had no possible justification."

Tariq Ali

Hijacking Catastrophe: Empire (5 of 10)

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski -

"we now have 4 bases in Iraq. Beautiful bases, we can hit Syria, we can hit Iran, we can keep tabs on Afaganastan. There's all kinds of things we can do from those bases."

Stan Goff (Wiki) - Peak Oil
Michael Klare (Wiki) - Resource control, military policy focused on protection of pipe lines
Wandana Shiva (Wiki)
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski

"If you look at the pipeline, the proposed pipeline route across Afaganastan, and you look at our bases - matches perfectly."
Mazar-E Sharif (Wiki), Bagram (Wiki), Khowst (Wiki)

"...it has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. It has everything to do with a longer plan and in this case a strategy which I wouldn't necessarily call neo conservative. However it fits perfectly in with the neo conservative ideology which says - If you have military and you need something from a weaker country then you need to deploy that force and take what you need because your country's needs are paramount."

Immanuel Wallerstein

"so yea, there interested in oil, but that's a middle run interest. Their immediate goal is intimidation. So when people say for example, which is very frequent, that it's all about oil, of course oil's important and of course we want control of oil, but oil isn't enough to explain a war on Iraq.

Tariq Ali

"The major reason to take Iraq was a display of imperial power.

National Defense University 1996 advisory report Shock and Awe (Wiki) (book at NDU) by Harlan K. Ullman (Wiki) & James P. Wade (Wiki)

[the book] argues that the aim of modern warefare is not to mearly to achieve military victory, but also, by means of shear intimidation, to inflict a deep psychological injury, to scare and terroize potential rivals into submission. It is in effect the practical application of the Wolfowitz doctrine of global domination through force."

Hijacking Catastrophe: Sorrows of Empire pt. 1 (6 of 10)

Benjamin Barber

" Fear and terror are terrorism's means. Fear is terrorism's turf. America's turf is democracy, the open society, pluralism, an unwillingness to be scared into submission, scared out of it's liberties, scared out of it's multiculturalism."

"The danger since 9/11 has been not the damage of the 9/11 strikes themselves but the damage that we have done to ourselves on the way to "protect ourselves".

Scott Ritter

" And what did we see in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Immediate action on all fronts. The Patriot Act (Wiki) was passed here in the United States without a public debate, without any debate by Congress, just passed. It's a frontal assault on the Constitution."

Michael Eric Dyson (Wiki)
Kevin Danaher (Wiki)
Chalmers Johnson

"Right now as we talk the 4^th (Wiki) and 6^th (Wiki) amendments of the Constution, the Bill of Rights, are dead letters."
"Perpetual war, the loss of civil liberties, the lack of trust in government because they don't tell the truth. These are outrageous and unpleasant political developments but they don't necessarily spell the end of the United States. Financial bankruptcy does."

Medea Benjamin (Wiki)
Max Wolff (Univ of Mass, Dept of Econ)
Greg Speeter (Exec Dir National Priorities Project)

Hijacking Catastrophe: Sorrows of Empire pt. 2 (7 of 10)

Michael Franti (Wiki)

Hijacking Catastrophe: "Bring it On" pt. 1 (8 of 10)

Jackson Katz (Wiki)

Scott Ritter

Chicken Hawks and their children who have not served in military:
Bush (Vietnam), Chaney (Vietnam), Rumsfeld (Korea), Wolfowitz (Vietnam), Ashcroft (Vietnam)

Selling Bush

Hijacking Catastrophe: "Bring it On" pt. 2 (9 of 10)
Hijacking Catastrophe: Politics of Citizenship (10 of 10)

This looks like it's really what's happened. It also may explain why Obama is going to war with Libya.

To get Reelected in 2004

In the movie Wag the Dog (IMBD) the president's spin doctor fakes a war to deflect the press from a White House sex scandal. Since there's been no other official explanation, it's easily possible that the war was started just to get reelected in 2004, and it worked.

To Help Israel

Iraq had a large army that was (and still is) a threat to Israel. Not only did Bush crush Iraq, but he also decimated it's army. The plan was to hire the army to keep domestic peace, but the higher ups in the Bush administration fired the army instead. Note: at the start of the war we told the Iraq army to not fight and go home, all we wanted was Saddam Husein so they expected to have a place after our victory.

Religious War aginst Muslims

Maybe this was why Bush (and now Obama) are going to war with Muslims. If that was the reason then I can see why Bush (and Obama) would not want to publicity say what they are doing. It would also explain why Obama has exempted the DOD and SEC from FOIA requests and is so hard on Whistle Blowers. Notice that Afghanistan is not on the list above of oil countries (See Oil below), so this reason has some merit. But to do this and hide it from the voters is a very serious breach of responsibility. In his speech on the Libya invasion Obama mentions "There will be times though, when our safety is not directly threatened but our interests and our values are." This is very much the same thing Bush said about "Christian Values".

Religion

Bush may be the most religious president in our history and i'ts rumored he told Tony Blair:
Guardian Newspaper: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'.
This makes more sense than the Oil idea in that the Iraq war was waged by only four people in the White house, ignoring all the inputs from lower levels.
GW Bush (Wiki) - brought up in Episcopal Church, switched to wife's United Methodist Church which is evangelical

In Aginst All Enemies by Richard Clarke he mentiones on pg 266 and interview between Diane Sawyer and George Bush Dec 16, 2003 where he says he started the war because Saddam had used weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s and invaded Kawait in the 1990s. Here is a partial transcript, and here the full transcript. Neither ABC News nor YouTube have the video, it's been pulled down.

Dick Cheney (Wiki) - part of the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal

to contain and oversee the executive branch—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the War Powers Resolution—are, in Cheney's words, "a restoration, if you will, of the power and authority of the president"
Washington Post - Angler, The Cheney Vice Presidency -

Donald Rumsfeld (Wiki - Secretary of Defense Used to be called War Depertmen) (Wiki)

Condoleezza Rice (Wiki - Secretary of State) born in Alabama, attended Catholic grade school & University of Notre Dame

I've heard that one of the vetting questions for people to be assigned to the Iraq PDA was related to their position on Roe-vs. Wade.
If true, this makes the case that we do not want a religious person in any high level government position, i.e. seperation of Church and State.

Muslim Gap - Missile Gap

In 1958 Senator J.F. Kennedy used the term "Missile Gap" (Wiki, the Space Review) for political purposes. The idea was that the U.S.S.R. had more and better missiles than the U.S. as evidenced by the fact that they had put Sputnik (Wiki) into orbit. The problem was that the military wanted more missiles and through poor intelligence or flat out lying came up with the "Missile Gap" which was leaked by the Military to Kennedy. Eisenhower could not comment because this was classified material and so he was on a spot. The problem for president Eisenhower (Wiki) was could he believe the military. So when the U-2 and later spy satellites came about he put them under the C.I.A. (Wiki) rather than the military just so that the intelligence would be coming from a different source. This probably was the key problem that led to his warning about the Military Industrial Complex (Wiki).

In 2003 when Bush put the military under the control of the C.I.A. (essentially firing the Joint Chiefs of Staff) he merged what up until then had been rival groups. Obama has inherited this combined military-intelligence organization and it has the same problem. The C.I.A. is telling him there's a Muslim Gap and as they take over more and more of the World eventually we will be squeezed out.

Bush Car Bomb Attack

While GHW Bush (and G Bush) were in Kuwait there was an attempted car bomb plot to kill them. G Bush may have wanted revenge on Saddam Hussein (Wiki), who was probably behind it.
Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by David Corn

New World Order (Wiki)

When Iraq attacked Kuwait GHW Bush made his New World Order speech (Wiki: full text) on 9/11/1990 to a joint session of Congress. Bush's idea was that the Soviet Union was now part of the superpower community. This is different from the conspiricacy theoty "New World Order" (Wiki).

Oil

The most logical reason why is related to oil. in the movie Three Days of the Condor (Ref6) the idea is that the U.S. government has plans to capture foreign countries in order to get oil for the U.S. as the key plot element.

Most people relate oil to energy and energy to powering cars, but those ideas are far from the issue. Oil is used for many purposes, for example the output of an oil refinery consists of the following Petroleum Products (Wiki):
Asphalt, Diesel fuel, Fuel oils, Gasoline, Jet fuel, Kerosene, Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Lubricating oils, Paraffin wax, Tar & Petrochemicals (Wiki). So if a way to power all the cars in the world that's independent of oil was found the need for oil will only be reduced by a small amount. Even if you could replace oil in all it's applications where it's used as an energy source there would still be a large demand for the Petrochemicals that are derived from oil. These are a vital component of modern life.

If Bush believed that oil was needed in excess of our (U.S.A.) capacity to pump it from our own wells and that there was going to be a world wide demand (the scenario from Three Days of the Condor) then it would make sense for bush to lie about it so as to not tip off the other counties what we were doing. If Obama believed this he to would act pretty much the way he is, i.e. initiating actions that are exactly the opposite of what he said in his campaign.

Rolling Stone - Al Gore: Climate of Denial

In 2002, for example, the feverish desire to invade Iraq required convincing the American people that Saddam Hussein was somehow responsible for attacking the United States on September 11th, 2001, and that he was preparing to attack us again, perhaps with nuclear weapons. When the evidence — the "facts" — stood in the way of that effort to shape the public mind, they were ridiculed, maligned and ignored. Behind the scenes, the intelligence was manipulated and the public was intentionally deceived. Allies were pressured to adopt the same approach with their publics. A recent inquiry in the U.K. confirmed this yet again. "We knew at the time that the purpose of the dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence," Maj. Gen. Michael Laurie testified. "To make the best out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence, the wording was developed with care." Why? As British intelligence put it, the overthrow of Saddam was "a prize because it could give new security to oil supplies.

That goal — the real goal — could have been debated on its own terms. But as Bush administration officials have acknowledged, a truly candid presentation would not have resulted in sufficient public support for the launching of a new war. They knew that because they had studied it and polled it. So they manipulated the debate, downplayed the real motive for the invasion, and made a different case to the public — one based on falsehoods.

And the "referee" — the news media — looked the other way. Some, like Fox News, were hyperactive cheerleaders. Others were intimidated into going along by the vitriol heaped on any who asked inconvenient questions. (They know it; many now acknowledge it, sheepishly and apologetically.)"

The World's Oil Estimated reserves by size, largest first (Wiki):

Country	Reverse Billion Brls	USAID $Billion	U.S. Relations
Saudi Arabia	267		Friendly (Wiki)
Canada	179		Friendly (Wiki) 1994 Friendly (Wiki: NAFTA)
Iraq	143		1980 Friendly (Wiki) - U.S. helped Iraq use chemical weapons on their population 1990 Covert War (Wiki) 2003 Overt War (Wiki) - Note: Wiki does not say why
Iran	138		1979 Bad Our friend the Shaw of Iran ousted (Wiki) & Embassy Hostage Crisis (Wiki) 1980 Very Bad GW Bush backs Iraq attack of Iran (Wiki) UN Sanctions & embargo 2002 Very Bad Bush "Axis of Evil" speech 2009 Bad Obama "The U.S. wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right—but it comes with real responsibilities".
Kuwait	104		1990 Friendly (Wiki) U.S. Protected Kuwait in the Gulf War (Wiki)
Venezuela	98		Friendly (Wiki)
United Arab Emirates	98		Friendly (Wiki)
Russia	60		1946 - 1991 Cold War (Wiki) 1990 OK (Wiki)
Kazakhstan	47		9/11/2001 Friendly (Wiki)
Libya	41		1969 Poor (Wiki) Qaddafi's coup 1981 Bad (Wiki: Gulf of Sidra incident) 2003 Good - rid itself of WMD and MTCR-class missile programs. 2006 Friendly State Department announced its intention to rescind Libya's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism 2011 War (Wiki: Libyan Civil War)
Nigeria	36		1993 Poor (Wiki)
United States	21		2011 Poor Internally
China	16		up to 1970 Very Poor (Wiki) U.S. recognized Taiwan (ROC) not mainland China 2011 Friendly U.S. & China are the two largest consumers of motor vehicles and oil,
Qatar	15		1973 Friendly (Wiki)
Algeria	12		2001 Friendly (Wiki)
Brazil	12		1964 Friendly (Wiki) U.S. backs coup (Wiki)
Mexico	12		1846 War over Texas (Wiki) 1990 War on Drugs (Wiki) 1994 Friendly (Wiki: NAFTA)

Saudi Arabia is already in bed with the U.S., see Wiki: Saudi Arabia – United States relations
So far I haven't been able to find how much money the U.S. gives to the above countries. Let me know where to find out.

Politicians have become Whores

Another explanation is that modern politicians have no philosophical or other standards on any issue and instead just do market surveys to see what issues the voters are sensitive to and then make those promises during their election campaign. It would be really interesting to know if Obama's campaign promises were based on voter poles. Maybe in this case the military has told Obama that they must stay in Iraq and clean up the mess or something else that has caused him to forget his campaign promises.