By Ralph Forbes –
It would take many volumes to cover the utter criminal insanity of the Iraq debacle. Here are a few of the biggest of the Big Lies about the illegal, super-expensive ($2-4 trillion) Iraq war. These “cakewalk” memories would be hilarious—if it were not for the tragic misery they caused:
•While publicly searching for a peaceful resolution— “F*** Saddam; we’re taking him out.” Thus spake George W. Bush to three U.S. senators and
Condoleezza Rice in March 2002—a year before the invasion.
• “The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction, as the core reason.” — Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003.
• “We’re not going to have any casualties.” — President Bush, discussing the Iraq war with Christian Zionist broadcaster Pat Robertson, after Robertson told him he should prepare the American people for casualties.
• “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”—National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, on Iraq’s supposed nuclear capabilities and the Bush administration’s case for war, Sept. 8, 2002.
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” — President Bush, standing under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier, May 2, 2003.
• “It’s a slam-dunk case!” —CIA Director George Tenet, WMDs as the case for war, Dec. 21, 2002.
• “I don’t know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.” — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, June 24, 2003.
• “We found the weapons of mass destruction,” Bush lied, in an interview with Polish TV, May 29, 2003.
• “We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat, . . .” — Rumsfeld, ABC News interview, March 30, 2003.
• “In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists, had an established relationship with al Qaeda. . . .” — VP Dick Cheney, Nov. 7, 2003.
• “Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed. . .” — Bush, State of the Union, 2004.
• “Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day, . . .” — Bush, telling Time magazine that he underestimated the Iraqi resistance, Aug. 2004.
• “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” — Dick Cheney, June 20, 2005.
• “As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, responding to a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq who asked him why troops had to dig through scrap metal to armor vehicles, Dec. 8, 2004.
——
Ralph Forbes is a freelance journalist and web developer based in Arkansas. Forbes is also a member of AFP’s Southern Bureau. To contact Forbes, write him c/o AFP, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, #100, Washington, D.C. 20003.
