BUSH WAS WARNED BY GENERALS NOT TO 'STAY
THE COURSE'
Grace Reid
June 29, 2005
We found the smoking bullet in the smoking
gun of the Downing Street Memos, that being the massive
pre-war bombing campaign intended to provoke Saddam into
war. Now here is the “massive intelligence failure."
Bush and Rumsfeld had the intelligence and it came from
the Pentagon. But they failed to read it, and they failed
to understand it. George Bush himself is the “massive
intelligence failure.”
This following is one you can bank on. It
is the Pentagon's own Defence Science Board Report Strategic
Communications, December 2004.
Some excerpts:
From the Defence Science Board report to
the Pentagon, November, 2004:
The Pentagon has admitted that the war on
terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased
support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US
and caused a global backlash against America because of
the "self-serving hypocrisy" of George W Bush's
administration over the Middle East.
On "the war of ideas or the struggle
for hearts and minds", the report says, "American
efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved
the opposite of what they intended".
"American direct intervention in the Muslim world
has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support
for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for
the United States to single digits in some Arab societies."
"Thus when American public diplomacy
talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this
is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover,
saying that 'freedom is the future of the Middle East'
is seen as patronising ... in the eyes of Muslims, the
American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led
to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering.
"American actions have elevated the authority of
the jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy
among Muslims." The result is that al-Qaeda has gone
from being a marginal movement to having support across
the entire Muslim world.
"We face a war on terrorism,"
the report says, "intensified conflict with Islam,
and insurgency in Iraq. Worldwide anger and discontent
are directed at America's tarnished credibility and ways
the US pursues its goals. There is a consensus that America's
power to persuade is in a state of crisis." More
than 90% of the populations of some Muslims countries,
such as Saudi Arabia, are opposed to US policies.
"The war has increased mistrust of
America in Europe," the report adds, "weakened
support for the war on terrorism and undermined US credibility
worldwide." This, in turn, poses an increased threat
to US national security.
America's "image problem", the
report authors suggest, is "linked to perceptions
of the US as arrogant, hypocritical and self-indulgent".
The White House "has paid little attention"
to the problems.
"Thus the US has strongly taken sides
in a desperate struggle ... US policies and actions are
increasingly seen by the overwhelming majority of Muslims
as a threat to the survival of Islam itself ... Americans
have inserted themselves into this intra-Islamic struggle
in ways that have made us an enemy to most Muslims.
"There is no yearning-to- be-liberated-by-the-US
groundswell among Muslim societies ... The perception
of intimate US support of tyrannies in the Muslim world
is perhaps the critical vulnerability in American strategy.
It strongly undercuts our message, while strongly promoting
that of the enemy."
"Americans are convinced that the US
is a benevolent 'superpower' that elevates values emphasising
freedom ... deep down we assume that everyone should naturally
support our policies. Yet the world of Islam - by overwhelming
majorities at this time - sees things differently. Muslims
see American policies as inimical to their values, American
rhetoric about freedom and democracy as hypocritical and
American actions as deeply threatening.
"In two years the jihadi message -
that strongly attacks American values - is being accepted
by more moderate and non-violent Muslims. This in turn
implies that negative opinion of the US has not yet bottomed
out.
FOR LOADS MORE SEE:
DEFENCE SCIENCE BOARD SITE
http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqdsb.html
Urgent Appeal From The People of Fallujah:
Urgent appeal from the people in Fallujah
to the Secretary General of the U.N. calling for help
to end the bombardment and prevent the threatened assault
14th October 2004
" Your Excellency, It is obvious that
the American forces are committing crimes of genocide
every day in Iraq .Now while we are writing to Your Excellency
, the American warplanes are dropping their most powerful
bombs on the civilians in the city , killing and injuring
hundreds of innocent people . At the same time their tanks
are attacking the city with their heavy artillery..."
"On the night of 13th October alone American bombardment
demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this
a genocidal crime or a lesson about democracy? It is obvious
that the Americans are committing acts of terror against
the people of Fallujah for one reason only : their refusal
to accept the Occupation."
FALLUJA URGENT APPEAL
http://www.idao.org/falluja-letter.html
World Tribunal on Iraq
War is a fundamental collapse of human reason
and failure of imagination, and should always be an absolute
last resort undertaken only in strict adherence with the
charter of the United Nations. The current war and occupation
of Iraq were undertaken in disregard of the most fundamental
principles of international law and with obvious contempt
for truth, posterity, and the morality which should guide
all human actions. The result has been the occupation
and colonization of Iraq and the destruction of its economy
and increased violence and insecurity for the overwhelming
majority of the Iraqi population. The world cannot sit
by passively and watch the continued deterioration of
the future of our planet. (World Tribunal on Iraq
New York Session, May 8, 2004)
Al Gore:
“Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger”
The last time we had a president who had
the idea that he was above the law was when Richard Nixon
told an interviewer, "When the president does it,
that means that it is not illegal... If the president,
for example approves something, approves an action because
of national security, or, in this case, because of a threat
to internal peace and order, of significant order, then
the president's decision in this instance is one that
enables those who carry it out to carry it out without
violating the law."
Al Gore, addressing the American Constitution Society,
Georgetown University Law Center, June 24, 2004
CCR's Olshansky:
"The Bush administration's utter lack
of respect for a ruling of the Supreme Court is shocking,
and reveals a deep lack of faith in the integrity of this
country's own democratic institutions," remarked
Barbara Olshansky, Center for Constitutional Right's Deputy
Director for Litigation. "How can we light the way
to democracy for other countries when our Executive Branch
officials themselves flaunt the law?" Center for
Constitutional Rights 11/29/04
Here's Marie From Newsday:
No American president should have the absolute
power to imprison people at will, even when the nation
is at war.
That's the unfettered power President George
W. Bush has claimed for himself in the war on terrorism.
On his authority alone -- unchecked by courts or international
convention -- 550 people from 40 nations captured in the
Afghanistan war have been locked in a U.S. military prison
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years. Two others --
American citizens -- have been held in military brigs
almost as long, without criminal charges or access to
family, lawyers or court.
Bush has labelled them "enemy combatants."
With those two words, the president says he can lawfully
move anyone he chooses beyond the reach of any legal authority
other than his own. -- Newsday, Marie Cocco 11/16/04
And finally, this:
We are losing the war in Iraq.
There has been a steady increase in the
assaults carried out by the insurgents against coalition
forces. The attacks over the past year have risen from
about twenty a day to approximately 120. We are an isolated
and reviled nation. We are tyrants to others weaker than
ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals.
Thucydides wrote of Athens' expanding empire and how this
empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant
at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others it finally
imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and
the lies told to justify the killing and mask the destruction
carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the
moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue
to allow force and violence to be our primary form of
communication, we will not so much defeat dictators like
Saddam Hussein as become them. Chris Hedges, New York
Review of Books--Issue December 16, 2004)
Our Fearless Leader:
Text of Bush's news conference Dec 20, 2004:
"You know, I can understand why people
- they're looking on your TV screen and seeing indiscriminate
bombing, where thousands of innocent or hundreds of innocent
Iraqis are getting killed, and they're saying whether
or not we're able to achieve the objective."
"Change the channel"
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV
images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops.
(NYT 12th April 2004)
Thanks to AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition.
:: Article nr. 13184 sent on 29-jun-2005 06:19 ECT
:: The address of this page is : margotbworldnews.com
:: The address of incoming page is : www.uruknet.info?p=13184
