This is part 2 of a diary I started Saturday March 4th, about some of the highlights, or should I say lowlights that have gotten us to this point in time.
Part 1
On May 1 2003, George W. Bush landed on the Air Craft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he uttered the most famous untruth of his rein, "Mission Accomplished." With those famous words, the fighting escalated, and to date over 2500 soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. UN, and DOD figures can be found here,
Wikipedia
December 15, 2003, the capture of Saddam Hussein, one of the great photo ops of the war. While all eyes are on the now ex-Iraqi leader Resident Bush signs into law The Patriot Act II. Read on>>>
I and many others have question the way in which the capture was portrayed, from the official story, to the convenience of the video cameras being there at the right time and a lot of other unanswered things in between.
Global Research
"The U.S. and its mighty propaganda machine are involved in a disinformation campaign that reaches the level of terrorism" to mislead public opinion ...
The pictures distributed by the Americans about Saddam's hideout show a palm tree behind the soldier who uncovered the hole where Saddam was hiding. The palm tree carried a cluster of pre-ripened yellow dates, which might suggest that Saddam was arrested at least three months earlier, because dates ripen in the summer months when they turn into their natural black or brown color."
Atwan concludes that the arrest was "a staged show and the place of arrest [was] completely elsewhere."
The London Times, (20 December 2003) reviewing the Arabic Press, carried the following analysis of the Yellow dates:
"...the dates growing in palm trees at the farmhouse where Saddam was arrested were ripening yellow, placing the images to sometime around July.
If you look at the picture at the bottom of the page, notice the currency in the suitcase. Is that US? Why yes, yes it is.
'Don't shoot,' the bearded, submissive man said to the soldiers. He was Saddam Hussein, hiding in a hole, the man the Pentagon called 'High Value Target Number One.' The story of his capture--and what's next.( News week, 22 December 2003)
This Hollywood style ploy, including the choice of photos and video clips, was not only intended to destroy the image of Saddam as a political leader (whose Baathist regime had previously been supported by the CIA), but also to intimidate and humiliate the entire Arab World. Whether the images are genuine or not is not the issue. The official story could easily have been fabricated or distorted for media release, without manipulating the photographic evidence.
What actually happened remains to be firmly established. There are several flaws in the reported circumstances of Saddam's arrest, which cast doubt on the official narrative.
Following the raid by the Fourth Infantry division, the soldiers were sworn to secrecy by their commanding officer Colonel James Hickley: "OK? Again, nobody mentions anything. Got it?" Following this instruction, the soldiers were described by CNN as "a little bit dazed and confused" as to what actually happened. (CNN, Wolf Blitzer Reports, 17 December 2003, Videocast at CNN Report
One of the main reasons that we need to question everything about this war, and anything that comes out of the administrations mouth is this little operation that they put together after 9-11-2001. [I had almost forgotten about this.]
In the wake of September 11, 2001, the Pentagon established a propaganda outfit called the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), which had a mandate of planting disinformation in the news chain.
The OSI was slated to collaborate with the CIA's psych-ops as well as with a unit in the State Department entrusted with propaganda. The Rendon Group (TRG), was hired by the OSI as a core consulting firm. It was to provide the public relations and psych-ops input in support of the Bush administration's "war on terrorism". It was also entrusted with a media and PR campaign to discredit the Baathist regime in the Middle East, demonize Saddam Hussein and build an Iraqi opposition.
The choice of the Rendon Group to advise the Pentagon may not be a coincidence given its past work on behalf of the Iraqi opposition. Several top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and adviser Richard Perle, are strong advocates of overthrowing Saddam and have argued that U.S. military strikes should be expanded to include Iraq.
So as we can see there is always reason to doubt the official story, and more so when it comes from the Bush administration. From prospective, {They have lied to the people since the beginning. Even about the littlest of things}
Since the capture of Saddam the occupation of Iraq has even gotten worse, in that now the country after the thing the administration wanted to make the Watermark of success in the country, free elections. But even those had scandals attached to them. [Ah democracy.]
In the first election stories started to circulate that food rations were being withheld if you did not vote. In the elections that followed reports of ballot box stuffing was tacking place, and the wide spread of voter fraud. [Oh how quickly they learn.] The one thing the administration was not counting on was the out brake of Civil War, or were they?
Last month, the most holiest of mosque was bombed, bring retaliation and has the country on the brink of all-out Civil War.
Although the administration is telling everyone, that it is under control, and the US and Britain are making plans to pull troops from Iraq in 2007, we have seen this game before. As Rep. John Murtha, put it on CBS's "Face The Nation" yesterday,
"We've made no progress at all. There's two participants fighting for survival, fighting for supremacy inside that country and that's my definition of a civil war. I think we're not making progress; we're caught in a civil war." The comment was made in response to, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who said, "It is not a great smiley picture nor is it a disaster," Pace said. "What it is, is a very tough environment that still has a lot of work to be done but one in which we're making very, very good progress."
Sure we are general, that's why last month was one of the deadliest since the Shock and Awe campaign. With over a thousand Iraqis dead. Oh I forgot the administration doesn't keep body counts on collateral damage.
So that is a brief, and a hand pick few events that have brought us to where we are in the Iraq debacle. ABA