Dick Cheney probably hates Hardball's Chris Mathews the most(among the TV commentators). His constant reference to the Neocons and Dick Cheney as warmongers and the principle drivers of the Iraq Invasion is remarkable.. But I have never seen him mentioned the relationships of the Neocons with some Think Tank and the Israeli Lobby. Probably he did not have the courage.
Anyway, it is now accepted that the Neocons took the US into this immoral Iraq Invasion. This Inavasion now costing the US thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of taxpayers money and world wide hatred towards the USA.
However, many american failed to understand the underlying reasons behind the invasion and the root cause of 9/11. Americans are grappling to undestand "why do they hate us so much?" Lots of misinformation (thanks to the mainstream media) has caused hatred towards the Arab and the Muslims. We have witnessed that during the election.
About a month ago I was searching the internet for documented evidence for the underlying cause of this invasion and stumbled upon z Facts.com KNOW THE FACTS. GET THE SOURCE.
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The site is owned by Steve Stoft, a Ph.D. holder in Economics. Every thing he mentioned in the website is backed by documented evidence.
He has dissected the interrelationships among the institutions (including Bush's) and the key personnel involved in the invasion. The information below is basically excerpt from his web site.
The site is extensively hyperlinked and has lots of built-in applets. It's an extremly informative website ranging from social security, national debt, energy and wars. If you spend some time at the web site I'm sure you will enrich your reportire of knowledge not only by opinions but also by pure facts.
Reasons for Iraq War: Bush or Cheney?
When elected, Bush was opposed to "nation building," but Dick Cheney brought in eight fellow neocons who advocated "regime change" and re-building Iraq. This was before 9/11 and had nothing to do with Bush's war on terrorism.
Cheney's group all belonged to PNAC or IASPS. IASPS advocated regime change to increase Israeli security, while PNAC focused on our Middle East allies but named only Israel. Using 9/11, Cheney and the neocons convinced Bush to go against the long-standing conservative principles he proclaimed during his election campaign.
A Short History of the Neocons' Push for War.
Click here to understand the personalities and their affiliations
1996. Report: why removing Saddam is crucial to Israel.PDF
Written by Feith, Wurmser and Fairbanks.
Delivered in person by Perle to the Israeli Prime Minister.
- PNAC's founding "principles" signed by necons:
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Abrams.
- PNAC letter to Clinton: removal of Saddam ... military efforts
signed by: Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, Abrams
Bombing Iraq Isn't Enough (NY Times) / A way to Oust Saddam ("the Wolfowitz plan ... US military might") —PNAC
- The Neocons' book on US/Israeli strategic interest in Iraq
"Iraq also has large, proven oil reserves, water, ..." —Wurmser
PNAC Memo: "Above all, only ground forces can remove Saddam."
- Talk of war with Iraq was discontinued during the election.
- War planning by neocons' PNAC.
Liberate Iraq—PNAC "At minimum, 50,000 troops." "Thousands of Iraqi soldiers would likely change sides and fight." "Chalabi may be ideal man to lead the opposition. He is rich and upper class."
All these were before 9/11.
Here is what happened after 9/11
- War selling by neocons' PNAC
Sept. 11. Rumsfeld: "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Related and Not."
Sept. 15. At Camp David, Wolfowitz made the case for action against Iraq.
Sept. 19. Rumsfeld, Perle call two-day meeting. Outcome summarized in The PNAC Letter, signed by Perle. "Even if evidence does not link Iraq ... remove Saddam Hussein." Focuses on Iraq, Hezbollah, the Palesinian Authority, little on Bin Laden.
All that remained was to convince Bush, and they had him surrounded.
The man who did most to convince Bush and America, a long-time favorite of necons, was not even an American. Chalabi sold us the Iraq WMD hoax. The WMD Report to the President concluded that all of Iraq's WMD were destroyed by 1991. Returning to Iraq, Chalabi, a Shiite, passed to the Iranians the most damaging top secret information—that we had broken their code.
Summary of Reasons for Iraq War:
The two fundamental reasons are (1) Oil, and (2) Israel. But the mechanical reasons are (1) the neocon lobby, (2) Cheney as VP, and (3) Bush's desire to prove himself and best his father. The neocons discuss mainly on the needs of Israel (the WMD they were truely concerned about were Scuds aimed at Israel), but Cheney and Rumsfeld may be more focussed on oil.
Finally it's important to know the person behind this excellent work.
Steve Stoft: I’m building it with a little help from my friends and volunteers, but so far, it’s mostly my work. I’m a Ph.D. economist and my day job is consulting for electricity markets—California, PJM, ISO-NE. That provides 99.9% of the funding for this site.
UPDATE: The drum beat against Iran and Syria is purly driven by Israeli lobby. With a little insight one would understand why these 2 countries are not an immediate threat to the USA.
On the other hand by constantly goading these countries US is in effect ensuring real threats (mainly terrorism against US interest arround the world)from them. In that sense I think Iran is an extremely dangerous country motivated by religious fervor.
I hope the Americans would under stand that and act accordingly.