Re Family Jewels - Why didn't CIA just 'zap' Saddam (instead of waging 2 futile Iraqi wars)

[Rosa Luxemburg]

in view of the revealing documents (Family Jewels) of CIA's tricks in foreign countries -a coup here and a coup there, one would think that they could have zapped Saddam instead of the US govt. wasting all those lives and dollars in the Bush wars I (Gulf war) and II present Iraq war)

[RufusTFirefly]

1. A similar question. And answer.

During the Cuban fight for independence (1898), the Cubans seemed to be successfully rebuffing the Spanish on their own. And yet the Americans intervened just as it seemed as though Cuba was on the verge of victory and independence. Why?

[ReadTomPaine]

2. Because it was never really about Saddam.

It was about Iraq.

[EFerrari]

6. It was about our oil under their sand.

[Liberal In Texas]

13. Exactly. It was also about Saddam selling the oil in Euros.

It was about tying up a lot of oil reserves to keep it off the market, and forcing the new government to cede the reserves to the big oil companies, who would exploit them in the future.

It's about no-bid contracts to the military-industrial complex that makes huge profits on war.

It's about breaking OPEC and putting them under our (our corporations) thumbs.

It's about keeping the "fear-factor" going so that the people in the US will welcome a strong dictator-like government.

The war dead are just cannon fodder to increase the profits of the privileged elite that want to run this country like the Edwardian aristocrats of about a hundred years ago.

They (the Edwardians) plunged the country into the Great Depression. A progressive, Franklin Roosevelt got us out of it and put into place safeguards. Things like Social Security.

The Neo-Cons (read new Edwardians) want to rip that all away and return us to a time where inherited wealth rules the rest of us.

This is EXACTLY what our founding fathers did not want.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Our founding fathers would be 'turning in their graves'

this country is being ruined and the masses don't see it.

[MedleyMisty]

3. But then where would Halliburton's profits be?

[Octafish]

4. Exactly. A lot more money to be made off war.

Then, there's all that oil to hold and cherish.

That's pure gold and it makes the war machine go-go.

War. Thy name is Bush.

[Maat]

5. John Perkins ("Confessions of An Economic HItman") ..

puts it this way: first it's the economic hitman (the one who bribes), (2) it's the jackals with the assassination attempts, & (3) if all fails, the military with an invasion.

Apparently, Stategies (1) & (2) failed with Saddam, so Option 3 was employed a couple of times.

Just prior to Gulf War I, Saddam whined a bit much about the Kuwaiti's slant drilling (stealing Iraqi oil), and he took things to far (learned from my oil industry buddies).

Just prior to Gulf War II (2003 Invasion), Saddam threatened to tie things to the Euro, instead of the dollar, and mess up the commodities markets by pumping too much; so, he had to go (learned from my oil industry buddies).

Problem was ... Saddam had decoys, and they couldn't really plan an insider assassination; so, the military had to go in (per Perkins).

Saddam did not obey his International Corporatist Cabal Masters, and the Oil Reserves needed to be controlled; so, he was taken out. That's basically Perkins' theory anyway.

I'm reading Perkin's new book, "The Secret History of the American Empire;" it's really good!

[EFerrari]

7. So, look out, Venezuela. n/t

[Maat]

8. If I were Hugo ...

I'd be very careful.

The Saudis' wells are old, and more and more water is coming out with the crude.

Iran, Iraq and China - well, they only have so much oil, and too many people need it.

And, Hugo is not obeying the Corporate Masters; he's not taking the bribes, and making it too difficult for them to get rid of him; so, watch out for military intervention, Hugo.

It seems as if U.S. officials never learn, and I do not want to pay for this nutball stuff!

[EFerrari]

9. Perkins says he thinks it's only because we're in the ME

that we're not in Venezuela.

I don't know why Chavez is still alive.

[Maat]

10. Boy, I believe that's right.

I was just sitting here thinking about that .... our military and special ops are stretched unbelievably thin now ... so, the Evil, International Corporatist Cabal is SOL, for the moment.

[sam sarrha]

11. we could have bought off all his generals and got rid of him for less than a billion

they would have turned ally

[EFerrari]

12. We put him in, in the first place. Welcome to Scapegoat Theater. nt

[1932]

14. According to John Perkins's new book, they tried but didn't succeed because

S.H. used so many body doubles, nobodyi who could get close enough was willing to take a chance that they'd get the wrong guy and then have themselves and their families killed by Hussein.

[Liberal In Texas]

15. That was a great story told back then. Nobody knows that it is true.

BECAUSE...

If he had all these doubles, why didn't he use them when he was on the lam?

Like the WMDs. If he had them, why didn't he use them?

(psssst.........Because it was all fiction!)

[1932]

16. Don't you think that after the invasion, the doubles stopped trying to look like him.

I don't think anyone seriously disputes the allegation that he had a lot of doubles.

[Liberal In Texas]

17. I don't "seriously" think anybody cares one way or the other.

Those double stories were a part of the propaganda being spewed before the invasion.

Do I believe them? Sure.

:shrug:

Like I believe that the chemical bombs were going to ignite when our troops went in to Baghdad.
Or, like I believe the propaganda the FOX and the rest of some of the media put out that Saddam had something to do with 9/11 and that model airplanes would fly over my house and drop WMDs.

The whole story about the doubles, as I have been able to ascertain, is fiction.

Never happened.

[1932]

20. I don't see how those things are equivalent.

It's not like "it's too hard to asassinate him," is really a great justification for an invasion, anyway. It sounds even worse to me, since it is also illegal.

[ConsAreLiars]

18. Maybe because the PNAC plan

was to establish military domination and bases in the region. Saddam Hussein only happened to be the president of Iraq at that time. Well, the CIA put him there earlier, but he got a bit too nationalistic and independent, but none of it was about him. It was about imperialist domination of the region by the multinational corporations.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. no wonder Bush senior didn't do more in gulf war 1

I guess the Bushes needed an excuse to get out there again.

[leftofthedial]

19. there is WAY more money in war

and even more in "war"