Bush, Rumsfeld and Iraq: Is the Real Reason for the Invasion Finally Emerging?

[babsbunny]

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/376-bush-administration/4932-bush-rumsfeld-and-iraq-is-the-real-reason-for-the-invasion-finally-emerging

By Russ Baker on February 6, 2011

In Donald Rumsfeld’s new book, Known and Unknown, out February 8, Rumsfeld offers an account of George W. Bush’s early interest in Iraq. This was just days after the 9/11 attacks. There were no apparent reasons for Bush to focus on Iraq, instead of on the actual perpetrators of the attacks.

Here’s the Rumsfeld version as reported in an advance peek from The New York Times,

Just 15 days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush invited his defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, to meet with him alone in the Oval Office. According to Mr. Rumsfeld’s new memoir, the president leaned back in his leather chair and ordered a review and revision of war plans — but not for Afghanistan, where the Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington had been planned and where American retaliation was imminent.

“He asked that I take a look at the shape of our military plans on Iraq,” Mr. Rumsfeld writes.

[louis-t]

1. Rummy feigns surprise? Hmm, wasn't he one of the signers

of a letter to Clinton BEGGING him to attack Iraq? Puh-frickin-lease.

[FreakinDJ]

5. PNAC - yes I beleive he was, right along with Cheeny

[Poboy]

8. This is a known, known -yet he does not make it known in his book.

Therefore, it must be one of his unknown knowns.

PNAC

[coalition_unwilling]

10. One of my all-time fav limericks about Rumsferatu (from the DUer

alcibiades_mystery):

There once was a Sec of Defense
Whose prose was Excessively Dense
His Philosopher's Stone
Was an Unknown Unknown -
I'll Be Damned If It Made Any Sense

More RummyDummy limericks:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2642693

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. Letter to President Bush on the War on Terrorism - September 20, 2001

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President,

We write to endorse your admirable commitment to “lead the world to victory” in the war against terrorism. We fully support your call for “a broad and sustained campaign” against the “terrorist organizations and those who harbor and support them.” We agree with Secretary of State Powell that the United States must find and punish the perpetrators of the horrific attack of September 11, and we must, as he said, “go after terrorism wherever we find it in the world” and “get it by its branch and root.” We agree with the Secretary of State that U.S. policy must aim not only at finding the people responsible for this incident, but must also target those “other groups out there that mean us no good” and “that have conducted attacks previously against U.S. personnel, U.S. interests and our allies.”

In order to carry out this “first war of the 21st century” successfully, and in order, as you have said, to do future “generations a favor by coming together and whipping terrorism,” we believe the following steps are necessary parts of a comprehensive strategy.

Osama bin Laden

We agree that a key goal, but by no means the only goal, of the current war on terrorism should be to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, and to destroy his network of associates. To this end, we support the necessary military action in Afghanistan and the provision of substantial financial and military assistance to the anti-Taliban forces in that country.

Iraq

We agree with Secretary of State Powell’s recent statement that Saddam Hussein “is one of the leading terrorists on the face of the Earth….” It may be that the Iraqi government provided assistance in some form to the recent attack on the United States. But even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism. The United States must therefore provide full military and financial support to the Iraqi opposition. American military force should be used to provide a “safe zone” in Iraq from which the opposition can operate. And American forces must be prepared to back up our commitment to the Iraqi opposition by all necessary means.

http://newamericancentury.org/Bushletter.htm

[FreakinDJ]

21. NO - it was 1998 to then Pres. Clinton

same Jackasses thou

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. Yes, that one was already mentioned...

I was showing this one to show just how much PNAC had been banging the war drums. Following PNAC has been one of my "passions" for many years now...


Peace,

Ghost

[randr]

2. Opportunistic war criminal

is all that should be thought of W.

[old mark]

3. I have always thought that W. wanted to invade Iraq because he felt his father's

military engagement with that country had been unsuccessful. I believe he wanted to punish Iraq for not respection his father after that "incomplete" war.
W. is a very emotionally troubled, insecure and immature person, and I believe still that he invaded Iraq just to prove a point and for pay back.
He killed many thousands of people and ruined the US economy to do it, and ended proving absolutely nothing. He is a disgrace to the US, and should be in prison, as should his cohorts and those who blindly followed him and made this war possible.


mark

[malaise]

4. +1,000

K & R

[kath]

7. Yep, I've also always thought the same thing - that he wanted to rescue Poppy's balls from the

sands of Iraq.
+a brazillion for your post!

[FreakinDJ]

12. NOT A CHANCE - Bush did it because Cheeny & Rummy told him to

Bush was/is the "High Functioning Moron" of the family who never had an original thought in his life.

Bush invaded Iraq because he was told to - plain and simple. Yes "Simple" like his mind. Rummy and Cheeny had planned for years the invasion of Iraq as outlined in their 1998 PNAC document.

What we are witnessing now is Rummy attempting to clean up his image

[Frank Cannon]

23. THIS. It's ridiculous to think that Junior made ANY decisions while in office...

other than whether he was going to have a Jack and Coke or a straight-up Scotch before passing out on the Oval Office couch.

[old mark]

27. Maybe we should call him and ask....nt

[DefenseLawyer]

15. Oil, that is...

Black gold... Texas tea...

[AzDar]

22. This.

:thumbsup:

[pacalo]

6. Every Rumsfeld claim in defending his intentions should not go unanswered.

With so much misinformation to debunk, here's an article with a brief summary of what former generals under Rumsfeld's underqualified & arrogant command had to say about him. Also included is a wealth of various links for further reading:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rumsfeld_and_the_Generals

Rumsfeld, you were a liar then & you're still a shameless liar (when defending your own interests).

[MilesColtrane]

9. This confirms what Richard Clarke said years ago.

Bush planned the war well before 9/11 as a personal vendetta against the man who had plotted to assassinate his father.

Cheney jumped on board because he saw it as a way to grab Iraq's oil, going so far as to divvy up the oil fields in his secret energy policy meetings.

[Ikonoklast]

11. The day after Cheney told Junior what to do.

Halliburton needed Iraq.

[I Have A Dream]

14. +1. nt

[madokie]

13. Whats so fucked about the whole deal is

dick and w thought just because something was planned in a country it was grounds to invade, killing and destroying and staying on continuing the killing and destroying as long as the people will allow it was justified. Throw the whole cabal in jail and let time sort it all out but lock their asses up now.
In a fair trial they all are going to be sentenced to life at the very least so get their asses in jail now. The mofo's are guilty and a whole world, save for a few dumb asses, watched as it was all happening so its not a question of guilt the only question should be what to do with their sorry asses that would be justified by the crimes they committed.

[lebkuchen]

17. Junior was talking about getting Iraq during his 1st presidential bid

He mentioned Iraq in nearly every debate.

[old mark]

19. He is a spoiled little man who was pushed very much farther than he

should have gone. I agree he was a figurehead, but I can't see him as merely a tool-he is a nasty, evil disturbed person in his own right, surrounded by others like him but more sophisticated.


mark

[lebkuchen]

29. Bush tortured animals when he was young

and has no remorse for torturing people. He'd do it again.

That's one sick bastard.

[Octafish]

18. Little turd from Crawford though he'd pull an ENRON on the Oil Patch

It worked for Poppy's pals in 1990. Prices skyrocketed, tripling, quadrupling the "worth" of the oil in the Middle East. Smirko's pals made money, then, too. Remember how HARKEN Energy got selected over companies that knew how to run offshore drilling operations by Bahrain?

[LiberalAndProud]

20. Funny, I remember Rumsfeld on TV talking about Iraq the day after the attack.

The very next day. The revisions of history started on September 11 and they haven't let up since. It was the pretext that PNAC needed to wage a war against Iraq and that is what we did, starting immediately.

[JoePhilly]

24. PNAC, PNAC, PNAC!!!

The whole bunch of them, including Cheney and Rummy were pissed that Bush #1 didn't go to Baghdad at the end of Gulf War 1.

Bush #2 and 9/11 gave them their opportunity to go back in time and "correct" that mistake.

[The Straight Story]

25. Interesting - the kindle edition of the book costs more than print edition

And some of the comments on amazon are just plain fun:

http://www.amazon.com/Known-Memoir-ebook/product-reviews/B004I1JC5Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

5.0 out of 5 stars The RUMSTUD!, February 10, 2011
By Sabinuh von Blinsky "Sizzlin'" (At the Dark End of the Street) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Known and Unknown: A Memoir (Hardcover)
I love this book because I've had a crush on Don Rumsfeld ever since I first saw him on FoxNews.

I used to watch him run circles around those pesky reporters in the Pentagon briefing room who were trying to get to the bottom of what was going on in Iraq or Afghanistan or whatever, and I would literally get weak in the knees with lust! President GW Bush had it right when he gave Rumsfeld a nickname: the RUMSTUD! No wonder Bush didn't fire him after Abu Ghraib!

I just wish the RUMSTUD had included more details about his days as a competitive wrestler, and some pictures of himself in the locker room at Princeton. I'd much rather think about the RUMSTUD with his sweaty wrestling singlet peeled down to his waist then about Condoleeza Rice in her Ferragamo pumps. I like to fantasize that one afternoon (while my husband is out playing golf with his hedge fund buddies) the RUMSTUD invades our bedroom and puts me in a full nelson while Bill O'Reilly works me over with a falafel. I hope you get the picture!

[spanone]

28. bu$h* had his sights on iraq from the day he was installed