Wars to protect Israel ?
- From: "a veteran." <georgewkspam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:15:21 -0700
Iraq: A War For Israel
By Mark Weber
The U.S. invasion of Iraq in March-April 2003, and the occupation of the
country since then,
has cost more than four thousand American lives and more than $500
billion, and has brought
death to many tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Why did President Bush decide to go to war? In whose interests was it
launched?
In the months leading up to the attack, President Bush and other
high-ranking US officials
repeatedly warned that the threat posed to the US and world by the
Baghdad regime was so grave
and imminent that the United States had to act quickly to bomb, invade
and occupy Iraq.
On Sept. 28, 2002, for example, he said:
³The danger to our country is grave and it is growing. The Iraqi regime
possesses biological
and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and,
according to the British
government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as
45 minutes after the
order is given... This regime is seeking a nu-clear bomb, and with
fissile material could build
one within a year.²
On March 6, 2003, President Bush declared:
³Saddam Hussein and his weapons are a direct threat to this country, to
our people, and to all
free people... I believe Saddam Hussein is a threat to the American
people. I believe he¹s a
threat to the neighborhood in which he lives. And I¹ve got good evidence
to believe that. He
has weapons of mass destruction... The American people know that Saddam
Hussein has weapons of
mass destruction.²
These claims were untrue. As the world now knows, Iraq had no dangerous
³weapons of mass
destruction,² and posed no threat to the US. Moreover, alarmist
suggestions that the Baghdad
regime was working with the al-Qaeda terror network likewise proved to
be without foundation.
So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the
United States attack Iraq?
Whatever the secondary reasons for the war, the crucial factor in
President Bush¹s decision to
attack was to help Israel. With support from Israel and America¹s
Jewish-Zionist lobby, and
prodded by Jewish ³neo-conservatives² holding high-level positions in
his administration,
President Bush who was already fervently com-mitted to Israel resolved
to invade and subdue
one of Israel¹s chief regional enemies.
This is so widely understood in Washington that US Senator Ernest
Hollings was moved in May
2004 to acknowledge that the US invaded Iraq ³to secure Israel,² and
³everybody² knows it. He
also identified three of the influential pro-Israel Jews in Washington
who played an important
role in prodding the US into war: Richard Perle, chair of the Pentagon¹s
Defense Policy Board;
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary; and Charles Krauthammer,
columnist and author. [1]
Hollings referred to the cowardly reluctance of his Congressional
colleagues to acknowledge
this truth openly, saying that ³nobody is willing to stand up and say
what is going on.² Due to
"the pressures we get politically," he added, members of Congress
uncritically support Israel
and its policies.
Some months before the invasion, retired four-star US Army General and
former NATO Supreme
Allied Commander Wesley Clark acknowledged in an interview: ³Those who
favor this attack [by
the US against Iraq] now will tell you candidly, and privately, that it
is probably true that
Saddam Hussein is no threat to the United States. But they are afraid at
some point he might
decide if he had a nuclear weapon to use it against Israel." [2]
Six months before the attack, President Bush met in the White House with
eleven members of the
US House of Representatives. While the ³war against terrorism is going
okay,² he told the
lawmakers, the United States would soon have to deal with a greater
danger: ³The biggest
threat, however, is Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
He can blow up Israel
and that would trigger an international conflict.² [3]
Bush also spoke candidly about why the US was going to war during a
White House meeting on Feb.
27, 2003, just three weeks before the invasion. In a talk with Elie
Wiesel, the well-known
Jewish writer, Bush said: ³If we don¹t disarm Saddam Hussein, he will
put a weapon of mass
destruction on Israel and they will do what they think they have to do,
and we have to avoid
that.² [4]
Fervently Pro-Israel
President Bush¹s fervent support for Israel and its hardline government
is well known. He
reaffirmed it, for example, in June 2002 in a major speech on the Middle
East. In the view of
³leading Israeli commentators,² the London Times reported, the address
was ³so pro-Israel that
it might have been written by [Israel prime minister] Ariel Sharon.² [5]
In an address to
pro-Israel activists at the 2004 convention of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), Bush said: ³The United States is strongly committed, and I am
strongly committed, to
the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state.² He also told the
gathering: ³By defending
the freedom and prosperity and security of Israel, you¹re also serving
the cause of America.² [6]
Condoleeza Rice, who served as President Bush¹s National Security
Advisor, and later, as his
Secretary of State, echoed the President¹s outlook in a May 2003
interview, saying that the
³security of Israel is the key to security of the world.² [7]
Long Range Plans
Jewish-Zionist plans for war against Iraq had been in place for years.
In mid-1996, a policy paper prepared for then-Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
outlined a grand strategy for Israel in the Middle East. Entitled ³A
Clean Break: A New
Strategy for Securing the Realm,² it was written under the auspices of
an Israeli think tank,
the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies.
Specifically, it called for an
³effort [that] can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq,
an important Israeli
strategic objective in its own right...² [8]
The authors of ³A Clean Break² included Richard Perle, Douglas Feith,
and David Wurmser, three
influential Jews who later held high-level positions in the Bush
administration, 2001-2004:
Perle as chair of the Defense Policy Board, Feith as Undersecretary of
Defense, and Wurmser as
special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control.
The role played by Bush administration officials who are associated with
two major pro-Zionist
³neoconservative² research centers has come under scrutiny from The
Nation, the influential
public affairs weekly. [9]
The author, Jason Vest, examined the close links between the Jewish
Institute for National
Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP),
detailing the ties between
these groups and various politicians, arms merchants, military men,
wealthy pro-Israel American
Jews, and Republican presidential administrations
JINSA and CSP members, notes Vest, ³have ascended to powerful government
posts, where...
they¹ve managed to weave a number of issues support for national
missile defense, opposition
to arms control treaties, championing of wasteful weapons systems, arms
aid to Turkey and
American unilateralism in general into a hard line, with support for
the Israeli right at its
core... On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its
relentless campaign for
war not just with Iraq, but ?total war,¹ as Michael Ledeen, one of the
most influential
JINSAns in Washington, put it... For this crew, ?regime change¹ by any
means necessary in Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent
imperative.²
Samuel Francis, author, editor and columnist, also looked into the
³neo-conservative² role in
fomenting war. [10]
³My own answer,² he wrote, ³is that the lie [that a massively-armed Iraq
posed a grave and
imminent threat to the US] was fabricated by neo-conservatives in the
administration whose
first loyalty is to Israel and its interests and who wanted the United
States to smash Iraq
because it was the biggest potential threat to Israel in the region.
They are known to have
been pushing for war with Iraq since at least 1996, but they could not
make an effective case
for it until after Sept. 11, 2001...²
In the aftermath of the 2001 Nine-Eleven terror attacks, ardently
pro-Zionist
³neo-conservatives² in the Bush administration who for years had sought
a Middle East war to
bolster Israel¹s security in the region exploited the tragedy to press
their agenda. In this
they were backed by the Israeli government, which also pressured the
White House to strike Iraq.
³The [Israeli] military and political leadership yearns for war in
Iraq,² reported a leading
Israeli daily paper, Haaretz, in February 2002. [11]
The Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian, the respected British
daily, reported in August
2002: ³Israel signalled its decision yesterday to put public pressure on
President George Bush
to go ahead with a military attack on Iraq, even though it believes
Saddam Hussein may well
retaliate by striking Israel.² [12]
Three months before the US invasion, the well-informed Washington
journalist Robert Novak
reported that Israeli prime minister Sharon was telling American
political leaders that ³the
greatest US assistance to Israel would be to overthrow Saddam Hussein¹s
Iraqi regime.²
Moreover, added Novak, ³that view is widely shared inside the Bush
administration, and is a
major reason why US forces today are assembling for war.² [13]
Israel¹s spy agencies were a ³full partner² with the US and Britain in
producing greatly
exaggerated prewar assessments of Iraq¹s ability to wage war, a former
senior Israeli military
intelligence official has acknowledged. Shlomo Bron, a brigadier general
in the Israel army
reserves, and a senior researcher at a major Israeli think tank, said
that intelligence
provided by Israel played a significant role in supporting the US and
British case for making
war. Israeli intelligence agencies, he said, ³badly overestimated the
Iraqi threat to Israel
and reinforced the American and British belief that the weapons [of mass
destruction] existed.²
[14]
The role of the pro-Israel lobby in pressing for war has been carefully
examined by two
prominent American scholars, John J. Mearsheimer, professor of political
science at the
University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, professor of international
affairs at Harvard
University. [15] In an 81-page paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy," they wrote:
³Pressure from Israel and the [pro-Israel] Lobby was not the only factor
behind the decision to
attack Iraq in March 2003, but it was critical. Some Americans believe
that this was a war for
oil, but there is hardly any direct evidence to support this claim.
Instead, the war was
motivated in good part by a desire to make Israel more secure? Within
the United States, the
main driving force behind the Iraq war was a small band of
neoconservatives, many with close
ties to Israel¹s Likud Party. In addition, key leaders of the Lobby¹s
major organizations lent
their voices to the campaign for war.²
Important members of the pro-Israel lobby carried out what professors
Mearshiemer and Walt call
³an unrelenting public relations campaign to win support for invading
Iraq. A key part of this
campaign was the manipulation of intelligence information, so as to make
Saddam look like an
imminent threat.²
For some Jewish leaders, the Iraq war is part of a long-range effort to
install Israel-friendly
regimes across the Middle East. Norman Podhoretz, a prominent Jewish
writer and an ardent
supporter of Israel, has been for years editor of Commentary, the
influential Zionist monthly.
In the Sept. 2002 issue he wrote:
³The regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced are not
confined to the three
singled-out members of the axis of evil [Iraq, Iran, North Korea]. At a
minimum, the axis
should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as ?friends¹ of
America like the Saudi
royal family and Egypt¹s Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian
Authority, whether headed by
Arafat or one of his henchmen.²
Patrick J. Buchanan, the well-known writer and commentator, and former
White House
Communications director, has been blunt in identifying those who pushed
for war: [16]
³We charge that a cabal of polemicists and public officials seek to
ensnare our country in a
series of wars that are not in America¹s interests. We charge them with
colluding with Israel
to ignite those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with
deliberately damaging US
relations with every state in the Arab world that defies Israel or
supports the Palestinian
people¹s right to a homeland of their own. We charge that they have
alienated friends and
allies all over the Islamic and Western world through their arrogance,
hubris, and bellicosity...
³Cui Bono? For whose benefit these endless wars in a region that holds
nothing vital to America
save oil, which the Arabs must sell us to survive? Who would benefit
from a war of
civilizations between the West and Islam?
³Answer: one nation, one leader, one party. Israel, Sharon, Likud.²
Uri Avnery an award-winning Israeli journalist and author, and a
three-time member of
Israel¹s parliament sees the Iraq war as an expression of immense
Jewish influence and power.
In an essay written some weeks after the US invasion, he wrote: [17]
"Who are the winners? They are the so-called neo-cons, or
neo-conservatives. A compact group,
almost all of whose members are Jewish. They hold the key positions in
the Bush administration,
as well as in the think-tanks that play an important role in formulating
American policy and
the ed-op pages of the influential news-papers... The immense influence
of this largely Jewish
group stems from its close alliance with the extreme right-wing
Christian fundamentalists, who
nowadays control Bush's Republican party. ... Seemingly, all this is
good for Israel. America
controls the world, we control America. Never before have Jews exerted
such an immense
influence on the center of world power.²
In Britain, a veteran member of Britain¹s House of Commons bluntly
declared in May 2003 that
Jews had taken control of America¹s foreign policy, and had succeeded in
pushing the US into
war. ³A Jewish cabal have taken over the government in the United States
and formed an unholy
alliance with fundamentalist Christians,² said Tam Dalyell, a Labour
party deputy and the
longest-serving House member. ³There is far too much Jewish influence in
the United States,² he
added. [18]
Summary
For many years now, American presidents of both parties have been
staunchly committed to Israel
and its security. This entrenched policy is an expression of the
Jewish-Zionist grip on
America¹s political and cultural life. It was fervent support for Israel
shared by President
Bush, high-ranking administration officials and nearly the entire US
Congress that proved
crucial in the decision to invade and subdue one of Israel¹s greatest
regional enemies.
While the unprovoked US invasion of Iraq may have helped Israel, just as
those who wanted and
planned for the war had hoped, it has been a calamity for America and
the world. It has cost
many tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Around the world, it has
generated unmatched distrust and hostility toward the US. In Arab and
Muslim countries, it has
fueled intense hatred of the United States, and has brought many new
recruits to the ranks of
anti-American terrorists.
Americans have already paid a high price for their nation¹s commitment
to Israel. We will pay
an ever higher price not just in dollars or international prestige, but
in the lives of young
men squandered for the interests of a foreign state until the
Jewish-Zionist hold on US
political life is finally broken.
Notes
1. Remarks by Ernest F. Hollings, May 20, 2004. Congressional Record
Senate, May 20, 2004,
pages S5921-S5925. See also: M. Weber, "²Iraq Was Invaded to Secure
Israel,² Says Senator
Hollings..."
(http://www.ihr.org/news/040716_hollings.shtml)
2. The Guardian (London), August 20, 2002.
3. Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 186. See
also p. 188
4. Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 320.
5. R. Dunn, "Sharon Could Have Written Speech," The Times (London), June
26, 2002.
6. Bush address to AIPAC convention, Washington, DC, May 18, 2004.
7. A. S. Lewin, "Israel¹s Security is Key to Security of Rest of World,"
Jewish Press
(Brooklyn, NY), May 14, 2003. Rice's interview with the Israeli daily
Yediot Aharnonot is quoted.
8. Text posted at http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm See also: J.
Bamford, A Pretext for
War (Doubleday, 2004), pages 261-269; B. Whitaker, ³Playing Skittles
with Saddam,² The Guardian
(Britain), Sept. 3, 2002.
9. J. Vest, ³The Men From JINSA and CSP,² The Nation, Sept. 2, 2002
(http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/vest).
10. S. Francis, ³Weapons of Mass Deception: Somebody Lied,² column of
Feb. 6, 2004
(http://www.vdare.com/francis/wmd.htm).
11. A. Benn, ³Background: Enthusiastic IDF Awaits War in Iraq,² Haaretz,
Feb. 17, 2002. Quoted
in J. J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt, ³The Israel Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy,² March 2006,
p. 30, and p. 68, fn. 146.
12. Jonathan Steele, ³Israel Puts Pressure on US to Strike Iraq,² The
Guardian (London), August
17, 2002.
13. Robert Novak, ³Sharon¹s War?,² column of Dec. 26, 2002.
(http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/26/column.novak.opinion.shar
on/).
14. L. King, ³Ex-General Says Israel Inflated Iraqi Threat,² Los Angeles
Times, Dec. 5, 2003.;
See also: J. J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt, ³The Israel Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy,² March
2006, p. 29, and p. 67, fn. 142.
15. John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt, ³The Israel Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy,² March
2006, pages 29, 30,
32.(http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/
rwp_06_011_walt.pdf).
A shorter version appeared in the London Review of Books, March 23,
2006.
(http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html). The two authors followed up
their paper with a
detailed book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (New York:
Farrar, Straus, Giroux: 2007).
16. P. J. Buchanan, ³Whose War?,² The American Conservative, March 24,
2003.
(http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html).
17. Uri Avnery, "The Night After,² CounterPunch, April 10, 2003
(http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery04102003.html).
18. F. Nelson, ³Anger Over Dalyell¹s ?Jewish Cabal¹ Slur,² The Scotsman
(Edinburgh), May 5,
2003; M. White, ³Dalyell Steps Up Attack On Levy,² The Guardian
(London), May 6, 2003.
Source
http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/iraqwar.shtml
--
Remember," Only a dreamer can have a dream come true"
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Wars to protect Israel ?
- From: trudogg
- Re: Wars to protect Israel ?
- Prev by Date: Re: Why would any guy want to get married now?
- Next by Date: Re: Wars to protect Israel ?
- Previous by thread: Re: Any Electricians Here?
- Next by thread: Re: Wars to protect Israel ?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
