Anonymous Comrade submits:

"How To Start A War In Iraq"

William Rivers Pitt

truthout Perspective
, Friday 29 August 2003

"Well, I guess they had it coming."

"We've all got it coming, kid." -- Unforgiven

1. Lose an election and win a lawsuit. Move into the White House. Surround
yourself with
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/042103I.shtml) ideological extremists from
the far-right
wing of the Republican Party. Put them get to work
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.18C.iraq.plann ed.htm) planning 'regime
change' in
Iraq, something they themselves have been planning for years.
2. Pointedly ignore (http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/072603A.shtml) a
variety of specific
warnings about a looming terrorist attack against the American
homeland.  Capitalize
on the chaos and fear after the attack has come. On the very day of the
attack,
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071603E.shtml) get your people to start
making public
connections between the terrorist attack and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

3. Use the terror attack to pass ruinously contra-constitutional legislation
like the
Patriot Act, and later the Homeland Security Act. Send your Attorney General
to Congress
and have him state bluntly that anyone who disagrees with these bad new laws
is aiding
terrorism. This new legislation will help quash dissent surrounding the
actions you plan
to undertake, and will also help to insulate you from serious investigation,
as the
Homeland Security Act essentially
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/12.02A.wrp.quiz.1 .htm)
destroys the Freedom of Information Act.

4. Periodically terrify the American people with
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/073103E.shtml) warnings of looming death
and destruction,
so as to cow them into submission. Time these agitated warnings to coincide
with moments
when your own political standing is under assault because of your actions.

5. Lose any shame whatsoever about using the massive terror attacks as a
rhetorical tool
against your own people in the pursuit of your ideological goals. Say things
like, "We
need to counter the shock wave of the evildoer by having individual rate
cuts accelerated
and by thinking about tax rebates" (G. W. Bush 10/4/01) to help get what you
want.
Remember: No shame.

6. Have your Defense Secretary organize
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071803F.shtml) a
group of like-minded ideologues whose task will be to cherry-pick, and often
manufacture,
evidence to support your push for war in Iraq. Call this group the Office of
Special
Plans, and remove them from any Congressional oversight. Have the powerful
office of the
Vice President be their sponsor and defender. When the CIA and State
Department tell this
Office that their plans and intelligence make no sense, use the influence of
the Vice
President's office to cut them completely out of the loop. Your Office of
Special Plans
will now be the main source of information delivered to the National
Security Council,
Congress, and the American people.

7. Pile up a couple hundred thousand of your troops on the border of Iraq
before any
consensus has been reached for war within your own government or the
international
community. This will help develop a sense of inevitability about your plans
for war, no
matter who disagrees

8. Go to the United Nations and deliver a lot of cooperative happy talk
about wanting to
work with the United Nations. Get a unanimous vote from the Security Council
for your
resolution on the matter, sure in the knowledge that this body has no idea
that you have
no intention of actually working with them. When weapons inspectors are
dispatched to
Iraq, per the resolution you saw passed, denigrate and insult their work as
being useless.
Have your troops on the border begin publicly sharpening their swords.

9. Deliver the information from the Office of Special Plans to the American
people on a
daily basis, making connections each time between the terrorist attack and
the nation of
Iraq. Scare the citizens you are supposed to lead, and scare them often.
When
(http://truthout.org/docs_03/080803B.shtml) career intelligence officials
complain about
your rotten intelligence and outright lying, ignore them completely.

10. When the international community begins to realize they've been led down
the primrose
path, start denigrating and insulting the United Nations. When no proof of
your
allegations about Iraq can be found, begin attempting to bribe nations like
Turkey with
billions of dollars in trade agreements, weapons, and cash on the barrelhead
to get them
to come along for the ride. When they refuse, proclaim that you can go it
alone.

11. Stand before the American people during your constitutionally-mandated
State of the
Union address and (http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081503E.shtml) lie like a
rug about the
threat posed by Iraq. Use evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program based upon
crudely forged
documents from Niger. Ignore other career intelligence officials, including
the one you
sent to investigate your 'evidence' who returned to label it fake and
forged, when they
state flatly that your estimations of the Iraq threat are far from accurate
or honest.

12. Send your Secretary of State into the well of the United Nations
Security Council to
make your case, full in the knowledge that you are going to war no matter
what that body
decides. Show the UN absolutely no respect by allowing your Secretary of
State to argue
for war (http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/020803A.htm) using intelligence
data that is ten
years old and plagiarized from the work of a graduate student. Note the
irony surrounding
the fact that this presentation comes a week after your State of the Union
address, but
that your Secretary of State (http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/060403B.shtml)
refused to
use the evidence you used before the American people in front of the
international
community.

13. Do not, at any point, stop lying. Lie about the weapons Iraq possesses.
Lie about the
threat posed to the American people, thus deepening their fear. Lie about
connections
between Iraq and al Qaeda. Lie about the efficacy of weapons inspections.
Lie about how
much the war will cost. Lie about how long we will be there. Lie about your
goals. Do not
forget that shame has no place here. Avoid press conferences whenever
possible.

14. Use the same discredited intelligence from Niger to convince Congress
that a vote for
war is absolutely necessary. Try to get them to pass a resolution that
authorizes you to
make war "on the region" surrounding Iraq as well as Iraq itself. When you
don't get those
three important words in the resolution, settle for what you did get.

15. With the world essentially united against you, with half of the American
people
convinced that your rhetoric connecting Iraq to the terrorist attack is
actually true,
with that half bolstering questionable approval ratings for war, with
Congressional
approval for war in hand despite the fact that their approval was motivated
by your lies,
and with four full divisions of your young troops ready to go, begin the
attack.

16. Bomb Baghdad in a 'Shock and Awe' campaign that kills untold scores of
civilians in
their beds and on their streets. Roll tanks and troops into the country and
beat the hell
out of it, knowing full well that there is no army worth mentioning to stand
against you
after ten years of economic sanctions. To make sure,
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm? StoryID=20030525-082954-2864r) pay off the
commander of
Baghdad's Republican Guard to make sure neither he nor his troops fight at
the city's
gates.

17. Declare an end to major combat operations. Strut across the deck of an
aircraft
carrier and ( http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080103B.shtml) proclaim
yourself to be the
savior of the Iraqi people. When your soldiers continue to die, scoff at any
concerns
about this. Dare the killers of your troops to keep it up by sticking your
chin out and
saying, "Bring 'em on."

18. Ignore the fact that none of the weapons you terrified your people with
have turned
up, despite the best efforts of your troops and investigators to find them.
Ignore the
fact that no connections to al Qaeda have turned up. Ignore the fact that
more troops have
died since your carrier strut than died during the war. Ignore the fact that
your war will
cost billions and billions more than you said it would.

19. Most importantly, and do not forget: Ignore the fact that you have made
your country
far, far less safe. You lied about Iraqi connections to the terrorist
attack, and to al
Qaeda. Your war will have turned Iraq into what it was not before the war -
a hotbed of al
Qaeda activity. This war has also been an al Qaeda recruiter's dream. Pay
absolutely no
attention to this. Smile. Talk about courage and staying the course.

20. Make plans to have the 2004 national convention of your party next to
the hole in the
ground in New York which the terrorist attack caused. Dance on the graves of
the dead who
helped you get your war. Remember: No shame.