TIME LINE: PATH TO PANDEMONIUM

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TIME LINE: PATH TO PANDEMONIUM

by

Stan Goff
FTW Military and Veteran's Affairs Editor

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With oilmen and militarists at the helm of American foreign policy, the Department of State has been demoted from a diplomatic branch of the executive to a glorified visa-hut. So it's no surprise that American diplomacy is nowhere to be found. The book of the week is Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, whose handful of tame revelations includes an open secret about Colin Powell's marginality in the Bush regime. It's no surprise that General Powell was not always in “the loop” about Iraq – he's the only person in the administration who ever put on a uniform. Conducting ham-fisted diplomacy is like playing ham-fisted piano music – it doesn't merit the term; it's just noise. And Bremer's folly is other people's horror. – JAH]

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April 20, 2004, 1900 PDT (FTW)- It is always important to ask why we start history when.

For example, most commentators start the history of Iraq with the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. There is also an occasional reference to the chemical attacks at Halabja, in Iraqi Kurdistan on March 16, 1988 (now condensed to “Saddam used weapons of mass destruction against his own people”). The latter has to be boiled down considerably, because the chemical attacks were part of a massive and pitched battle with Iranians, which becomes a mitigating factor, and more importantly because the US had actively and materially supported the development and deployment of these weapons just a couple of years earlier, when none other than Donald Rumsfeld was Ronald Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East.

http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042004_goff_timeline.html

[Renew Deal]

1. link?

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2. Holy crud! Look at this.

1. The U.S. occupation itself would be used as a club against any Iraqi activities of which the Bush administration disapproves. According to the New York Times, "Top aides to Mr. Bremer have said in recent days that the American troops will act as the most important guarantor of American influence."

2. The U.S. would control the newly formed Iraqi army. The Times wrote of Bremer's document: "The document was unequivocal on the ultimate control of the Iraqi forces. 'All trained elements of the Iraqi armed forces shall at all times be under the operational control of the commander of Coalition forces for the purpose of conducting combined operations,' it said.”

3 . The U.S. would have permanent bases in Iraq . The 14 planned bases would be capable of housing over 100,000 troops, and are expected to be a part of the permanent American presence in the Middle East .

4. The $18.4 billion in congressionally mandated reconstruction aid would be used as a guarantor of U.S. influence. According to the Times it would "give Americans a decisive voice” in the short run because it would be virtually the only cash available to establish and maintain public services. But more significantly, since it would be used over the next few years to modernize Iraq's electricity, communications and transportation systems, it would give the U.S. Embassy -- projected to be the largest in the world, with over 3000 employees -- policy control over the Iraqi infrastructure for the foreseeable future.



They will be held hostage.

[NMDemDist2]

4. what happened to

we will stay only until the job is done and not one minute more?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

3. Kick. Damn. Damning. Click on the picture of the Hwy of Death, learn more

about the US/UK actions against Iraq civilians in the 80s and 90s.

This is a very revealing chronology of this year in Iraq leading up to Fallujah through April 16th. Very informative on how clueless Bremer, Kimmit, and Bush* are.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Goff always comes right out and says it. And this isn't a time

for mincing words.

"A recently returned troop, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, 'When I read about the mutilated charred bodies of the Blackwater mercenaries in the news, all I thought was that we did the same thing to them. They would see us debase their dead all the time. We would be messing around with charred bodies, kicking them out of the vehicles and sticking cigarettes in their mouths.'

"Another returned troop, also anonymous, says, 'We would defecate on and run over dead Iraqi bodies.'"