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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf Trump uses the Iraq War as reason to not trust US Intel services, remember the OSP
The reason we went to war was directly related to the short-lived Office of Special Plans (OSP), formed by Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith and (I believe) John Bolton. The OSP was formed to take intelligence from the CIA, NSA, FBI and elsewhere and "review" it - the reality was that they cherry-picked bits and pieces and made it look like Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda and was developing WMD and fed it up to Bush, Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld in the White House.
The CIA had correctly concluded that it was questionable that Iraq/Saddam had connections to Al Qaeda and that it was also questionable that they were developing WMD. Agencies like the CIA almost never use terms like "definitely not" developing WMD or "no connections at all" to Al Qaeda just in case there was a small chance they were wrong.
The OSP was formed in September of 2002 and disbanded in June 2003.
Colin Powell made his speech to the UN in February of 2003 and the US invaded Iraq a month later.
Looks like the OSP did their job - to get the US into Iraq.
Sneederbunk
(14,318 posts)of course.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,112 posts)ProudMNDemocrat
(16,849 posts)Start US Troop buildup to orchestrate the Vietnam War.
The rest is history.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)low point of his life...I have not forgiven.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)including his VP still think that the Iraq War was a good thing. The dissonance and the failure to challenge Trump/Pence on it during the election is one of the many failures of our press.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)during the campaign was that he was against the stupid Iraq War and Hillary voted for it.
Yes, she voted for it, but Trump also supported it and was on tape as supporting it. Even when confronted with the tape, Trump still denied it and nobody challenged him after his denial.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)The cultists ate it up.
yonder
(9,685 posts)More like the Office of Special Purpose:
Which would be cover to screw over those for which it had already been determined by the Cheney crowd.
Seriously NJ, thanks for the reminder - those creeps will grasp at any straw.