A 'Loyal Opposition' Won't End the War
By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet. Posted November 21, 2005.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/28491/Dems need to show that Clinton's 'containment' policies toward Iraq, along with the UN inspection efforts, were doing the job that Bush's overt war efforts finished off, that is, regime change in Iraq. However, the whole issue of terror, whether by state sponsorship or individuals operating outside of state sponsorship is avoided in debate entirely.
Once reqime change succeeded the war phase was over and the occupation phase began. "Planning" was ignored entirely. It was ALL visions of sugar plums dancing in neocon's heads...and the whole propaganda mechanism backed by US military psyops and Operation Mockingbird took over.
Duping the Dems by selling everyone a false bill of goods on Iraq, as the neocon's and GWBush's privatized intelligence efforts have paid off, doesn't absolve the Dems. But Scahill's article just shows that Clinton was deft at playing off these neocon insiders during his two terms in office. That he succeeded in delaying the Vulcans for as long as he did is to be commended.
Does Mr Cahill really think that a Democratic president would have stayed in Iraq after removing Saddam from power ? Ignoring Ray McGovern, Gen Zinni, Gen Shinseki, and all the others who said this war could be done in a month...it's the occupation that will kill you.
No, Mr Scahill, just like GHWBush and Brent Scowcroft in 1991, we would NOT have thrown out the Powell Doctrine and occupied Iraq as long as UN inspections were working...
"Essentially, the Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged."
from PBS's Powell Doctrine
www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/
lessonplans/iraq/powelldoctrine_short.html
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