Lies beget lies beget lies…

July 23rd, 2003 | impolite company

Yes, we went to war. Yes, we “won” the war. Yes, a bad man has been removed from his seat of power. But, in true Machiavellian style, the Prince — George W. Bush — wants us to accept these ends as justification for the reason we went to war. He wants us to “move on”, to forget the lies he told which brought us to that war. To make us forget his lies, he has brought a parade of scapegoats before us. As Democratic National Committee spokesman Tony Welch says:

“First they blamed the Brits. Then, CIA Director George Tenet walked the plank. Now, the Bush White House is dragging former Cheney aide and deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley forward to take the fall for the president’s bogus claim in this year’s State of the Union address.”

Hadley admitted yesterday that he had forgotten the contents of two memos and a phone call from CIA director Tenet back in October, which advised him to remove the claim of Iraqi uranium purchases from Africa from a Presidential speech. The memos, missing from his files* and from his memory “turned up” yesterday. According to the Washington Post, in those memos, the CIA warned the White House

…that the charge, based on an allegation that Iraq sought 500 tons of uranium in Niger, relied on weak evidence, was not particularly significant and assumed Iraq was pursuing an acquisition that was arguably not possible and of questionable value because Iraq had its own supplies…

So, we are supposed to “move on” and accept that a request like that can be forgotten about by a person whose job it is not to forget information related to our national security. We are supposed to accept that George Tenet should take the blame for the inclusion of the uranium claim in the State of the Union address, even though he “told members of Congress in a closed-door session that he had never actually read [the speech.]” We are supposed to accept that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who, according to NPR White House correspondent Don Gonyea, was also a listed as a recipient of the memos, also bears no blame for the “misstatement.” We’re also supposed to forget this whole flap, even though, according to the WaPo “Hadley said the issue is not necessarily resolved. ‘There is always the likelihood we will find additional information,’ he said.”

What information might that be? And what will it take for President Bush to accept the responsibility for the words that came out of his own mouth?

* Missing documents… turning up months later… hmmm… where have I heard that before? If I recall correctly the Republicans called for indictments…

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0899508294/103-9611952-8151069?v=glance Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo

I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now as a soldier in the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as the “ROCK.”

We entered the country at midnight on the 26th of March; one thousand of my fellow soldiers and I parachuted from 10 jumbo jets (known as C-17s) onto a cold, muddy field in Bashur, Northern Iraq. This parachute operation was the U.S. Army’s only combat jump of the war and opened up the northern front.

Things have changed tremendously for our battalion since those first cold, wet weeks spent in the mountain city of Bashur. On April 10 our battalion conducted an attack south into the oil-rich town of Kirkuk, the city that has since become our home away from home and the focus of our security and development efforts.

Kirkuk is a hot and dusty city of just over a million people. The majority of the city has welcomed our presence with open arms. After nearly five months here, the people still come running from their homes, in the 110-degree heat, waving to us as our troops drive by on daily patrols of the city. Children smile and run up to shake hands, in their broken English shouting “Thank you, mister.”

The people of Kirkuk are all trying to find their way in this new democratic environment. Some major steps have been made in these last three months. A big reason for our steady progress is that our soldiers are living among the people of the city and getting to know their neighbors and the needs of their neighborhoods.

We also have been instrumental in building a new police force. Kirkuk now has 1,700 police officers. The police are now, ethnically, a fair representation of the community as a whole. So far, we have spent more than $500,000 from the former Iraqi regime to repair each of the stations’ electricity and plumbing, to paint each station and make it a functional place for the police to work.

The battalion also has assisted in re-establishing Kirkuk’s fire department, which is now even more effective than before the war. New water treatment and sewage plants are being constructed and the distribution of oil and gas are steadily improving.

All of these functions were started by our soldiers here in this northern city and are now slowly being turned over to the newly elected city government. Laws are being rewritten to reflect democratic principles and a functioning judicial system was recently established to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the rule of law.

The quality of life and security for the citizens has been largely restored and we are a large part of why that has happened.

The fruits of all our soldiers’ efforts are clearly visible in the streets of Kirkuk today. There is very little trash in the streets, there are many more people in the markets and shops and children have returned to school.

This is all evidence that the work we are doing as a battalion and as American soldiers is bettering the lives of Kirkuk’s citizens. I am proud of the work we are doing here in Iraq and I hope all of your readers are as well.

Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo

“Die dulci fruimini!”