not quite prison planet, but Paul spills the beans on the Iraq-Kuwait war
Detailed in the book The Demonic Comedy, by Paul William Roberts
pages 122-123
http://www.amazon.com/reader/0374527466?_encoding=UTF8&...
the U.S. green-lighted the invasion and then turned on Saddam...
RP only talks about the US ambassador. It's MUCH worse than that
Bush’s Thinking
Less apparent at the time were two other key factors of President George H.W. Bush’s thinking – that a U.S. military victory over an outmatched Iraq would consolidate the transformation of American public at udes toward war and would cement U.S. leadership in what Bush called “the new world order.”
Those strategic aspects of Bush’s grand plan began to emerge after the U.S.-led coalition started pummeling Iraq with air strikes in mid-January 1991.
Those bombings inflicted severe damage on Iraq’s military and civilian infrastructure and slaughtered a large number of non-combatants, including the incineration of some 400 women and children in a Baghdad bomb shelter on Feb. 13. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Recalling the Slaughter of Innocents.”]
The air war’s damage was so severe that some world leaders looked for a way to end the carnage and arrange Iraq’s departure from Kuwait. Even senior U.S. military field commanders, such as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, looked favorably on proposals for sparing lives.
Schwarzkopf, who was in command of the half-million troops dispatched to the Persian Gulf, was receptive when he learned that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was proposing a cease-fire and a withdrawal of Iraqi forces. But the proposal was running into trouble with President Bush and his political subordinates who wanted a ground war to crown the U.S. victory.
Schwarzkopf reached out to Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to make the case for peace with the President. On Feb. 21, 1991, the two generals hammered out a cease-fire proposal for presentation to the NSC.
The peace deal would give Iraqi forces one week to march out of Kuwait while leaving their armor and heavy equipment behind. Schwarzkopf thought he had Powell’s commitment to pitch the plan at the White House.
But Bush was fixated on a ground war. Though secret from the American people at that time, Bush had long determined that a peaceful Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait would not be allowed. Indeed, Bush was privately fearful that the Iraqis might capitulate before the United States could attack.
At the time, conservative columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak were among the few outsiders who described Bush's obsession with exorcising the Vietnam Syndrome. On Feb. 25, 1991, they wrote that the Gorbachev initiative brokering Iraq's surrender of Kuwait "stirred fears" among Bush's advisers that the Vietnam Syndrome might survive the Gulf War.
"There was considerable relief, therefore, when the President ... made clear he was having nothing to do with the deal that would enable Saddam Hussein to bring his troops out of Kuwait with flags flying," Evans and Novak wrote.
"Fear of a peace deal at the Bush White House had less to do with oil, Israel or Iraqi expansionism than with the bitter legacy of a lost war. 'This is the chance to get rid of the Vietnam Syndrome,' one senior aide told us."
In the 1999 book, Shadow, author Bob Woodward confirmed that Bush was adamant about fighting a war, even as the White House pretended it would be satisfied with an unconditional Iraqi withdrawal.
“We have to have a war,” Bush told his inner circle of Secretary of State Baker, national security adviser Scowcroft and Gen. Powell, according to Woodward.
“Scowcroft was aware that this understanding could never be stated publicly or be permitted to leak out. An American president who declared the necessity of war would probably be thrown out of office. Americans were peacemakers, not warmongers,” Woodward wrote.
On Jan. 9, 1991, when Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz rebuffed an ultimatum from Baker in Geneva, “Bush was jubilant because it was the best news possible, although he would have to conceal it publicly,” Woodward wrote.
Soviet diplomats met with Iraqi leaders who let it be known that they were prepared to withdraw their troops from Kuwait unconditionally.
Learning of Gorbachev’s proposed settlement, Schwarzkopf also saw little reason for U.S. soldiers to die if the Iraqis were prepared to withdraw and leave their heavy weapons behind. There was also the prospect of chemical warfare that the Iraqis might use against advancing American troops. Schwarzkopf saw the possibility of heavy U.S. casualties.
Powell found himself in the middle. He wanted to please Bush while still representing the concerns of the field commanders.
Stationed at the front in Saudi Arabia, Schwarzkopf thought Powell was his key ally back in Washington. "Neither Powell nor I wanted a ground war," Schwarzkopf wrote in his memoirs, It Doesn't Take a Hero.
At key moments in White House meetings, however, Powell sided with Bush and his hunger for outright victory. "I cannot believe the lift that this crisis and our response to it have given to our country," Powell told Schwarzkopf as American air sorties pummeled Iraq.
Schwarzkopf wrote. "I could guess what was going on. ... There had to be a contingent of hawks in Washington who did not want to stop until we'd punished Saddam.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/022811.html
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Another Bush + neo-con war, totally unnecessary. Pappy Bush wanted a ground war no matter what, not a negotiated unpunished-Saddam withdrawal.
he's ing parano nuts:
Ron Paul Feeds Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory That Government Could Turn U.S. Into A Concentration Camp
Paul said:
I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people want to leave with their capital. And there’s capital controls and there’s people control. So, every time you think of the fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/20...up-conspiracy/
irony
And I'll pass on RP videos, thanks.
irony?
Paranoia is imagining a danger or threat when there isn't one.
RP "they're gonna fence us in" after they fence the illegals out is ing paranoia.
I'm not imagining anything with the VRWC. It's real, the major players are known, and the results we are living through right now.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 09-09-2011 at 10:26 AM.
Ayn Rand Paul busting his butt to give the UCA carte blanche to up air, land, water:
Rand Paul: The EPA ‘Turns Everyday Life Into A Federal Crime’
Since its creation in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency has done more harm than good. EPA regulations cost more than 5 percent of our annual gross domestic product – the equivalent of the costs of defense and homeland security combined. Since EPA regulations have expanded, unemployment in America has increased by 33 percent. This abuse of power by the implementation of regulations infringes upon our basic cons utional rights.
These are all curious declarations in that they’re completely nonsensical. EPA regulations do not cost over 5 percent of the U.S. GDP. In fact, according to recent study, “GDP in 2010 [was] 1.5 percent higher than it would have been without the Clean Air Act.” Clean air regulations saved about $1.3 trillion in public health and environmental benefits, “a value worth more than 9 percent of GDP.”
As for doing more harm than good, EPA regulations helped prevent 18 million child respiratory illnesses in 1990 alone. The Ins ute for Clean Air Companies estimated that complying with just one clean air standard about 29,000 full time jobs each year for the past seven years. That’s just for the clean air standards. The EPA also regulates water pollution, radiation, pesticides, and chemical safety. According to a recent study by the Economic Policy Ins ute, implementation of the EPA’s “toxics rule” will lead to 11,000 fewer heart attacks, 12,200 fewer hospital visits, and 225,000 fewer cases of respiratory symptoms.
And as for the idea that EPA regulations are somehow linked to a 33 percent rise in unemployment, the same study notes that regulations actually have very little impact on employment in the long run. Indeed, the same “toxics rule” will likely create 28,000 to 158,000 jobs between now and 2015. Economists agree the current unemployment crisis began when unregulated banks and polluters strip-mined our economy.
In any event, if Paul insists on “plac[ing] the power in the hands of the people,” polls indicate that the people will just give it back to the EPA. (HT: Barefoot and Progressive)
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/...federal-crime/
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