Phase II
(posted by Jim Henley)
It’s unsurprising, gratifying and even bitterly amusing to discover that the long-suppressed second part of the Senate Intel Committee report on the war porn the White House sold before the conquest of Iraq confirms that it was a bunch of hooey. But it’s important to remember that even taking their fact-claims at face value, there was no valid case for war. Iraq really did have chemical and biological weapons stockpiles at one point. During some of which time, Iraq was in a shooting war with the United States. Iraq really did support terrorism, though to a lesser degree than many other states in the region. In all that time, Iraq never attacked the United States or Israel or Saudi Arabia with chemical or biological weapons. Even taking the Administration’s claims of Iraqi stockpiles at face value, which people like Gene Healy and I mostly did, if only because you can’t prove a negative, we still saw that there was no cause for war with Iraq in 2002-2003.
Had there been proof or even a preponderance of evidence that Iraq had sponsored or cooperated in the atrocities of September 11, 2001, it would have been another matter. But there was no such proof or evidence. What should have happened is that Iraq should have gotten the same “al Qaeda mulligan” that President Bush extended to the rest of the region’s Muslim autocracies. It was a chance for a fresh start with every country in the reason that the Bush Administration spurned out of megalomania and partisan-political ambition. (As part of the fresh start we should have finessed an end to the obtrusive military presence in the region that began in 1991.)
Matthew Yglesias explains the real import of the lies and exaggerations the Bush Administration concocted to stampede America over the cliff of Iraq:
Going forward, I merely urge people to recall that the administration didn’t make all this stuff up for fun. They did it because they know that the public is not, in fact, particularly jazzed about preventive war and unilateral militarism.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Let’s also not, however, let the public off the hook too readily. Sure, at the time of the run-up to invasion, it seemed perfectly plain to me that the justifications were fraudulent, and by no means did I have access to any information not broadly available to anyone who might seek it.
But the American people were all too eager to believe these justifications. The reasons are multifarious, but certainly stemmed in large part from the fresh trauma of 9-11, and a prideful reflex to lash out against an Arab country - literally any Arab country - that had any semblance of a bad reputation in the US.
These things were hidden in plain sight. As certain as it is that we would not have been justified to invade even if the rationales were true, this simple fact also betrays a frightening quality of our society when driven to mortal fear: that the heavy burden of persuasion is on those opposing death, destruction, and invasion.
The true tragedy of the invasion of Iraq was not in the genius of its proponents, but in their success despite the most pathetically weak case for it.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
This is probably a consequence of how little Americans have suffered due to armed conflict. The number of American civilians killed in warfare in the last century is probably less than 50,000 people. Yet the number of civilian lives taken by the American military in other countries numbers in the millions. During WWII (the last truly serious conflict) more American civilians were harmed due to our own government (internment and rationing) than were harmed by Axis armies.
Taking a cold analysis, the average American appears* to gain far more from war than they lose. The problem may actually be that Americans don’t really know what mortal fear is.
* The financial cost will bite us back in the end, but that rather lacks the visceral impact of enemy soldiers shelling your neighborhood.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
the obtrusive military presence in the region that began in 1991
Which itself began with lies and exaggerations.
The biggest of those lies were the faked satellite photos of “Iraqi troops massing on the Saudi border” that stampeded the Saudis into allowing U.S. troops into the country, troops which — surprise! — never left. Until after the September 2001 attacks, and then only under cover of the Iraq invasion/occupation.
Then there was the orchestrated parade of lies and exaggerations deemed necessary to sell the war to U.S. citizens — the $11 million Hill & Knowlton campaign, of which the Kuwaiti ambassador’s daughter posing as a distraught hospital worker before a staged Congressional “hearing” was only the most notorious component.
And the deceptions once war was underway that would help make sure it would never really end: the call from Bush I to Shiites and Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist dictatorship, which he had no intention of supporting. Along with allowing Hussein’s army to get their helicopters back, guaranteeing the grim revenge. Perfect excuse for the patrol, never to end until the U.S. occupation made it irrelevant, of the “no-fly zones”, which the U.S. and Brits pretended were U.N.-authorized.
After all this, you’d think they’d need some real whoppers to attack Iran. Maybe they will; I saw a headline that some remarkably tiny percentage of the U.S. public supports such an attack.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take a whole lot of deception to fool the American people into supporting a war. Their political culture already has them three-quarters of the way there before the government even starts trying to whip up support for any particular war.
“Politics stops at the water’s edge.” “Rally around the flag in wartime.” “Support the troops.” Just reflecting on these maxims of American political culture should make it pretty clear why the deck is stacked in favor of those trying to start a war. Too many people forget how to be good Americans (i.e., skeptical and vigilant toward the government) when Glorious Leader is wrapped in Old Glory and uses the magic words “National Security.” They’re are great at questioning a war several years after it starts, and most of the damage is already done; but I’m afraid all it will take is a bunch of lies against Iran like the ones Nell describes from 1990, and those filthy fucking yellow ribbon and flag magnets will be all over the place again.