The Iraq war divided the Arabs, the Europeans, the Americans and caused a structural damage to Iraq

1
The Iraq war divided the Arabs, the Europeans,
the Americans and caused a structural damage to
Iraqs society, state, infrastructure
Aljazeera
2
1981 Israel bombs Baghdad Osirak/Tammuz
nuclear reactorBBC, June 7, 1981

• Map of the Israeli Attack

Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered
the raid
Source BBC, 5 June 2006, http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/middle_east/5020778.stm
3
Bill Kristol, Keeping Iraq in the Cross Hairs

• Moments after the 1991 Persian Gulf War was
  halted, Bill Kristol got a call from columnist
  Charles Krauthammer, and both were fuming over
  what they saw as unfinished business.
• Source Washington Post, March 18, 2003 Page C01

4
A Clean Break A New Strategy for Securing the
RealmPrepared by the Jerusalem-based Institute
for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies'
Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000

• A report prepared in 1996 by a neoconservative
  study group led by Richard Perle for Israeli
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We read in the
  report
• . removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq
  is an important Israeli strategic objective in
  its own right.
• Participants in the Study Group on "A New Israeli
  Strategy Toward 2000"
• Richard Perle, American Enterprise Institute,
  Study Group Leader
• James Colbert, Jewish Institute for National
  Security Affairs
• Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Johns Hopkins
  University/SAIS
• Douglas Feith, Feith and Zell Associates
• Robert Loewenberg, President, Institute for
  Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
• Jonathan Torop, The Washington Institute for Near
  East Policy
• David Wurmser, Institute for Advanced Strategic
  and Political Studies
• Meyrav Wurmser, Johns Hopkins University

5
A free Iraq will help secure Israel ---U.S.
President George W. Bush, September 2004 (NPR,
9/30/2004)
6
I'm going to get it right for those soldiers
because it's important to Israel ---U.S.
Senator and Presidential Candidate John Kerry,
September 2004 (NPR, 9/30/2004)
7
If you believe that the State of Israel will be
more secure if the United States fails in Iraq,
you and I have a disagreement. --- Republican
presidential candidate John McCain (JTA,
10/30/2007)
8
Iraq was invaded 'to protect Israel' - US official

• Philip Zelikow, a member of the presidents
  Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (200103),
  executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and
  counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
  (2005-06), told a crowd at the University of
  Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on a
  panel of foreign policy experts assessing the
  impact of September 11 and the future of the war
  on al-Qaeda
• Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear
  weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think
  the real threat is and actually has been since
  1990 - it's the threat against Israel And this
  is the threat that dare not speak its name,
  because the Europeans don't care deeply about
  that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the
  American government doesn't want to lean too hard
  on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular
  sell.
• Emad Mekay, Iraq was invaded 'to protect Israel'
  - US official, Asia Times Online, 31 March 2004,
  http//www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC31Aa01.h
  tml
• John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel
  Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, New York Farrar,
  Straus and Giroux I, 2007, page 31

9
The war was about Israels securityGroup
Urges Pro-Israel Leaders' Silence on Iraq Memo
Outlines Response If Hostilities Occur,
Discourages Lecturing of Americans on Middle
East The Washington Post, November 27, 2002

• You do not want Americans to believe that the
  war on Iraq is being waged to protect Israel
  rather than to protect America.
• The memo coached "(A)s an Israeli, most
  certainly don't talk about why some Arab leaders
  and their people dislike the United States.
  Americans don't want to be told by an Israeli why
  we have problems in the Middle East or why people
  hate us."
• the Israel Project, a group funded by American
  Jewish organizations and individual donors.

10
Israeli newspaper Haaretz5 April 2003

• The U.S. war in Iraq was conceived by a small
  group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of
  them Jewish.

11
Moran steps down from leadership post Lawmaker
under fire for saying Jews push war with Iraq
Lawmaker under fire for saying Jews support Iraq
warMoran apologizes White House blasts comments
The War Began March 19, 2003

• CNN, March 14, 2003. http//www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPO
  LITICS/03/14/moran.remarks/index.html on the
  World Wide Web.

• CNN, March 11, 2003, http//www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPO
  LITICS/03/11/moran.jews/index.html

12
Jews, Israel, and America

• Some times the words Jews, Israel, and
  America are interchangeable in the minds of
  many people in the Arab and Muslim worlds. For
  example, amidst the bloody chaos and destruction
  in U.S.-occupied Iraq, Scott Pelley of CBS Newss
  60 Minutes was reported going around and asking
  Iraqis on the streets wondering if they had
  nicknames for Americans. He found that Iraqis
  call American soldiers The Jews, as in, Dont
  go down that street, the Jews set up a
  roadblock
• Source Thomas Friedman, 2004, Jews, Israel and
  America, The New York Times, October 24.

13
From Israel's perspective, the longstanding
strategic threat of a massive military attack
from the east led by Iraq through Jordan no
longer exists because of the Iraq war. ---
Jewish Anti-Defamation League National Director
Abraham H. Foxman, August 2006 (ADL, 8/1/2006)
14
Israels 1957 secret plan to partition Iraq

• Indian journalist Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia
  published the book The dagger of Israel (Bombay,
  Blitz Publications, 1957).
• (?. ?. ???????? ???? ???????? ??? ?????? ????
  ??????? ??? ???????? ?????? ?????? ??????? 1980?
  ? 61).
• In the book, Karanjia published a secret Israeli
  plan involving, among other things, the partition
  of Iraq

15
Ze'ev Schiff, the military correspondent of
Israels leading newspaper Ha'aretz, wrote on 2
June 1982

• The best that can happen for Israeli interests
  in Iraq
• The dissolution of Iraq into a Shi'ite state, a
  Sunni state and the separation of the Kurdish
  part (Ha'aretz 6/2/1982).

16
Oded Yinon's A Strategy for Israel in the
Nineteen EightiesOded Yinon's article which
appeared in Kivunim (Directions), the journal
of the Department of Information of the World
Zionist Organization. Oded Yinon is an Israeli
journalist and was formerly attached to the
Foreign Ministry of Israel. This essay
originally appeared in Hebrew in KIVUNIM
(Directions), A Journal for Judaism and Zionism
Issue No, 14--Winter, 5742, February 1982,
Editor Yoram Beck. Editorial Committee Eli
Eyal, Yoram Beck, Amnon Hadari, Yohanan Manor,
Elieser Schweid. Published by the Department of
Publicity/The World Zionist Organization,
Jerusalem. Published by the Association of
Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. ,
Belmont, Massachusetts, 1982 , Special Document
No. 1, (ISBN 0-937694-56-8), http//www.informatio
nclearinghouse.info/pdf/The20Zionist20Plan20for
20the20Middle20East.pdf

• The plan operates on two essential premises. To
  survive, Israel must 1) become an imperial
  regional power, and 2) must effect the division
  of the whole area into small states by the
  dissolution of all existing Arab states. Small
  here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian
  composition of each state. Consequently, the
  Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states
  become Israel's satellites and, ironically, its
  source of moral legitimation.--Khalil Nakhleh
• All the Arab States east of Israel are torn
  apart, broken up and riddled with inner conflict
  even more than those of the Maghreb Lebanon's
  total dissolution into five provinces serves as
  a precedent for the entire Arab world including
  Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula and
  is already following that track. The dissolution
  of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or
  religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is
  Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in
  the long run, while the dissolution of the
  military power of those states serves as the
  primary short term target. Iraq, rich in oil on
  the one hand and internally torn on the other,
  is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's
  targets. Its dissolution is even more important
  for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than
  Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which
  constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An
  Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause
  its downfall at home even before it is able to
  organize a struggle on a wide front against us.
  Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will
  assist us in the short run and will shorten the
  way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq
  into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In
  Iraq, a division into provinces along
  ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman
  times
• is possible. So, three (or more) states will
  exist around the three major cities Basra,
  Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south
  will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north.
  It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi
  confrontation will deepen this polarization.--Ode
  d Yinon

17
Israel sees opportunity in possible US strike on
IraqIsrael promised support and assistance this
week for a US war against Iraq

• If the Americans do not do this now, said
  Israeli Deputy Defense Minister and Labor Party
  member Weizman Shiry on Wednesday, it will be
  harder to do it in the future. In a year or two,
  Saddam Hussein will be further along in
  developing weapons of mass destruction. It is a
  world interest, but especially an American
  interest to attack Iraq.
• And as deputy defense minister, I can tell you
  that the United States will receive any
  assistance it needs from Israel, he added.
• Source The Christian Science Monitor, August 30,
  2002,
• http//www.csmonitor.com/2002/0830/p08s01-wome.htm

18
Gelbs Idea of Partitioning Iraq

• Leslie Gelb, former editor and columnist for The
  Times and president emeritus of the Council on
  Foreign Relations, wrote in The New York Times of
  11/25/2003
• The United States should move in stages toward a
  three-state solution Kurds in the north, Sunnis
  in the center and Shiites in the south.
• Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, chairman of
  the Foreign Relations Committee and candidate for
  the Democratic presidential nomination, picked up
  the idea, while The New York Times of 19 August
  2007 dubbed it The Biden-Gelb plan.

19
On 27 September, the Senate passed a resolution
(75-23) urging the Bush administration to
support "a political settlement among Iraq's
major factions based upon the provisions of the
Constitution of Iraq that create a federal system
of government and allow for the creation of
federal regions." CNN.com 9/30/07. Heartland
Eurasian Review of Geopolitics originally
created in China and Italy!? apparently made and
posted this map on its website,
http//temi.repubblica.it/limes-heartland/iraqs-pa
rtition/1106
20
When asked in January 2008 to clarify whether
there was any Israeli involvement in his decision
to invade Iraq, President Bush said No, not at
all. None whatsoever.Source The White House,
1/2/2008.

• When asked by Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer of
  the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot to clarify
  whether there was any Israeli involvement in his
  decision to invade Iraq, President George W. Bush
  said No, not at all. None whatsoever.1
  Elsewhere in the same interview President Bush
  acknowledged that one of the things in politics
  that happens often is people sometimes won't tell
  you really what's on their mind.
• 1 The White House, Interview of the President
  by Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer of Yediot
  Ahronot, Oval Office, 2 January 2008,
  http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20
  080104-9.html

Tariq Aziz was a member of the Revolutionary
Command Council, a leader of the Ba'ath party,
deputy prime minister, foreign minister
'Britain and the US killed Iraq. I wish I was
martyred'.... "Bush and Blair lied
intentionally. They were both pro-Zionist. They
wanted to destroy Iraq for the sake of Israel,
not for the sake of the US and Britain."....
http//www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/05/iraq-u
s-tariq-aziz-iran
21
At a moment when almost all countries around the
world were offering sincere sympathy and support
to the United States after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, President Bush addressed the world in
these terms

• Every nation, in every region, now has a
  decision to make. Either you are with us, or you
  are with the terrorists. http//www.voanews.com/e
  nglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-14-Bush.cfm

22
Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young reported that
President George W. Bush said

• Im driven with a mission from God. God would
  tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in
  Afghanistan. An I did, and then God would tell
  me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.
• Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young, Introduction,
  in Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young, eds. Iraq and
  the Lessons of Vietnam, Or How Not to Learn from
  the Past, New York The new Press, 2007, pp.
  1-15, page 12.

23
March 19, 2008 President Bush spoke at the
Pentagon to mark the fifth anniversary of
Operation Iraqi FreedomThe battle in Iraq is
noble, necessary, and just. The White House,
3/19/2008
President George W. Bush speaks to members of the
Regimental Combat Team-2, Marine Wing Support
Combat Patrol at Al Asad Airbase, Al Anbar
Province, Iraq, Monday, September 3, 2007. White
House photo by Eric Draper, The White House,
http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/09/im
ages/20070903-1_d-0318-4-515h.html

• March 19, 2008 President Bush spoke at the
  Pentagon to mark the fifth anniversary of
  Operation Iraqi Freedom
• The battle in Iraq is noble, necessary, and
  just.
• Defeating the enemy in Iraq will make it less
  likely we will face this enemy here at home.
• Because we acted against Saddam Hussein, the
  world is better and America is safer.
• The Surge Strategy Has Produced Dramatic
  Results In Iraq
• The Stakes In Iraq Are Great
• Political Progress Is Taking Place In Iraq
  10/2005 new constitution 12/2005 election
  under new constitution
• The White House, 3/19/2008

24
Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public
Diplomacy and Public Affairs , said she was tired
of seeing the president presented as a
caricature. The New York Times,
10/31/2007 President Bush told the AEI
neoconservatives You are some of the best
brains in our country and my government employs
about 20 of you. "Employs" is too weak a verb,
wrote James Atlas. The New York Times, May 4, 2003
A representation of the stereotypical view of
US-Israel relations
Israel
USA
Al-Majalla , 4/21/2001, http//www.al-majalla.com/
ar/
25
A representation of the stereotypical view of
US-Israel relations
I know what America is.. America is a thing you
can move very easily, move it in the right
direction.--Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime
Minister, 1996-99 2009-present, Fibi
Netanyahu, In 2001, PM boasted of manipulating
Oslo accords, Tablet A New Read on Jewish Life,
http//www.tabletmag.com/scroll/39692/fibi-netany
ahu
Israel
Israel has f----- up United States foreign
policy for years"---filmmaker Oliver Stone, The
Jewish Chronicle, http//www.thejc.com/news/world-
news/36169/oliver-stone-jews-dominate-media
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister,
1996-99 2009-present, when asked what 9/11
would mean for American-Israeli relations,
responded "It's very good." Realizing his
maladroit gaffe, he then added "Well, it's not
good, but it will generate immediate sympathy"
for Israel from the United States
http//www.counterpunch.org/sugg10252005.html
America
Palestine Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan Libya Lebanon
Syria Sudan Iran Islam Etcetera Etcetera
Its the case of a minnow swallowing a
whale the tail wagging the dog
Bullfighting toreador
Adapted from Work by Ian Antonio,
http//www.creative-holidays-spain.com/painting.ht
ml
The U.S. can no longer afford 725 billion each
year for defense, much of it borrowed. Given the
poor return on our investment, its clear we need
another strategy, one free of Zionist goals that
advance behind serial conflicts and the debt
incurred to fund them. We know what to do. Whats
required is the leadership to do it. Jeff Gates,
12/29/2010, http//criminalstate.com/2010/12/a-com
monsense-solar-defense/
"only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be
established or maintained"--US Army Lt. Col.
Harold Hoskins, 1943
26
A representation of the stereotypical view of
US-Israel relations
Islamic world
Israel
USA
alabonline, http//www.alarab.co.uk/
27
A representation of the stereotypical view of
US-Israel relations
The Israelis
The Americans
The Arabs
President Bush Middle East Tour
28
Millions Worldwide Protest Iraq War LONDON,
Feb.15 -- Several million demonstrators took to
the streets of Europe and the rest of the world
today in a vast wave of protest against the
prospect of a U.S.-led war against
Iraq. Washington Post Sunday, February 16, 2003
29
Madrid, Spain
30
Berlin, Germany
31
Istanbul, Turkey
32
Sydney, Australia
Prague, Czech Rep.
33
Seoul, South Korea
34
London, United Kingdom
35
Rome, Italy
36
New York, USA
37
Population 28.9 million (2009 est.) Ethnic
groups Arab 75-80, Kurdish 15-20, Turkoman,
Assyrian, or other 5 Religions Muslim 97
(Shi'a 60-65, Sunni 32-37), Christian or
other 3 Languages Arabic, Kurdish (official in
Kurdish regions), Turkoman (a Turkish dialect),
Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic), Armenian Iraq's oil
sector provides over 90 of government revenue
and foreign exchange earnings GDP per capita
(PPP) 3,600 (US GDP per capita 46,400 (2009
est.) Border countries Iran 1,458 km, Jordan
181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi Arabia 814 km, Syria
605 km, Turkey 352 km
Geography of Iraq
Source CIA
38
U.S.-Led Coalition Air and Ground Forces Deployed
Against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War
John E. Peters and Howard Deshong, Out of Area or
Out of Reach European Military Support for
Operations in Southwest Asia, National Defense
Research Institute, Prepared for the Office of
the Secretary of Defense, RAND, 1995, pages
23-24, http//www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/
2007/MR629.pdf
39
In the wake of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003

• Iraq did not even control its airspace,
  shorelines, or a third of its territory.
• Iraq was still recovering from
• The Iran-Iraq war 1980-88
• The Gulf war of 1991
• The no-fly zone war 1991-03
• CIA Covert Operations 1995-96
• UN/US Sanctions 1990-2003 (Sanctions killed some
  1.7 million Iraqis between 1990-2000, WRMA
  12/31/00)
• Depleted uranium 1991 present
• Some have said that the DU used in Iraq makes the
  Agent Orange used in Vietnam look like orange
  juice.

DoD, http//www.defendamerica.mil/iraq/iraq_nofly.
html
Professor Doug Rokke, the US army physicist in
charge of cleaning up depleted uranium in Kuwait
told film maker John Pilger (The Secret War on
Iraq, 12/20/2002) I am like most people in
southern Iraq. I have 5,000 times the recommended
level of radiation in my body.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP-8PlJVhogs
40
Geography of the Iraq War

1. Basic geography of Iraq
2. The what of the war
3. The why of the war
4. What shall be done?

Source CIA
41
The conventional wisdom about Nixon-Kissinger
relationship was that they worked as equals, or
even that Kissinger was the teacher and Nixon the
student p. 135 When I returned to government
service in 2001, I invited Henry Kissinger to
join the Defense Policy Board. He was routinely
involved in advising me on national security
issues. I also arranged for him to be able to
meet regularly and privately with President Bush
p. 206 Fifteen days after 9/11, the President
asked me to join him in the Oval Office alone He
asked that I take a look at the shape of our
military plans on Iraq Dick told me about your
son, he Bush said What happened to my son
Nick who suffers from drug addictioncoupled
with the 9/11 wounds to our country and the
Pentagonall started to hit me. At that moment, I
couldnt speak I had not imagined I might choke
up in a meeting with the President of the United
States p. 425-426 "I think that Donald Rumsfeld
will go down as one of the worst secretaries of
defence in historySenator John McCain,
http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6377687.stm

Sentinel, 2011
42
In the book My Year in Iraq (Simon Schuster,
2006), Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III wrote,
Among my own assignments during almost three
decades and as an American diplomat, Id been
Secretary of State Henry Kissingers chief of
staff and ambassador-at-large for
counterterrorism under President Ronald Reagan,
jobs that had taken me to almost every capital in
the region. Every one but Baghdad. Page 4
2006
43
As the senior American in Baghdad, I would be
President George W. Bushs personal envoy. My
chain of command ran through Secretary of of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld and straight to the
president. I would be the only paramount
authority figureother than dictator
Saddam--Iraqis had ever known. Page 4
2006
44
Like Adolf Hitler, Saddam was convinced destiny
had chosen him for greatness On May 9 2003, my
last day of preparation at the Pentagon, Don
Rumsfeld had given me my marching orders in a
memo Undersecretary Douglas Feith had shown me a
draft order for the De-Baathification of Iraqi
Society. He had underscored the political
importance of the decree. Weve got to show all
the Iraqis that were serious about building a
New Iraq. Page 39
2006
45
In early May 2003, before we left for Iraq,
Senior Advisor for defense and security affairs,
Walt Slocombe had began discussions with top
Pentagon officials, including Deputy Secretary of
Defense Paul Wolfowitz, about the policy
implications of Saddams army having melted away.
Page 54
2006
46
On May 9, 2003, the day before our departure, I
sent a memo to Secretary Rumsfeld, copied to
Wolfowitz, DODs policy office and the General
Counsel, summarizing these discussions and the
tentative conclusion that we should formally
dissolve Saddams army as well the security and
intelligence services as a prelude to
establishing Iraqs new security services and
because we have to take into account the ethnic
make-up and the history of the country,
assembling a New Iraqi Army (NIA) would not be
easy. Page 54
2006
47

• The exiles comprised the small Iraqi Leadership
  Council (ILC) who had been selected during a
  conference of several hundred Iraqis in London in
  December 2002, which in turn had been a product
  of the Iraqi Liberation Act that President Bill
  Clinton had signed into law in 1998. This law
  made it U.S. policy to support efforts to
  remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein. Page
  42.
• On Friday May 16, 2003 afternoon, we were
  expecting seven Iraqi representatives to meet us
  in the palace conference room where I held staff
  meeting. The group, whom we had come to refer to
  as the G-7, included
• Ahmad Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress,a
  Shiite
• Ayad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord,
  also a secular Shiite, was Chalabis chief rival
• The two Kurds were Massoud Barzani, head of the
  Kurdish Democratic Party, and his sometime ally
  and sometime rival, Jalal Talabani of the
  Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
• The ILC also included Naseer Chaderchi, a
  respected seventy-year-old Sunni lawyer, who led
  the small, secular National Party
• The other Shiite Islamist party, the Supreme
  Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
  (SCIRI), was represented by Dr. Adel Mahdi and
  Hamid al-Bayati, reportedly because the partys
  most senior leader in Baghdad, Abdul Aziz Hakim,
  was ill. I suspected Hakims illness might be
  diplomatic, since he was known to be
  distrustful of the Coalitions motives. Page 46

2006
48
On May 19, I sent a memo to Secretary Rumsfeld
detailing our recommendations for the dissolution
of the Iraqi Defense Ministry and its related
entities. At the Pentagon on May 22 2003,
Feith carefully reviewed our draft order, which
would formally abolish Saddams security and
intelligence services. He asked us to clarify
some of the wording, which we did to his full
satisfaction. Later that day, when Rumsfeld
authorized me to proceed, I informed the
president of the plan in a video teleconference.
On Friday, May 23, 2003, I signed CPA Order No.
2, Dissolution of Entities Page 57
2006
49
It was after 1100 P.M. when Brian McCormack and
I got into my armored SUV for the run back to the
Green Zone. Our convoy, as usual, consisted of
two up-armored Humvees sheathed in tan slabs of
hardened steel, a lead-armored Suburban, our
Suburban, another armored Suburban following, and
two more Humvees. Overhead, we had a pair of
buzzing Bell helicopters with two Blackwater
snipers each. Page 245
Simon Schuster, 2006
50
For the last time, and again in the sweltering
heat of Baghdad summer, I took off from the Green
Zone for the twenty-minute flight to Baghdad
Airport. The Chinooks landed behind several
camouflaged C-130s, one of which was designated
to fly me out of Iraq.After a ninety-minute
flight, we landed at the military airport in
Amman, Jordan. I called Francie, who by now had
seen news reports of the early transfer of
sovereignty. Im safe and free, I said. And
Im coming home. Pages 394 and 396
Simon Schuster, 2006
51
I suppose the best place is to begin at the
beginning and to thank my wonderful agent, Marvin
Josephson. It was he, on a visit to Baghdad, who
first suggested that I write this book. So
readers disappointed that I have followed his
advice should take their grievance to Marvin. To
me, however, Marvin was gift. I thank him for his
help identifying a publisher and willingness to
give sound advice on the book as the writing
proceeded. And I am further indebted to him for
suggesting that I engage Malcolm McConnell as my
collaborator on the project. Page 399
Simon Schuster, 2006
52
Smoke rises from explosions during the first few
minutes of a massive air attack on March 20, 2003
in Baghdad GETTY
War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a
Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting
against which courageous heroes win the hearts
and minds of the movie going public. The Pentagon
recognises the power of these celluloid dreams
and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths
to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and
as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of
willing young patriots for its wars....'Give a
nineteen-year-old kid an automatic weapon, and it
takes him four days to become God -- Watch
Hollywood and the war machine at
http//english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/201
0/12/2010121681345363793.html
Some media treat March 19, 2003 as the beginning
of the war, but the conflict for ordinary Iraqis
never ended in March 1991 following Iraq's defeat
and exit from Kuwait. They the Iraqis would
endure 12 years of punitive sanctions which the
UN estimates killed nearly 1.7 million
Iraqis. http//english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80C
83F02-A0D6-4624-8BD2-106439605C04.htm
53
US Human Cost of the Iraq WarOver 4,398 dead and
over 31,762 wounded in Iraq
93 dead and 722 wounded from Indiana
US dead and wounded in Iraq by state,
3/2003-3/2010 http//www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/ira
q/forces/casualties  http//icasualties.org/Iraq/
USCasualtiesByState.aspx
54
Iraqi Human Cost of the War
Over 1000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a
result of the conflict which started in 2003
---The British Opinion Research Business, January
2008, http//www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.as
px?NewsId120 See also the impact of sanctions
http//english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80C83F02-A0
D6-4624-8BD2-106439605C04.htm 4.7 million Iraqis
were made refugees within the country or across
the borders---United Nations News Centre, October
2007, http//www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID
24378CrIraqCr1
No available estimates of Iraqi wounded
At the end of 12/2007, the number of Iraqi
detainees stood at 51,133--- UN Assistance
Mission for Iraq, December 2007,
http//www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/UNAMIJuly-Dec
ember2007EN.pdf Iraqs cultural heritage
(National Library and Archives, National Museum,
and other significant cultural heritage sites)
was looted
55
Documented civilian deaths from violence 95,755
104,460 Confusion about the numbers produced by
the project can be avoided by bearing in mind
that (1) IBCs figures are not estimates but
a record of actual, documented deaths. (2) IBC
records solely violent deaths (3) IBC records
solely civilian (strictly, non-combatant)
deaths. (4) IBCs figures are constantly updated
and revised as new data comes in, and frequent
consultation is advised. http//www.iraqbodycount
.org/about/
Source Iraq Body Count, http//www.iraqbodycoun
t.org/database/ and
http//www.iraqbodycount.org/database/individuals/
page1
Falluja doctors report rise in birth
defects Doctors in the Iraqi city of Falluja are
reporting a high level of birth defects, with
some blaming weapons used by the US after the
Iraq invasion. BBC, 3/4/2010,
http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8548707.st
m
56
Financial Cost The Iraq War Will Cost Us 3
Trillion, and Much More As we head toward
November 2008, opinion polls say that voters'
main worry is now the economy, not the war. But
there's no way to disentangle the two. The United
States will be paying the price of Iraq for
decades to come. The price tag will be all the
greater because we tried to ignore the laws of
economics -- and the cost will grow the longer we
remain Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief
financial officer at the Commerce Department,
teaches at Harvard University's Kennedy School of
Government. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a professor at
Columbia University, served as chairman of the
Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill
Clinton. They are co-authors of "The Three
Trillion Dollar War The True Cost of the Iraq
Conflict. The Washington Post, 3/9/2008,
http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
le/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846_2.html
Three trillion dollars is a lot of money. In
fact, for one sixth of that money, the US could
put its entire social security system on a sound
financial basis for the next 75 years. BBC,
2/26/2008
Iraq war costs U.S. more than 2 trillion
study (Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost
1.7 trillion with an additional 490 billion in
benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that
could grow to more than 6 trillion over the next
four decades counting interest, a study released
on Thursday said. Reuter, 3/14/2013,
http//www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-iraq-
war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314
57
US House Oversight Subcommittee on National
Security Hearing on Wartime Contracting

• There 280,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
  (80 percent of the foreign nationals)a ratio of
  1 contractor per soldier deployed (C-Span,
  8/21/2009)
• the State Department continues to award the
  company, formerly known as Blackwater, more than
  400 million in contracts to fly its diplomats
  around Iraq, guard them in Afghanistan, and train
  security forces in antiterrorism tactics at its
  remote camp in North Carolina (The New York
  Times, 8/21/2009)

58
U.S. Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by as
Much as Half
An American flag flies in front of the United
States Embassy in Baghdad. By TIM ARANGO, New
York Times, February 7, 2012
BAGHDAD Less than two months after American
troops left, the State Department is preparing to
slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic
presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of
declining American influence in the country.
Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that
Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and other senior
State Department officials were reconsidering the
size and scope of the embassy, where the staff
has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly
contractors. The expansive diplomatic operation
and the 750 million embassy building, the
largest of its kind in the world, were billed as
necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky
path to democracy and establish normal relations
between two countries linked by blood and mutual
suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated
by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are
now largely confined to the embassy because of
security concerns, unable to interact enough with
ordinary Iraqis to justify the 6 billion annual
price tag. New York Times, 2/7/2012
59
SYNOPSIS These extraordinary times--unprecedented
in modern history--are marked by a worldwide
depression and regional wars involving all the
major imperial powers. This book exposes the
roots of the crisis in the unsustainability of
the United States' military-driven empire
building based on a volatile speculative economy,
and influenced by Zionist policy makers committed
to the colonialist state of Israel. It offers a
critical study of the collapse of the empire and
a profound indictment of the respectable and
prestigious personalities either responsible for
the debacle, or for its continuance. Petras
provides clear insight into how the ramifications
of the world depression and regional wars that
originated in Washington and on Wall Street are
extending throughout the world, provoking popular
challenges especially in Latin America, while
reinforcing the belligerency and increasingly
fascistic nature of the state of Israel. He
demonstrates how unending wars and a deepening
capitalist depression have demolished the
ideology of free market neo-liberalism and forced
to the forefront the need for structural changes.
He points out how the collapse of the capitalist
free market and the need for large-scale,
long-term interventions by the state have once
again raised the question of whose interests
states are presently promoting, and whose
interests in actuality they should serve. Both in
the United States and Latin America, center-left
regimes are proposing economic reforms to try to
save the capitalist system. However the deepening
crisis is raising the prospect of mass support
for 21st Century socialism, which focuses on
public investment, ownership and control. THE
AUTHOR James Petras is a Bartle Professor
(Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University,
New York. He is the author of 64 books published
in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in
professional journals, including the American
Sociological Review, British Journal of
Sociology, Social Research, Journal of
Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant
Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in
nonprofessional journals such as the New York
Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian
Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review,
Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde
Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely
carried on the internet. Source The James
Petras Website, 8/21/2009, http//petras.lahaine.o
rg/articulo.php?p1785more1c1
60
U.S. debt overpowers National Debt Clock

• NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Debt Clock in New
  York City has run out of digits to record the
  growing figure. As a short-term fix, the digital
  dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near
  Times Square has been switched to a figure -- the
  "1" in 10 trillion. It's marking the federal
  government's current debt at about 10.2
  trillion. The Durst Organization says it plans to
  update the sign next year by adding two digits.
  That will make it capable of tracking debt up to
  a quadrillion dollars. The late Manhattan real
  estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in
  1989 to call attention to what was then a 2.7
  trillion debt.
• CNN, October 30, 2008, http//www.cnn.com/2008/US/
  10/09/national.debt.clock.ap/cnnSTCText

U.S. national debt clock in Times Square, New
York.
61
U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad
Moral Cost Top interrogators attended an
"anti-terror" training camp in Israel and their
boss received an award from Israeli Defense
Minister Shaul MofazRobert Fisk, The
Independent, 5/26/ 2004
On February 7, 2002, President Bush signs an
executive order that says Common Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions does not apply to Qaeda and
Taliban captives. NYT, 12/8/07
AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION RESPONSIBILITY
TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE http//org2.democracyinaction
.org/o/5966/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY2724
U.N. expert says torture in Iraq worse than under
Saddam, USA Today, 9/21/2006
62
Bush Makes Final Sneak Visit to IraqA man,
apparently a journalist, threw two shoes at
President Bush during a news conference in
Baghdad---The New York Times, December 14,
2008--http//video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/14/mu
ltimedia/1194835546483/bush-makes-final-visit-to-i
raq.htmlHitting someone with a shoe is a
strong insult in Iraq. It means the person is as
low as the dirt underneath the sole of a shoe,
and the actions of Muntader al-Zaidi, a
correspondent for an independent Iraqi television
station, were condemned by Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi government and other
reporters at the news conference. Mr. Bush was
unhurt and made a joke afterward, but the shoes
have overshadowed other news coverage of the
trip, including an attempt to showcase the new
security agreement. NYT, 12/15/2008

• Video Bush Dodges Shoes on Visit to Iraq
• http//video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/14/multimed
  ia/1194835546483/bush-makes-final-visit-to-iraq.ht
  ml

Iraqi reporter shouting "This is a goodbye kiss
from the Iraqi people, you dog."
http//www.alarab.co.uk/index.asp?fname\2008\12\1
2-16\970c1.htmdismodexts16/12/200820080736
20?
63
No diplomacyBiden That SOB Saddam is rolling
over in his grave

• Vice President Joe Biden celebrated the 2009
  Independence Day with US troops, including his
  soldier son Beau, at their base near Baghdad,
  giving a speech that mocked Saddam Hussein. We
  did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of
  nothing better That SOB is rolling over in his
  grave right now.
• Alarabiya, 7/4/2009, http//www.alarabiya.net/arti
  cles/2009/07/04/77806.html
• Haaretz, 7/4/2009, http//www.haaretz.com/hasen/sp
  ages/1097692.html

64
The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC)

• The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC)
  was created in 1991 as a subsidiary organ of the
  UN Security Council. Its mandate is to process
  claims and pay compensation for losses and damage
  suffered as a direct result of Iraq's unlawful
  invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
• UNCC received approximately 2.7 million claims
  seeking approximately US352.5 billion
• So far UNCC awarded approximately US52.4 billion
  in respect of approximately 1.55 million of these
  claims.
• So far UNCC paid a total of US26 billion to
  individuals, corporations, governments and
  international organizations. http//www2.unog.ch/u
  ncc/ataglance.htm
• Iraqi parliamentarians are demanding Israel pay
  billions of dollars in reparations for a 1981
  Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor,
  Baghdad's daily al-Sabbah reported Thursday
  2/12/2009. Iraq MPs seek reparation for 1981
  Israeli attack on nuclear reactor, Haaretz,
  2/12/2009, http//www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/106
  3718.html
•  

65
Marines Cast as 'Mongols' in Baghdad.
Time,4/19/2003
Iraq ranked at the bottom of the 149 countries
on the Global Peace Index 2010,
http//www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data//2010/ir
aq/IQ Baghdad ranked at the bottom of the 221
cities of the world's best quality of living
cities in 2010, http//www.vancouversun.com/life/f
ood/VancouverCanucksfiguretheyneedmomentumGa
metonight/2944199/ViennaworldbestcityliveStu
dy/3073294/story.html?id3073294ixzz0qUeKeRCl
Corporal Edward Chin, an ethnic Chinese from
Burma, told CNN's Paula Zahn (4/10/2003) "They
wanted a flag on his head, the American flag."
U.S. Occupation and Iraqi Resistance
Aljazeera
66
98.8 percent of the inmates in American detention
centers in Iraq are Iraqis. The New York Times,
11/22/07
92.7 percent of coalition casualties in Iraq are
Americans, CNN, 11/22/07
67

• Agreement Between the United States of America
  and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of
  United States Forces from Iraq and the
  Organization of Their Activities during Their
  Temporary Presence in IraqSigned in duplicate
  in Baghdad on this 17th day of November, 2008, in
  the English and Arabic languages, each text being
  equally authentic
• Article 4 Missions The Government of Iraq
  requests the temporary assistance of the United
  States Forces for the purposes of supporting Iraq
  in its efforts to maintain security and stability
  in Iraq, including cooperation in the conduct of
  operations against al-Qaeda and other terrorist
  groups, outlaw groups, and remnants of the former
  regime.
• Article 12 Jurisdiction The United States
  shall have the primary right to exercise
  jurisdiction over members of the United States
  Forces and of the civilian component for matters
  arising inside agreed facilities and areas
  during duty status outside agreed facilities and
  areas and in circumstances not covered by
  paragraph 1.
• Article 21 Claims With the exception of claims
  arising from contracts, each Party shall waive
  the right to claim compensation against the other
  Party for any damage, loss, or destruction of
  property, or compensation for injuries or deaths
  that could happen to members of the force or
  civilian component of either Party arising out of
  the performance of their official duties in
  Iraq.
• Article 24 Withdrawal of the United States
  Forces from Iraq All the United States Forces
  shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later
  than December 31, 2011
• Article 26 Iraqi Assets the United States shall
  ensure maximum efforts to a. Support Iraq to
  obtain forgiveness of international debt
  resulting from the policies of the former regime.
  b. Support Iraq to achieve a comprehensive and
  final resolution of outstanding reparation claims
  inherited from the previous regime, including
  compensation requirements imposed by the UN
  Security Council on Iraq.
• Article 27 Deterrence of Security Threats (1)
  In the event of any external or internal threat
  or aggression against Iraq that would violate its
  sovereignty, political independence, or
  territorial integrity, waters, airspace, its
  democratic system or its elected institutions,
  and upon request by the Government of Iraq, the
  Parties shall immediately initiate strategic
  deliberations and, as may be mutually agreed, the
  United States shall take appropriate measures,
  including diplomatic, economic, or military
  measures, or any other measure, to deter such a
  threat Iraqi land, sea, and air shall not be
  used as a launching or transit point for attacks
  against other countries.
• Source The New York Times, 11/19/2008,
  http//graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20
  081119_SOFA_FINAL_AGREED_TEXT.pdf

68
Dr. Dhari Forthcoming Election is Formality

• Dr. Sheikh Harith al-Dhari Secretary General of
  the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq
  (HEYET) stated his suspicion over the
  transparency and fairness of the elections
  scheduled for Iraq in the seventh of March.  
• Sheikh al-Dari in an interview with the agency of
  Quds Press told that the results of these
  elections were pre-prepared by the U.S.
  administration and distributed to political
  allies in Iraq... 
• He stressed that the Association of Muslim
  Scholars in Iraq (HEYET) will not be part of the
  forthcoming legislative elections, nor of the
  political process which is under brutal
  occupation.  
• Prof. Dr. Harith al-Dari described the current
  political process as a way to legalize the
  occupation and the confirmation of American
  hegemony over Iraq saying "We will not be a
  party in the electoral process and in the
  political process as long as the occupation
  exists in Iraq. It is a principle we abide by it
  and we will be at the same position till the
  withdrawal of the occupation. Because realities
  on the ground proved that the political process
  is not the right path to the security of Iraq and
  its liberation. But it has been and still the
  U.S. project to achieve the wishes of America and
  its allies. "  
• Sheikh Dari drew attention to the current
  political process saying It is fully built on
  the quota system and the constitution is biased
  and far from many communities in Iraq. Then the
  so-called security pact came to mortgage Iraq to
  decades and even centuries.  
• Secretary General clarified that the U.S.
  administration does not comply with provisions of
  the humiliated Agreement signed by the current
  government at end of 2008, as America will not
  withdraw from Iraqi cities during 2009 and will
  not withdraw from Iraq in 2011. It has also not
  committed to defending Iraq's borders and
  sovereignty... 
• He pointed out that Iran is now roaming in Iraq
  in full view and eyes of the world, even it
  occupied al Fakka oil well that is Iraqi oil
  without doubt. When it is asked about America,
  she said that it is an internal matter, as if
  Iran and Iraq are one thing!! . .  
• Prof. Dr. Harith al-Dari concluded his statement
  saying that the "next election will be a
  formality and seats will be deployed by U.S.
  forces to allied forces, which would extend the
  security agreement. So do not count on anyone to
  these elections and  should not pay attention to
  the media in the Arab world." AMSI, 3/6/2010,
  http//www.heyetnet.org/eng/amsinews/5311-dhari-fo
  rthcoming-election-is-formality.html

69
Guide to groups competing in Iraqi polls

• STATE OF LAW COALITION--This alliance is led by
  Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and purportedly cuts
  across religious and tribal lines.
• IRAQI NATIONAL ALLIANCE (INA)--This mainly Shia
  alliance is seen as one of the biggest rivals to
  the prime minister's coalition.
• KURDISTAN ALL--The Kurdish coalition is dominated
  by the two parties administering Iraq's northern,
  semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
• AL-IRAQIYYA (IRAQI NATIONAL MOVEMENT)--This
  alliance includes national Vice-President Tariq
  al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, former prime minister
  Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia, and senior Sunni
  politician Saleh al-Mutlaq. They ran on a
  nationalist platform.
• UNITY OF IRAQ COALITION--This group brings
  together a range of significant political
  figures, including Interior Minister Jawad Bolani
  and a leader of the Sunni anti-al-Qaeda militia
  in al-Anbar province, Ahmad Abu-Risha.
• IRAQI ACCORD FRONT/AL-TAWAFUQ FRONT--The Iraqi
  Accord Front, an alliance of parties led by Sunni
  politicians, participated in the December 2005
  elections but has since been weakened by splits
  and defections. It includes the Speaker of
  parliament Ayad al-Samarrai.
• TRIBAL LEADERS--Tribal leaders were courted by
  major parties as it was thought they would play
  an important role in the election. Some of Iraq's
  Sunni tribal leaders sprang to prominence when US
  forces began backing local sheikhs against al
  Qaeda in 2006.
• MINORITIES--Smaller minorities, including
  Turkmen, Christians, Yazidis, Sabeans, Shabak and
  others, were thought likely to ally with bigger
  electoral lists in areas where they were not
  dominant.
• BBC, 3/8/2010, http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_e
  ast/8540347.stm

70
Iraq election turnout 62, officials say

• Voting to elect 325-member parliament.
• About 19 million eligible voters out of 28
  million
• Around 6,200 candidates from 86 factions
  competing
• 200,000 security personnel on duty in Baghdad
• Key issues Security, services and
  disqualification of alleged Baathists
• Previous votes Jan 2005 (transitional national
  assembly), Oct 2005 (constitution), Dec 2005
  first post-invasion parliament, Feb 2009 (local
  elections)
• BBC, 3/9/2010, http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_e
  ast/8556065.stm

71
Iraq coalition talks 'open to all' - Iyad Allawi

• The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly
  won Iraq's parliamentary election has offered to
  work with all parties to form a coalition
  government.
• Iyad Allawi said his Iraqiya bloc would start by
  talking with the rival State of Law alliance of
  Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, which it beat by two
  seats.
• Mr Maliki has refused to accept the result and
  said he would challenge the count through the
• courts.
• Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7
  March poll was credible.
• There is concern that a challenge to the result
  could be lengthy and divisive, endangering
  progress towards greater stability.
• Sectarian violence erupted in Iraq as politicians
  took months to form a government after the last
  parliamentary election in 2005.
• Police on Saturday raised the death toll to at
  least 52 from twin bombings a day earlier near a
  restaurant in the town of Khalis, 80km (50 miles)
  north of Baghdad. More than 70 people were
  injured in the blasts. BBC, 3/27/2010,
  http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8590630.stm

Iyad Allawi has appointed a member of his bloc to
begin coalition talks
72
Talabani, Hill discuss political moves and talks
among winning blocs

• Baghdad (NINA) President Jalal Talabani
  discussed on Thursday evening, Apr. 1, with
  American Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill,
  the on going political moves and talks among
  political blocs that won the election.In the
  meeting, Talabani stressed, The necessity to
  provide suitable ground for joint work and
  constructive cooperation toward entrenching
  genuine partnership in the coming
  government.He pointed out to the efforts being
  exerted to activate and expand dialogue among
  political forces toward consolidating national
  unity.They also discussed the Iraq-American
  relations on all levels.For his part,
  Ambassador Hill asserted his countrys resolve to
  go ahead in supporting Iraqs political and
  democratic process. / End
• NINA, 4/1/2010, http//www.ninanews.com/English/Ne
  ws_Details.asp?ar95_VQELLGEF

73
Video The secret files Washington, Israel and
the Gulf/ WETA, Washington. 1 videocassette
(VHS) (60 min.), DS63.2.U5 S34 1992, Scheduled to
be shown

• Discusses how secret agreements and documents,
  since declassified, helped to shape U.S. foreign
  policy which led to our involvement in the
  Persian Gulf War of 1991.
• The video reveals that in a 1943 secret memo to
  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, special envoy to
  the Middle East US Army Lt. Col. Harold Hoskins,
  warned against the creation of a Jewish state in
  Palestine Not only you as President but the
  American people as a whole should realize that,
  if the American government decides to support the
  establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine
  they are committing the American people to the
  use of force in that area, since only by force
  can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or
  maintained.

74
Video Unfinished BusinessAn expose on the U.S.
governments overt and covert attempts to oust
Sadam Hussein from power in IraqBy Peter
Jennings, ABC News, 1997
The CIA considered even depicting Saddam as
gay According to the Washington Post's security
blog, some of America's spooks believed that
shooting a fake video of Saddam cavorting with a
teenage boy might destabilise his regime in the
runup to the US-led invasion in 2003. "It would
look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very
grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex
session," the Washington Post quoted one former
CIA official as saying. Nor was the Saddam sex
tape the only idea floating around the more
bizarre corners of the CIA's Iraq Operations
Group. Other ploys involved interrupting Iraqi
television with a false newsflash that would
announce Saddam was handing over power to his
hated and feared son Uday. The presumed idea was
to shock the Iraqi people into rising up against
their leaders and thus make the invasion a lot
easier. Perhaps thankfully, the tape and fake
news broadcast were never made and the Post
reported that top CIA brass repeatedly rejected
the ideas. The Guardian, 5/26/2010,
http//www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/cia-sa
ddam-hussein-gay-sex-smear-plot

• The Anti-Saddam Comic Book PETER JENNINGS (VO)
  According to the Rendon group's own records,
  which we have obtained, Rendon spent more than
  23 million in the first year of its contract
  alone. Rendon organized a traveling photo exhibit
  of Iraqi atrocities. He produced videos and radio
  skits that ridiculed Saddam Hussein, even an
  anti-Saddam comic book. The mission to eliminate
  the Iraqi dictator began as a covert public
  relations campaign.

75
Video Paying the Price John Pilger exposes the
devastating effect that UN sanctions have had on
the children of Iraq. 2000

• In a hard-hitting special report, award-winning
  journalist and filmmaker John Pilger investigates
  the effects of sanctions on the people of Iraq
  and finds that ten years of extraordinary
  isolation, imposed by the UN and enforced by the
  US and Britain, have killed more people than the
  two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
• The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions and
  demanded the destruction of Saddam Hussein's
  chemical and biological weapons under the
  supervision of a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM).
  Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount of oil
  in exchange for some food and medicine.
• Pilger takes the former Assistant
  Secretary-General of the United Nations, Denis
  Halliday, back to the crippled country for the
  first time since he resigned in protest over the
  sanctions back in September 1998. Together, they
  reveal an extraordinary portrait of life in a
  country with a decaying infrastructure and a
  population that Pilger says is being held hostage
  to the compliance of Saddam Hussein.
• Pilger has brought back disturbing evidence that
  the "holds" on humanitarian supplies have
  paralyzed the country and devastated millions of
  people, many dying from curable diseases because
  life saving drugs are only available
  intermittently. He also finds that the breakdown
  of the clean water system and health facilities
  are having a tragic effect on young children,
  contributing to an alarming rise in their
  mortality rate.
• Pilger also exposes the suffering caused to the
  civilian population by the illegal bombing
  campaign being conducted by US and Britain in the
  "no-fly zones" in northern and southern Iraq.

76
Video Hijacking catastrophe 9/11, fear, the
selling of American empire

• This film discusses how the events of September
  11, 2001 have influenced United States politics,
  from advancing a pre-existing military agenda to
  curtailing civil liberties and social programs.
  Places the Bush administrations justifications
  for the war in the context of the struggle by
  neo-conservatives to increase American power
  globally by means of force. Contends that the
  administration has deliberately manipulated
  intelligence, political imagery, and fear to
  garner support for American military
  intervention.
• Written directed by Jeremy Earp Sut Jhally
  Produced by Jeremy Earp Edited by Kenyon King
  Includes the full 64 min. version, an abridged 34
  min. version, and 161 min. of additional footage,
  2004.

77
VideoIraqi Exodus The Iraq War and the Middle
Easts Refugee Crisis

• This Wide Angle report travels to the front lines
  of the staggering refugee crisis that continues
  to unfold in the Middle East as Iraqis flee their
  war-torn hometowns to live either as exiles in
  neighboring countries or dislocated within Iraqs
  borders. The situation in Syria and Jordan, where
  refugees cope with their new surroundings amidst
  government pressure and rising resentment from
  the local population, are spotlighted. In
  addition, Aaron Brown speaks with regional
  leaders about how the catastrophe is impacting
  the Middle Eastand these millions of homeless
  Iraqis whose hope of return grows dimmer with
  each passing year. HV 640.5 .I75 I73 2008 (57
  mn).
• http//video.pbs.org/video/1163078349/search/Iraqi
  20Exodus/tag/Iraqi20Exodus

78
Think Tanks

• In political strategy, a think tank is a group or
  an institution or a committee of experts
  organized to undertake intensive research and to
  give advice, especially to a government . Because
  they often receive funding from private donors,
  think tanks escape academic and government
  scrutiny and accountability.

79
Compare/contrast the views of the
neoconservatives (who support Israel) and the
conservatives (who oppose Israel) Pat Buchanan
Hitler wasn't a threat to U.S. http//www.youtube.
com/watch?vSrwk5WwroXYfeaturerelated CNN -
David Duke vs. Blitzer http//www.youtube.com/watc
h?vKpTKbrgUz-sfeaturerelated
The Neoconservative Branch of the Israel Lobby
Key neoconservative figures

• Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Wolfowitz,
  Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis "Scooter"
  Libby, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan,
  Michael Ledeen, William Kristol, Frank Gaffney
  Jr. Source The Christian Science Monitor, June
  2005
• If there is an intellectual movement in America
  to whose invention Jews ca