Secret Whitehall emails released yesterday provide damning new evidence that the notorious dossier making the case for invading Iraq was "sexed up".
They disclose that the intelligence services were sceptical over the "iffy drafting" of government claims that Saddam Hussein could mount a missile strike on his neighbours within 45 minutes of ordering an attack.
Officials privately mocked assertions that the Iraqi president was covertly trying to develop a nuclear capability and wisecracked that perhaps he had recruited "Dr Frankenstein" to his supposed crack team of nuclear scientists.
The release of a series of confidential memos and emails, following a protracted Freedom of Information battle, reignited the controversy over accusations that Tony Blair's government "spun" Britain into war.
The above is from the Press Association's "Secret emails show Iraq dossier was 'sexed up'." So will this one be the exposure that does the trick in England? Will it make a differnce? It should but Tony Blair and, now, Gordon Brown have managed to shove off the investigations over and over. And it needs to be noted that it's not just Brown (or, earlier, Blair) refusing to allow it. The Tories and the Liberal Democrats are for an inquiry, the Socialists are for one. So why do they not have the votes for an inquiry so far?
Because it's more important to Labour that they stand together as ONE WAR CRIMINAL. They are war criminals. They place their loyalty to Gordon or Tony above their loyalty to the people and country they are supposed to represent. They are more dedicated to preserving a lie than they are to doing their jobs. And the whole world can see it and laugh at them. Laugh at New Labour in the House of Commons and the House of Lords as New Labour in both houses refuse to do anything.
They think they can wish it away. They've done that before and the fact that the outrage in England hasn't reached a level that forces them to address it is rather surprising. (In the US, it should be noted, we've had nothing that counts from our Congress.) They have had real leaks that have been covered as such. And yet there's still been no accountability.
Again, that's not said from a "Look how wonderful we are in the US!" We're not. We can't even get an honest accounting of how many US service members are in Iraq. We get nothing but spin. And we accept it. We accept it and embrace it.
As John Ross notes at CounterPunch:
The first step in this charade of false closure is Obama's drawdown. The next is to make the citizens of the occupying power forget Iraq ever happened - a brainwashing that has been in process since the "success" of Bush's "surge." One problem though: how do you brainwash the brain dead?
Iraq has been erased from public discourse in the wake of an economic meltdown at least partially invoked by the vast outlays Bush pumped into the war to keep his killing machine choogling. The television networks long ago rolled up their crews and there will be no film of today's massacre on the Six O'clock news. U.S. news media have airlifted out their aces or reduced in-country staffs to a skeleton crew. When after seven years of corpses coming home to the Dover Delaware death distribution center, Obama-Bush Secretary of Defense Robert Gates authorized the press to run photos of flag-draped coffins (if they first obtain family permission), it came much too late for both those Americans who had perished in this heinous aggression and a newspaper industry that is now being interred in its own flag-draped coffin. The New York Times daily Iraq body count has now been combined with the U.S. dead in Afghanistan and the box wedged into a rat hole on the Middle East page.
That happens because we settle for it. The Iraq War isn't over because we settled for it. Barack's under no pressure because we settled for it. Until we're ready to stand up and say "ENOUGH!," nothing changes. One way to say enough is to join with The National Assembly to End the Wars, the ANSWER coalition, World Can't Wait and Iraq Veterans Against the War on March 21st for an action that says "NO!" to war. Or you can live with the ongoing illegal war and know that you have no reason to complain because when you could have stood up, you chose to recline.
You can watch the illegal war drag on and on and watch the media lose interest (reflecting the country's attitude?) or you can insist that action be taken now to end the illegal war.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4255. Tonight? 4257.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
john ross
