With Malice Aforethought: Iraq, Permanent Bases, and Iran

(6:00PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Throughout the entire tenure of the George W. Bush Administration, they have been lying to us.  Congressional Republicans who served any time since 2001 can no longer deny their role and complicity. The final bits are coming to light now that vindicate the cries of those of us who insisted that the invasion of Iraq was intended from day one of this Administration’s tenure — long before 9-11 happened.

It also bodes ill for Iran’s short-term prospects.

There’s a dKos diary that hit with this news early — by Framlingham. Go give Recommends & tips.

The implications — for the US, for the next President, for the current pResident, for members of the GOP who were in Congress anytime during the 2001-2008 timeframe. Now, we’re talking about intention to deceive and malice aforethought.

Now we’re assured of an Administration leaving behind a unholy, historic legacy of treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity, dereliction of duty, war profiteering, negligence, graft, corruption, voter suppression, obstruction of justice, and even major violations of the RICO act.

The source article is in The Independent — that’s the one that Framingham cites, and is the one that I came across (hat-tip to pmeldrum of DelphiForums).  But it’s no surprise.  We knew this was coming.

The best diaries about this are the ones by Occams Hatchet from December of 2006.  He did several diaries on or tangential to the topic (see here), but the best two are ISG + PNAC = O-I-L and Georgie Bush gets his pony.

From ISG + PNAC = O-I-L there’s this:

_____

In September 2000,  PNAC came out with its seminal work, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, (PDF file) which contained, among much else, the following passages:

From an American perspective, the value of such bases would endure even should Saddam pass from the scene. Over the long term, Iran may well prove as large a threat to U.S. interests in the Gulf as Iraq has. And even should U.S.-Iranian relations improve, retaining forward-based forces in the region would still be an essential element in U.S. security strategy given the longstanding American interests in the region.

[snip]

As a supplement to forces stationed abroad under long-term basing arrangements, the United States should seek to establish a network of deployment bases or forward operating bases to increase the reach of current and future forces. Not only will such an approach improve the ability to project force to outlying regions, it will help circumvent the political, practical and financial constraints on expanding the network of American bases overseas.

[snip]

elements of U.S. Army Europe should be redeployed to Southeast Europe, while a permanent unit should be based in the Persian Gulf region [emphases added]

That study was signed by, among others, Paul Wolfowitz, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and William Kristol.

_____

Read the whole piece.

Although this excerpt steals the meat from the nut, from Georgie Bush gets his pony, there’s this:

_____

With all this manure, there must be pony in here somewhere. And, in fact, amidst this huge steaming pile — Little Georgie Bush has found his pony.

From page 84, in the section titled, “The Oil Sector”:

The U.S. military should work with the Iraqi military and with private security forces to protect oil infrastructure and contractors.

– and further:

RECOMMENDATION 63:

  • The United States should encourage investment in Iraq’s oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies.
  • The United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise, in order to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability.[snip]
  • The United States should support the World Bank‘s efforts to ensure that best practices are used in contracting. This support involves providing Iraqi officials with contracting templates and training them in contracting, auditing, and reviewing audits.

Hmm — the same World Bank headed by arch-neocon Paul Wolfowitz, perhaps?

And, from page 61:

RECOMMENDATION 22: The President should state that the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Iraq. If the Iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the U.S. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government.

Not, “will not put” permanent bases; just, “does not seek” them. Oh, and if the Iraqi government should “request” them, why, then, we’ll think about accommodating that request.

RECOMMENDATION 23: The President should restate that the United States does not seek to control Iraq’s oil.

“The United States” does not seek to control Iraq’s oil — that’s right, the government of the United States does not seek to; rather, “international energy companies” seek to control Iraq’s oil.

Finally, from page xvi:

By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq. At that time, U.S. combat forces in Iraq could be deployed only in units embedded with Iraqi forces, in rapid-reaction and special operations teams, and in training, equipping, advising, force protection, and search and rescue. Intelligence and support efforts would continue. . .

It is clear that the Iraqi government will need assistance from the United States for some time to come, especially in carrying out security responsibilities.

_____

Go read — and save a copy of — the whole thing.

Take a few minutes to digest the implications and give kudos below to Occams Hatchet for his 2006 work, and to Framingham for catching this news quickly.

I’ll have more analysis later in the week and early next week.

13 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. detailed analyses.

    Do not let this get ignored by the media — this is prima-whatever type of evidence that shows original intent and invalidates every lie out of the Bush White House as well as serves as a thorough indictment of the complicity of the GOP Congressional members who helped carry the water for this criminal misAdministration.

    We are no longer talking impeachment.

    Now we’re talking treason.

    War crimes.

    Racketeering.

    War profiteering.

    …all now strongly indicated and unable to deny proper investigation and prosecution.

  2. by the American people to pry the empire’s claws from all that oil. A new Democratic president will be under tremendous pressure from the power elite to “stay the course.”  

  3. has taken down it’s website.  The floating brigs in the Navy has been documented as well as CIA airlines to your friendly torture nation.  We have had Gitmo, Lynndie England and even a proud puppy chucking Marine.  Even Disney has plans of a Bagdhad compound so no, we are not leaving, not ever.

    It is much larger than oil though, it was Henry Kissinger’s comment that what we in the west call terrorist are people who don’t embrace the global paradigms.  This is the supra-national Davos set, those who profit in up or down markets with total contempt for nations and the people that live in them.

    Iraq will fad away in the memory of people who pointed to Austraila and said we should invade Iran next.  That is the product of zombi-news on several generations now.  The heir apparent to the Bush throne is on to bigger and better things.  Can’t be bothered with this measly justice and law crap.  He has the world to feed and globalists to make deals with.  Let the carbon trading emporium open for business and the National Rifle Association fade away along with the memory of Carelton Heston.

    I do, I really do see people standing around trash fires in 55 gallon drums trying to keep warm in the winter.

  4. There’s nothing new in Scott McClellan’s book about the propaganda campaign or the role of the press in selling the war, so why is it such big news? Journalists Jonathan Landay and John Walcott of McClatchy newspapers and Greg Mitchell of EDITOR & PUBLISHER examine the performance of the press in the lead up to the war, the reaction of the administration and the media to McClellan’s book, and how the press is handling other important stories today. Landay and Walcott were part of an award-winning team of journalists at Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) that consistently challenged the administration’s case for war and Mitchell is the author of SO WRONG FOR SO LONG: HOW THE PRESS, THE PUNDITS – AND THE PRESIDENT – FAILED ON IRAQ.

    Check Local Listings

    We All Knew They Knew, by ‘We All’, the Focus Groups that 0ver 70% of this Country Refused To Listen To!!!!

    Remember the report that the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee refused to complete, that ranking Democrat Jay Rockefeller raised hell over for years, even shutting down the Senate over it? Well, a mere year and a half after becoming Chairman, Rockefeller has quietly slipped this report out under the door.

    Bush knew Iraq claims weren’t true Senate Intelligence Committee Report!

    The PDF of the Report

    • Viet71 on June 6, 2008 at 01:26

    get away with it, any future president will be able to also.

    This needs to laid before the American people.

    If the people don’t give a shit, then screw it all.

    But the people should be given an honest, effective, clear picture of what has happened.

  5. “we told you so” but some of us here, and elsewhere prior to coming here, have been saying this even since before shock and awe. The PNAC documents were clear enough to see where this was going. Bush and his gang have been lying all along and many of our lawmakers knew it and impeachment was never close to being on the table. In short many of them are complicit.

    Something else that should be mentioned is that Iraq’s oil money, with Iraq being no less than an occupied colony of the US, will be used primarily to purchase goods and services from the US. It will be used as a new and wealthy market for US products and as a source of cheap labor and of course as a source for raw materials – oil, gas, water. Most of the wealth will end up in empire America. History has repeated itself over and over again in this same pattern.

    This goes back to what the definition of “our national interests”. The PNAC documents do not define our national interests because they already know what they are – unfettered access to the primary products and raw materials, to the labor and to the markets of foreign countries. Soon, if all goes according to plan, Iraq will be ours to exploit as we see fit.

    Thanks for keeping this story going Grey Hawk. The US corporate media has been largely silent on this topic, good little boys and girls, loyal subjects of the empire. Pew research reports today

    The war is no longer the top priority among voters, having been displaced by soaring concerns about the economy…

    .

Comments have been disabled.