Dear Pat:
I think it truly bewildering to watch Sen. Graham and this whole administration start to push al Queda as the major threat in Iraq at a time when Iraqi nationalist elements have finally become its effective antagonists.
Lest we forget, the Bush group knew NOTHING about al Qaeda when it entered office nor did it care to learn. In December 1999, the president-elect went to the White House to talk with President Clinton. When the two men were alone, Bush asked for Clinton’s advice on foreign policy and Clinton said, "My only advice to anybody in this is to get a good team and do what you think is right." Clinton then told Bush he had read his campaign statements carefully and saw that Bush’s top defense priorities were building a national missile defense system and dealing with Iraq. Clinton proposed a new set of priorities in order of importance: al Qaeda, Middle East diplomacy, North Korea and nuclear competition in South Asia, listing Iraq last. Bush did not respond.
With good reason. Bush’s group had no understanding of al Qaeda. It’s mind was locked in the ice of Cold War strategic terms: rogue nations and "state-sponsored terror." They had not the slightest grasp of a terrorist organiztion consisting of small lethal cells with no national boundaries that was operating out of sight in 60 countries. The new Bush NSC had actually downgraded the position of National Coordinator for Counterterrorism; it was no longer a cabinet level position. Richard Clarke did not have his first meeting with Bush Deputies like Condi Rice’s Steve Hadley and Wolfowtiz, Rumsfeld’s deputy at Defense until April 2000! When Clarke started to talk of bin Laden as the single most immediate and dangerous threat America faced, Deputy SecDef Paul Wolfowitz bristled. "Well, there are others that do that as well, at least as much. Iraqi terrorism, for example."
Clarke replied he was unaware of any Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed at the United States since 1993.
"You give bin Laden too much credit," said Wolfowitz, and said Iraq had been responsible for the 1993 attack on the world Trade Center in New York, repeating the theme of a completely discredited book by Laurie Mylroie that blamed Iraq, when in fact al Qaeda had been involved.
Wolfowitz disliked the Clinton policy of containment of Saddam. Wolfowitz also believed that Saddam was busy attempting to build WMD, in spite of the fact that Saddam’s son-in-law, Kamel, who ran those programs, said that they had been destroyed.
Once again, the Clinton group tried to convince the Bush group that al Queda, not Iraq, was the major threat confronting the United States. On Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 just ten days before Bush’s inauguration, the Bush team had met to be briefed by outgoing Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Iraq, Cohen said was weakened and contained. The United States controlled a no-fly zone in the northernmost 10 percent of the country, and in Operation Southern Watch, the US patrolled the entire southern half of Iraq almost to Baghdad suburbs. Cohen told the new group that it would soon see the reality about Iraq. They would not find much support among the neighboring countries for any strong action against Baghdad, which would mean if they launched an all out attack they would have to go it alone. Cohen didn’t think air strikes world accomplish much, and he felt the new group would back off and find "reconciliation" with Saddam whom Cohen believed was effectively contained and isolated. He might as well have saved his breath.
The attacks of Sept. 11, undercut the moderates in the administration like Colin Powell, and incrededibly, as we all know, it sharpened the interest in attacking Iraq. A few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Greg Newbold, a three-star general and chief operations deputy from the Joint Chiefs of Staff ran into Doug Feith. Said Newbold, "You could still smell he smoke in the corridors. In the middle of this I assured Feith that we were working hard on Afghanistan. Feith told him, `Why are you working on Afghanistan? You ought to be working on Iraq "
Surely this whole Iraqi episode will stun later generations just as the era before and just after Munich stuns us today.
With greetings to all.
Richard Sale
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