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November 17, 2003
The Australian Prime Minister continues to build a firewall around the reasons for Australia jumping on the US imperial adventure in Iraq. 'WE ACTED ON THE ADVICE given by the intelligence organizations', Howard says. We citizens cannot see that advice to make our own judgements, since the intelligence advice remains secret.
So the name of the game is to shut out the general public, muffle the debate and forestall the judgements of citizens. The name of the game is to keep the lid on democracy.
We know that it basically came from the US, as Howard pretty much parroted the Washington line. Here is a good evaluation of that US intelligence advice by Thomas Powers in the New York Review of Books. What we have is:
'...the insistence of the President that Iraq threatened America, the willingness of the CIA to create a strong case for war out of weak evidence, and the readiness of Congress to ignore its own doubts and go along..."My colleagues," Colin Powell said at the UN, "every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources.... What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence." But now, only six months later, we have ample reason to conclude that the intelligence wasn't solid at all, there was no need for war, Iraq's weapons of mass destruction didn't exist.'
What then of the aftermath?:---- the argument that the war was worthwhile since the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein is history. Well, the postwar planning is a disaster. We have ongoing war with US occupation and nationalist resistance.
And the US is looking for a quick exit strategy that will restore sovereignty to the Iraqi people, whilst arranging things so that the Iraqi's do not elect an anti-American government.
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Yep, the Yanks are evil, no doubt about it.