Iran/Iraq - Same lies, more troops will die.

Despite the denials, when we examine the lies that were used in the build up of war in Iraq, the language and rhetoric is vrtually identical. There is an old saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me", and if ever this was relevant it is now. Remember, as the leaked official British Government Document reveals, "The policy of George Bush was to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD".But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" and now we are seeing a repeat, where intelligence and facts are being fixed to make the case for war in Iran by the Bush administration, whilst the media continues its roll as the propoganda mouthpiece by allowing quislings like Limbaugh and Hannity to scare the living daylights out of American citizens with alarmist and hyperbolic language about thr threat faced from Iran.

Because of the fiasco that is Iraq,(may I draw attention to the fact that a fundamentalist religious party has been elected, in George Bush`s "brave new democracy" in Iraq, completing negating the basic tenet of the founding fathers, seperation of church and state), the massive loss of life, on both sides, the crippling effect the war is having, economically on the USA the Bush administration are using Herman Goering`s advice as to how to "sell this war".

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. ...."Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

The Problem: Reaction: Solution philosophy that worked to achieve the Bush administration`s objective of War in Iraq is now being applied to Iran. However, as many of the alternative websites such as WRH now prove, those claims made in the build up to the Iraq war were lies, and you can find many lists of these lies on numerous sites including my own. To my knowledge this is the first list of what will be referred in the future as "the lies that were told about Iran".

"It's deja vu all over again, you have the secretary of defense [Donald Rumsfeld] talking about the problems of a nuclear-armed Iran. You have the vice president [Dick Cheney] warning about a nuclear-armed Iran and terrorism; you have [Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice saying, 'Force is not on the agenda -- yet." - David Kay, 9 February,2005

"States like (Iraq, Iran, & North Korea), and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." - George Bush, State of The Union, January 2002

"America and the international community are demanding that Iran meet its commitments and not develop nuclear weapons. America is committed to keeping the world's most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes."- George Bush, State of the Union, January 2005

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment need for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." – George Bush, October 7, 2002, Cincinnati.

"There's no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapons programme," US Under-secretary of State John Bolton February 12 2005

Iraq, despite UN sanctions, maintains an aggressive program to rebuild the infrastructure for its nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile programs. In each instance, Iraq’s procurement agents are actively working to obtain both weapons-specific and dual-use materials and technologies critical to their rebuilding and expansion efforts, using front companies and whatever illicit means are at hand. John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control , Speech to the Hudson Institute, November 1 2002.

" Iran is circumventing international export bans on sensitive dual-use materials by smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that can be used to make conventional and nuclear weapons, an Iranian dissident and a senior diplomat said Friday" - Washington Post

"My purpose is to share with you what the US knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as well as Iraq's involvement in terrorism. The material comes from a variety of sources. Iraq's behavior demonstrates that Saddam Hussein has made no effort to disarm. The facts show that Saddam is concealing his efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction." - Colin Powell, Speech to the UN Security Council February 5, 2003

President Bush and his foreign policy team believe that Tehran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons. Fox News - May 8, 2005

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. George Bush, State of the Union Address, January 28, 2003

"There is no doubt that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons production programme," John Bolton, February 2005

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002

"It all turns on this question of whether or not they should be enriching uranium. They claim they're doing it only for peaceful purposes, although there's some evidence to suggest that they have military aspirations and they're trying to acquire nuclear weapons." - Dick Cheney 7 Feb 2005

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." George Bush, Speech to UN General Assembly
September 12, 2002

"Iran offers cash for bombs to break Palestinian truce" - Times Online, April 3rd, 2005

"This is a regime which gave cash rewards to families of suicide bombers. This is a regime that sheltered terrorist groups," George Bush, Fort Lewis, June 18 2004.

"But nobody is talking about invasions of Iran or military action against Iran," Tony Blair, May 12 2005

"Conflict (in Iraq) is not inevitable," Tony Blair, 8 November, 2002

Iran has a long history of supporting terrorist groups determined to sow division and chaos in the Middle East. And there's every possibility they will try this strategy again." George Bush, March 8, 2005

The nexus of Iraq & terror is old. Iraqi denials of supporting terrorism take the place alongside the other denials of weapons of mass destruction. It is all a web of lies. When we confront a regime that harbors ambitions for regional domination, hides weapons of mass destruction & provides support for terrorists, we are not confronting the past, we are confronting the present. Unless we act, we are confronting an even more frightening future.- Colin Powell, Speech to the UN Security Council Feb 5, 2003

"Iran is itself a terrorist state, the world's worst. North Korea has committed terrorist atrocities, too [...] Both regimes are nightmarishly repressive; both regimes present intolerable threats to American security. We must move boldly against them both and against all other sponsors of terrorism as well" - Richard Perle, An End To Evil

Iraq harbors a terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago. Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of his specialties is poisons. When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish a training center in Iraq. Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization. In 2000 this agent offered Al Qaida safe haven in the region. - Colin Powell, Speech to the UN Security Council Feb 5, 2003

Iran has concealed its -- a nuclear program. That became discovered, not because of their compliance with the IAEA or NPT, but because a dissident group pointed it out to the world, - President Bush, March 16 2005

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." George Bush, February 8 2003

"The major technical problems that have kept terrorists from exploding improvised nuclear devices within American cities are solved once a terrorist regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran has the capability to manufacture a nuclear weapon and deliver it in containers to a major U.S. port," "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians," by Jerome R. Corsi .

"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly Saddam can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." - Condoleeza Rice, September 2002

"Iran, they're now a potential growing nuclear threat" - Sean Hannity - 11 December 2005

"And in northern Iraq today, this very day, al Qaeda is operating camps there" - Sean Hannity - 9 December 2002

"The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb.Separately, an Iranian opposition exile group charged in Paris that Iran is enriching uranium at a secret military facility unknown to U.N. weapons inspectors." - Colin Powell, 18 november, 2004

"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. If biological weapons seem too terrible to contemplate, chemical weapons are equally chilling" - Colin Powell, 5 February 2003

"It is not a straightforward problem but at some point the costs of doing nothing may just become too high. In Iran you have the intersection of nuclear weapons and proven ties to terrorism. That is what we are looking at now." - White House, 2004

"We are greatly concerned about any possible linkup between terrorists and regimes that have or seek weapons of mass destruction...In the case of Saddam Hussein, we've got a dictator who is clearly pursuing and already possesses some of these weapons.. A regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction" - Dick Cheney, 20 June 2002

"The first line of defense...should be a clear and classical statement of deterrence—if they do acquire WMD, their weapons will be unusable because any attempt to use them will bring national obliteration." - Condoleeza Rice, 1
February 2000

"These allegations only heighten our concerns that Iran continues to pursue nuclear activities and does not honour its commitments," - State Department spokesman Adam Ereli - 19 November 2004

"Iraq, despite UN sanctions, maintains an aggressive program to rebuild the infrastructure for its nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile programs. In each instance, Iraq’s procurement agents are actively working to obtain both weapons-specific and dual-use materials and technologies critical to their rebuilding and expansion efforts, using front companies and whatever illicit means are at hand." - John Bolton, 1 November 2002

"Iran should not use the cover of civilian nuclear power development ... to sustain a program that could lead to a nuclear weapon," Condoleeza Rice - February 9, 2005

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world" - Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary - 2 December 2002

"It's obvious that if Iran cannot be brought to live up to its international obligations that, in fact, the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] statutes would suggest that Iran has to be referred to the U.N. Security Council," - Condeleeza Rice , February 2005

"If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct." - Colin Powell, 28 February 2003

"They are a dangerous country."They're much more sophisticated than Iraq." -Sen. Jay Rockefeller, 14 February 2005

"We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases ... Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints." – George Bush, Oct. 7, 2002

"The implementation and verification of the agreement is critical." "Iran has failed to comply with its commitments many times over the course of the past year and a half" - White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 29 November 2004

"After eleven years during which we have tried containment, sanctions, inspections, even selected military action, the end result is that Saddam Hussein still has chemical and biological weapons and is increasing his capabilities to make more. And he is moving ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon" - George Bush - 7 October 2002

"The continued harassment and arrest of proponents of moderation, pluralism, and political reform are in violation of international standards of human rights" - Louis Fintor US State Department - 14 January, 2005

"Last year, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights found that Iraq continues to commit extremely grave violations of human rights, and that the regime's repression is all pervasive. Tens of thousands of political opponents and ordinary citizens have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, summary execution, and torture by beating and burning, electric shock, starvation, mutilation, and rape. Wives are tortured in front of their husbands, children in the presence of their parents -- and all of these horrors concealed from the world by the apparatus of a totalitarian state" - George Bush, September 2002

"The Iranian regime's human-rights behavior is something to be loathed." -Condoleezza Rice - 31 January 2005

"On Saddam Hussein's orders, opponents have been decapitated, wives and mothers of political opponents have been systematically raped as a method of intimidation, and political prisoners have been forced to watch their own children being tortured" - George Bush, 7 October 2002

The parallels with the build up to the war in Iraq are incredible.The loss of life in Iraq is staggering, not only the civilian casualties, but the military as well. However, should this administration through its rhetoric and possible future actions get approval to go war in Iran, the loss of life will be 10 fold, maybe even more as compared to Iraq. There is a saying that the only thing history teaches us is that we don`t learn from history - It is now time to prove that maxim wrong and prevent the deaths of thousands of brave and decent US and British troops.

I leave this blog with the ominous prediction made by Abraham Lincoln in 1865 -
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Peace