via Lew Rockwell Blog.
He discusses the administration's evidence for the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection... When the administration first came out with this justification, I defended it as much as I could, in order to give the administration the benefit of the doubt. And also to rebut those who would assume that they would know more than the administration, based on their liberal sources, various columnists and websites. I would refer to the Weekly Standard, since it was one of the biggest defenders of the connection. (And of course they would knock the WS down as being unreliable and partisan.)
Does loyalty require that I defend the administration, when I do not have evidence that it is lying? Or should I doubt their case, even if I do not have anything to back up my doubt?
Even now I don't think my question of whether hostilities can be resumed if the terms of a cease-fire agreement are violated, or if just war theory needs to applied afresh, hasn't been answered, but I suspect that ceasefires that last too long may become some sort of de facto peace settlement.
I don't know if the war was unjust as a response to those violations; but I didn't think it was prudent either, since to undertake nation-building when one does not have the capacity to do so is folly. (Hence, for that reason the war fails to meet the criteria for just war, and it fails on other accounts as well...)
U.S. Department of Defense Official Website; the report (from FAS.org); Curtis Bowman: Declassified Pentagon Report on Iraq and Al-Qaeda; Pentagon report debunks prewar Iraq-Al Qaeda connection ...
2 comments:
The U.S. Department of Defense, headquartered in the Pentagon, is one of the most massive organizations on the planet, with net annual operating costs of $635 billion, assets worth $1.3 trillion, liabilities of $1.9 trillion and more that 2.9 million military and civilian personnel as of fiscal year 2005.
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak. I believed another Vietnam could be avoided with defined missions and the best armaments in the world.
It made no difference.
It is difficult to convey the complexity of the way DOD works to someone who has not experienced it. This is a massive machine with so many departments and so much beaurocracy that no president, including Bush totally understands it.
Presidents, Congressmen, Cabinet Members and Appointees project a knowledgeable demeanor but they are spouting what they are told by career people who never go away and who train their replacements carefully. These are military and civil servants with enormous collective power, armed with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Defense Industrial Security Manuals, compartmentalized classification structures and "Rice Bowls" which are never mixed.
Our society has slowly given this power structure its momentum which is constant and extraordinarily tough to bend. The cost to the average American is exhorbitant in terms of real dollars and bad decisions. Every major power structure member in the Pentagon's many Washington Offices and Field locations in the US and Overseas has a counterpart in Defense Industry Corporate America. That collective body has undergone major consolidation in the last 10 years.
What used to be a broad base of competitive firms is now a few huge monoliths, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing and SAIC. If you would like to read how they control our government, please see:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
Government oversight committees are carefully stroked. Sam Nunn and others who were around for years in military and policy oversight roles have been cajoled, given into on occasion but kept in the dark about the real status of things until it is too late to do anything but what the establishment wants. This still continues - with increasing high technology and potential for abuse.
Please examine the following link to testimony given by Franklin C. Spinney before Congress in 2002. It provides very specific information from a whistle blower who is still blowing his whistle (Look him up in your browser and you get lots of feedback) Frank spent the same amount of time as I did in the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) but in government quarters. His job in government was a similar role to mine in defense companies. Frank's emphasis in this testimony is on the money the machine costs us. It is compelling and it is noteworthy that he was still a staff analyst at the Pentagon when he gave this speech. I still can't figure out how he got his superior's permission to say such blunt things. He was extremely highly respected and is now retired.
http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/spinney_testimony_060402.htm
The brick wall I often refer to is the Pentagon's own arrogance. It will implode by it's own volition, go broke, or so drastically let down the American people that it will fall in shambles. Rest assured the day of the implosion is coming. The machine is out of control.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting on this blog entitled, "Odyssey of Armaments"
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html
On the same subject, you may also be interested in the following sites from the "Project On Government Oversight", observing it's 25th Anniversary and from "Defense In the National Interest", inspired by Franklin Spinney and contributed to by active/reserve, former, or retired military personnel.
http://pogo.org/
http://www.d-n-i.net/top_level/about_us.htm
everythings not as it seems about this guy....
Left wing Radio WBAI, NPR, and AIR AMERICA all proudly aired propaganda from former CIA agent Robert Baer, now an advocate of “911 Truth”. You can learn something from his circle of friends in the Middle East, and how his story has changed since 9/11. His screenwriter, Syriana Gaghan, makes some chilling descriptions of how the “real” special interests behind the scenes manipulate public opinion and create violence.
So to understand the infiltration of the “9/11 Truth” movement , watch this video and read the information slides (PRESS PAUSE IF THEY GO BY TOO FAST), It shows how Robert Baer, who claims fore knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, made different contradictory explanations of 9/11 on famous left wing shows like Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, and Air America, as well as on various MSM shows, as part of an evolving set of lies to conceal the real conspiracy covered up by the President, and the 9/11 Truth movement itself. Decoding the lies points the investigation not at the Pentagon, but at a private transnational criminal syndicate, allied with the Gulf States, and located in London, true heirs of the Saudi funded Iran-Contra Terrorist group. This is exactly the group accused by Putin’s newspaper PRAVDA, in July 2001, before the attacks even occurred.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6714641053340946546
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