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Fmr. Pentagon Insider Blasts Bush's Iraq Speech and Repeated
References to 9/11
Journalist Patrick Cockburn Calls Iraq a "Bloody Mess"
One Year After Handover of "Sovereignty"
Mother of Soldier Killed in Iraq: "The Best Way To Honor
My Son's Death Would Be To Bring The Troops Home"
Iraqi Blogger Criticizes Western Media For Excluding Iraqi
Voices
Rahul Mahajan: "Bush Trots Out Bin Laden to Justify
Anything He is Doing"
Fmr. Pentagon Insider Blasts Bush's Iraq Speech and
Repeated References to 9/11
In a primetime address to the nation, President Bush defended
the war in Iraq and rejected calls to set a deadline for withdrawing
U.S. troops. In his speech, Bush repeatedly tried to connect
the war in Iraq to September 11 even though Iraq had no role
in the attacks. We speak with former Pentagon insider, Lt.
Col. Karen Kwiatkowski. [includes rush
transcript]
In a primetime address to the nation, President Bush defended
the war in Iraq and rejected calls to set a deadline for withdrawing
U.S. troops.
Bush repeatedly tried to connect the war in Iraq to September
11 even though Iraq had no role in the attacks. The White
House had titled his remarks a discussion on "the War
on Terror," not Iraq. The President used much of his
speech to portray the resistance in Iraq and the perpetrators
of 9/11 as the same. While there was no mention of the original
rationale for the invasion: the claim that Saddam Hussein
possessed weapons of mass destruction, Bush mentioned September
11th five times in his address and used the word "terror"
or "terrorism" 34 times. The President also made
a rare reference to Osama bin Laden, quoting him as a reason
for staying the course.
Bush acknowledged no flaw in the administration's Iraq policy.
He refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops
in Iraq despite repeated calls by lawmakers, including an
increasing number of Republicans, for the president to do
so. He also argued against sending more troops saying it would
undermine US strategy. Over 1,700 US troops have been killed
so in Iraq and many thousands more wounded.
Bush's speech came 25 months after the invasion began and
at a time that domestic support for the war has reached an
all time low. The Washington Post writes, "increasingly
restive White House advisers concluded a couple of weeks ago
that Bush needed to use his bully pulpit to reclaim control
of the political debate over Iraq."
In the past few weeks, the Bush administration has given
mixed messages on Iraq. Vice-President Dick Cheney has said
the insurgency is in its "last throes". But Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that it could last up to
12 years.
After some initial reluctance, all three major networks broadcast
the speech, which the White House scheduled to mark the first
anniversary of the so-called handover of sovereignty in Iraq.
Since then, 948 U.S. soldiers have died; thousands of Iraqis
have been killed; a total of fifty-two senior Iraqi government
or religious figures have been assassinated; and the number
of Iraqi military and police being killed each month has jumped
by fifty percent.
Bush delivered the speech from Fort Bragg before hundred
of US troops. They stood at attention without applauding as
Bush entered, and refrained from clapping during most of the
address. There was one round of applause in the middle of
the speech, which was apparently sparked by a White House
aide - this according to the Los Angeles Times.
Today, we spend the hour going through President Bush's speech.
We host a roundtable discussion with a former Pentagon official,
a veteran Middle East journalist and a mother who lost her
son in Iraq. First let's go to President Bush's opening remarks
last night.
- Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (Ret.), retired Air Force
lieutenant colonel who served in the Pentagon's Near East
and South Asia (NESA) unit in the year before the invasion
of Iraq. Her articles can be found at LewRockwell.com.
Journalist Patrick Cockburn Calls Iraq a "Bloody
Mess" One Year After Handover of "Sovereignty"
We speak with Middle East journalist Patrick Cockburn of
the Independent (UK) who finds that since the so-called handover
of sovereignty in Iraq, 948 U.S. soldiers have died; thousands
of Iraqis have been killed; 52 senior Iraqi government or
religious figures have been assassinated; and the number of
Iraqi military and police being killed each month has jumped
by fifty percent.
Patrick Cockburn's article, "Iraq:
A Bloody Mess" from the London Independent:
A year ago the supposed handover of power by the US occupation
authority to an Iraqi interim government led by Iyad Allawi
was billed as a turning point in the violent history of
post-Saddam Iraq.
It has turned out to be no such thing. Most of Iraq is
today a bloody no-man's land beset by ruthless insurgents,
savage bandit gangs, trigger-happy US patrols and marauding
government forces.
On 28 June 2004 Mr Allawi was all smiles. "In a few
days, Iraq will radiate with stability and security,"
he promised at the handover ceremony. That mood of optimism
did not last long.
On Sunday the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld,
told a US news programme that the ongoing insurgency could
last "five, six, eight, ten, twelve years".
Yesterday in London, after meeting Tony Blair, the new
Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, tried to be more
upbeat, commenting: "I think two years will be enough
and more than enough to establish security".
Tonight President George Bush will make his most important
address since the invasion, speaking to troops at the US
army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He is expected
to seek to assure increasingly sceptical Americans that
he has a plan to prevail in Iraq, and that the US is not
trapped in a conflict as unwinnable as the one in Vietnam,
three decades ago.
The news now from Iraq is only depressing. All the roads
leading out of the capital are cut. Iraqi security and US
troops can only get through in heavily armed convoys. There
is a wave of assassinations of senior Iraqi officers based
on chillingly accurate intelligence. A deputy police chief
of Baghdad was murdered on Sunday. A total of 52 senior
Iraqi government or religious figures have been assassinated
since the handover. In June 2004 insurgents killed 42 US
soldiers; so far this month 75 have been killed.
The "handover of power" last June was always
a misnomer. Much real power remained in the hands of the
US. Its 140,000 troops kept the new government in business.
Mr Allawi's new cabinet members became notorious for the
amount of time they spent out of the country. Safely abroad
they often gave optimistic speeches predicting the imminent
demise of the insurgency.
more
- Patrick Cockburn, journalist with the London
Independent. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn
prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on
Iraq over the past year.
Mother of Soldier Killed in Iraq: "The Best
Way To Honor My Son's Death Would Be To Bring The Troops Home"
As President Bush refuses to set a timetable for the withdrawal
of troops from Iraq, we speak with Cindy Sheehan, her son,
Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004. Sheehan calls on President
Bush to withdraw the over 130,000 troops from Iraq and for
Congress to investigate the Downing Street minutes.
Iraqi Blogger Criticizes Western Media For Excluding
Iraqi Voices
We speak with Faiza Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger about President
Bush's speech and the occupation of Iraq. Jarrar says, "When
does Bush care about the Iraqi people? Iraq is a 25 million
population. Who will go to ask them 'what is your attitude
about this war' or 'what is your future' or 'what is your
plan to leave?'"
Rahul Mahajan: "Bush Trots Out Bin Laden to
Justify Anything He is Doing"
We speak with Middle East analyst Rahul Mahajan the 130,000
U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and President Bush's rare reference
to Osama bin Laden in his primetime address.
- Rahul Mahajan, author of "Full Spectrum Dominance:
U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond." He runs a blog at empirenotes.org.
He joins us on the line from Austin, Texas.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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