Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 22, 2008 10:45:10 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The Neocons' "October Surprise" Arrived Two Months Early
Remember, via his U.S. ambassador, President George HW Bush misled
Saddam Hussein into believing that the U.S. wouldn't get involved if
Saddam crossed the border into Kuwait. Then ... OUTRAGE! Iraqi
Aggression! Persian Gulf War I!
Saddam Hussein met with the American ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie
on July 25, 1990, to seek out the U. S. position on an Iraqi invasion
of Kuwait.
The following is part of the transcript of the conversation:
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie: I have direct instruction from President Bush
to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for
your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your
confrontation with Kuwait. ... We can see that you have employed
massive numbers of troops in the south. Normally that would be none of
our business but when this happens in the context of your threats
against Kuwait, then it would be reasonable for us to be concerned.
For this reason, I have received instructions to ask you, in the
spirit of friendship, not confrontation -- regarding your intentions.
Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait's border?
Saddam Hussein: As you know, for years I have made every effort to
reach a settlement in our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a
meeting in two days. I am prepared to give negotiations one more
chance. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it would be
natural that Iraq will not accept death.
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie: What solutions would be acceptable?
Saddam Hussein: [After listing conditions]. What is the United States
opinion on this?
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie: We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab
conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary of State James
Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to
Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/BushI_Iraq_LFE.html
In March 1991, [Glaspie] testified before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and on the basis of a cable she sent to Washington about
the July 25, 1990 meeting, she was accused of misleading Congress.
From the NY Times:
"Leading Senators today accused the former United States Ambassador to
Iraq of misleading Congress in March when she testified about a
crucial meeting with President Saddam Hussein eight days before his
forces invaded Kuwait. The Senators’ remarks came after they reviewed
several secret cables, particularly one from the Ambassador, April C.
Glaspie, summarizing the meeting. The cables were provided by the
State Department to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week
…. Indeed, her summary of her conversation stated that she had “made
clear that we can never excuse settlement of disputes by other than
peaceful means.” But the cables themselves do not show her having
spoken of Kuwait’s “vital” relationship with the United States, and
most of her remarks appeared to be aimed at mollifying the Iraqi leader.
http://www.truthvmachine.com/?p=5689
Did McCain Help
Bait Russia into Georgia?
Joe Lauria
August 17, 2008 | 09:30 AM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-lauria/did-mccain-help-bait-russ_b_119395.html
Now that the dust is settling the big question about the dust-up in
Georgia remains: Why was Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili so
stupid to start this war?
There are a couple of theories. One is Saakashvili was under the
mistaken impression the US military, even NATO, would intervene if
Russia fought back after Georgia entered the breakaway province of
South Ossetia on 7-8 August, devastating Tskhinvali, and according to
Moscow, killing a number of Russian peacekeepers.
The US stood on the sidelines when Russia indeed punished Georgia.
Georgian civilians at first told Western reporters they were angry at
America for not coming to their aid. Then several days later many
started to blame Saakashvili for creating such a mess.
It seems hard to imagine he would have tried to seize South Ossetia if
he were not led to believe he had American backing. According to
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, joint US-Georgian military
exercises code-named Immediate Response ended just hours before
Georgian troops moved into the province.
Churkin says the Americans gave Saakashvili a "green light." But there
was no immediate response from the United States.
It looks like Saakashvili and Russia were both set up.
By eliciting a heavy-handed Russian response, American political
leaders, and their mouthpieces in the corporate media, can blame
Russia and revive misplaced Cold War analogies. They falsely portray
Russia as the brutal aggressor, bent on violently overthrowing the
Georgian regime, with Ukraine and others to follow.
Condoleezza Rice called Russia's intervention the new 1968 Soviet
intervention in Czechoslovakia. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Barack Obama's
chief foreign policy adviser, compared it to the Soviet invasion of
Finland. Right wing radio hosts are rabid about the new Russian
"threat." The New York Times writes about Russia's supposed challenge
to democracies.
Who benefits most from painting this a revival of Soviet-era aggression?
John McCain.
The Georgian crisis has created a campaign issue McCain can run on.
McCain's best chance to win, unless Obama self-destructs, is to
portray himself as the Cold War-era war hero ready to do battle again
against our old Cold War adversary. McCain is yesterday's man, so
revive yesterday's "threat." He stood up to Russia while his opponent
was out fishing in Hawaii.
A compliant media will keep the phony Russian threat an issue
throughout the campaign. It could even raise Condi Rice's vice
presidential fortunes, as her only expertise was the former Soviet
Union. The original Cold War was based on manufactured threats. The
new trumped up threats about Russia will make Condi's experience
"relevant" again. They can both run on Russia.
So did the Bush administration provoke Moscow to help elect McCain and
keep neo-conservative foreign policy alive? Was McCain himself
involved in setting this Russian bear trap?
On April 17, the Washington Post reports, he had a telephone
conversation with Saakashvili, set up by McCain's chief foreign policy
adviser neocon Randy Scheunemann, who at the time was still being paid
by his friend Saakashvili as a registered foreign agent for Georgia.
After the conversation, McCain issued a statement, written by
Scheunemann, in which he warned Russia over Georgian sovereignty in
South Ossetia. Later that day, Scheunemann's Orion Strategies lobbying
firm signed a new $200,000 deal with Georgia: all in a day's work.
Scheunemann is a leading neo-conservative lobbyist for oil companies
and arms manufacturers who has enriched himself and his clients by
pushing for war, notably in Iraq. He has been an important player in
Georgia, where the United States has poured hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid and military hardware, mostly to protect the Baku-
Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that bypasses Russia and Iran on its way to
Turkey.
The US has more than a hundred military advisers in the country and US
Special Forces have trained the Georgian military. The Bush
administration and Scheunemann were championing Georgia's bid to join
NATO. The administration has angered Russia by becoming so heavily
involved in Moscow's backyard in competition for pipeline routes. This
rivalry will grow fiercer as recoverable oil becomes scarcer.
American officials say they privately told Saakashvili not to provoke
Russia. Rice was in Tbilisi last month and supposedly told Saakashvili
not to start a war. But as The New York Times reported: "Ms.
Rice's ...visit to Tbilisi demonstrates the accumulation of years of
mixed messages may have made the American warnings fall on deaf ears.
The United States took a series of steps that emboldened Georgia:
sending advisers to build up the Georgian military, including an
exercise last month with more than 1,000 American troops; pressing
hard to bring Georgia into the NATO orbit; ... and loudly proclaiming
its support for Georgia's territorial integrity in the battle with
Russia over Georgia's separatist enclaves."
Its not surprising Saakashvili was convinced the U.S. would come to
his aid, the way Hungarian rebels believed the U.S. would in 1956.
Scheunemann organized McCann's two trips to Georgia and set up that
phone call. McCain refers to the Georgian president as "my friend
Misha" and phoned him several times a day during the crisis. Did
Scheunemann and McCain contribute to Saakashvili's impression that the
US would come to his rescue?
We may never know the answer to that question. But we can be certain
that the phony "resurgent Russian threat" narrative, if the electorate
buys it, could propel John McCain into the White House, unless it is
exposed as the ploy it seems to be.
It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal
here.
