Weapons of Mass Distraction

Weapons of Mass Distraction

By Dennis Kucinich
Information Clearing House
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Ten years ago, on October 10, 2002, the United States House of
Representatives made one of the most calamitous mistakes of a generation.

Congress, with willful blindness, voted to attack, invade and occupy
a sovereign, oil-rich nation in the Middle East that did not attack us
and did not pose a threat to the American people.

The war in Iraq will ultimately cost the United States five trillion dollars.

Four thousand, four hundred, eighty eight Americans were killed.

Tens of thousands of Americans were injured.

At least one million innocent Iraqis were killed.

Iraq has become a home to Al Qaida which it certainly was not
before our intervention.

Resentment against the United States has made pursuing peace
more difficult.

And we still have thousands of armed contractors in Iraq -- paid
for by U.S. taxpayers.

Many are trying to rewrite the history of the Iraq war.

The people who led us into a war based on lies want us to believe
that the intelligence community was duped.

They don't want us to ask questions, because they don't want to
be held accountable.

Those repeating the myth that America was duped are perpetuating
one of the biggest lies in American history.

Iraq did not pose a threat to the United States.

Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.

We were not duped. We were not fooled.

It was obvious at the time.

The evidence was in publicly available reports for anyone who
cared to look.

I personally distributed this memo to Members of Congress.

In it I address the false justifications for war, point-by-point
and establish the truth.

I made the case in an hour-long presentation on the House floor.

133 Members of Congress were not duped; they voted against
going to war with Iraq.

The Bush Administration lied to the Congress and the American
people to sell its war.

The intelligence community wasn't duped, The American people
were duped and we are still paying the price.

Why did they lie?

After ten years, we have never held anyone accountable for the
lies.

Perhaps it would be useful to look at who benefited from the war.

The Neoconservatives in the Bush Administration wanted
to show the world American power by destroying an enemy.

They thought that American power and American bombs
could redraw the maps and ensure American hegemony
and American access to cheap oil for a new century.

Certainly the bomb makers and war profiteers have gained
from a decade of war.

The elite chattering class of State Department sponsored
spokespersons from so-called "independent" think tanks
have also benefited.

This professional chattering class receives funding and
attention by hyping threats and war.

Who else benefited from the war?

America needs a period of truth and reconciliation.

How can we avoid future wars if we don't understand
how consent was manufactured for a war against Iraq?



Dennis Kucinich is Congressman from Ohio

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32706.htm