A Partially Birthed War Could have been Aborted, sources report
"As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal," the New York Times reported Wednesday night.
Boy, O boy, are we Zionist Cabalists in trouble now, or what? As a fellow mendacious Imperialist Infidel in good standing, I'm highly spooked by this bombshell expose'. Our whole shadowy plot to take over the world by force -- our nefarious scheme to destabilize the peaceful Middle East -- has, tragically, been exposed.
In an explosive development sure to rock Washington till the next Scott Peterson tidbit, very credible published reports (see above) say Iraqi intelligence officials, in a last-minute bid to avoid this horrible war we won and promote peace in our time, offered the U.S. a deal to allow U.S. agents into Iraq to search for banned weapons. These Iraqi officials told Bush officials, using a Lebanese-American businessman as go-between, the deal included handing over an al-Qaeda suspect linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (But this must be a typo because, as Barbra Streisand and other Iraq experts have 'splained patiently, there were no Iraq links to al-Qaeda or to bombings at the World Trade Center. Just ask Ramzi Yousef. And why would any sane terrorist think of fleeing to Baghdad when Saddam was so opposed to terrorism and al-Qaeda? Besides, Saddam said he locked the guy up -- only a year after his return -- but forgot to tell the world. Just like he forgot to tell the world that Iraq disarmed after kicking U.N. inspectors out in '98).
The Iraqi officials told the go-between, Imad El-Hage, to tell Washington that, in exchange for not toppling them, Saddam would have democracy up and running in 2 years. And he promised to stop hating and killing Jews so much -- no more money for Palestinian suicide bombers. Promise! It was the deal of a lifetime, a sweeping offer so generous, so breathtaking, only a Saddam-hater like Bush would dare turn it down.
But, tragically, Bush did. (Even more scandalous, Bush turned down lucrative oil bribes for Halliburton and Big Oil! How dare this Oil Cartel administration not act like an Oil Cartel administration?! Disgusting! Or did Bush deliberately trick Saddam into thinking this war was for oil, just to throw Saddam off track? Who knows if those NO BLOOD FOR OIL! protesters were secretly working for Karl Rove?)
We know the sad, sad story from there. After giving Saddam only 12-years to comply with U.N. resolutions, the U.S. rushed to war against Iraq in March and, after getting bogged down in a 48-hour quagmire, Bush then launched a 72-hour Operational Pause, toppling Saddam hours later as tanks operationally paused through Baghdad.
But why, besides the fact that Bush likes being mean to dictators, did Bush spurn the last-minute offer to make peace not war? I mean, it's not like Saddam has ever used stalling tactics before, no? Why would Bush not trust the nice Iraqi officials? Haven't agreements with Saddam always proven reliable? And doesn't this offer prove how Saddam just couldn't wait to comply with U.N. resolutions and that Bush couldn't wait to rush to war? And why was Saddam's offer to stop killing and hating Jews met with skepticism? Don't these epiphanies happen all the time? (The same way glowing employment reports from the Labor Dept. turn froth-at-the-mouth Bush-haters like Paul Krugman into die-hard Bush fans!) Besides, where's the evidence that Bush cares more about threats to U.S. security than Saddam and Nancy Pelosi do?
But wait. Why deal through back-channels? Arab pride, say experts on Arab pride. Saddam really wanted to comply with the U.N., but Arab pride got in the way. In short, the deal was to have 2 or 3 thousand Yanks scouring Iraq for WMD, all in secret. The world could not find out.
But, incredibly, the Bush people spurned El-Hage's wonderfully promising peace overture just because he turned out to be a shady arms smuggler and gunrunner. One of his clients was Liberia's Charles Taylor. El-Hage was busted at Dulles airport carrying a 45-caliber handgun and 4 stun guns in his luggage. He said he forgot he had them. This was back in January, right after a meeting at the Pentagon. Carrying a Liberian diplomatic passport, he was released. He hopped on a plane back to Lebanon. His chief U.S. contact, F. Michael Maloof, a Pentagon staffer, had been stripped of his security clearance, while El-Hage became the target of a federal probe for smuggling and gunrunning. Other than that, these were real credible guys! Can't you just feel the credibility here?
Oops, this just in...
According to very credible published reports, the Bush administration had a peace offer of its own. It was a serious peace plan, a final bid to avert war, in the form of an ultimatum to Saddam: You have 48 hours to skedaddle, or face war. The Associated Press reports that this offer was announced publicly, by President Bush himself, from the White House.
D e v e l o p i n g hard....
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
