Does Iraq truly threaten the existence of our nation? If one takes at face value the rhetoric emanating from the Bush administration, it would seem so. According to President Bush and his advisers, Iraq is known to possess weapons of mass destruction and is actively seeking to reconstitute the weapons production capabilities that had been eliminated by UN weapons inspectors from 1991 to 1998, while at the same time barring the resumption of such inspections.
I bear personal witness through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the United Nations to both the scope of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and the effectiveness of the UN weapons inspectors in ultimately eliminating them.
While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.
With the exception of mustard agent, all chemical agent produced by Iraq prior to 1990 would have degraded within five years (the jury is still out regarding Iraq's VX nerve agent program - while inspectors have accounted for the laboratories, production equipment and most of the agent produced from 1990-91, major discrepancies in the Iraqi accounting preclude any final disposition at this time.)
The same holds true for biological agent, which would have been neutralized through natural processes within three years of manufacture. Effective monitoring inspections, fully implemented from 1994-1998 without any significant obstruction from Iraq, never once detected any evidence of retained proscribed activity or effort by Iraq to reconstitute that capability which had been eliminated through inspections.
In direct contrast to these findings, the Bush administration provides only speculation, failing to detail any factually based information to bolster its claims concerning Iraq's continued possession of or ongoing efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. To date no one has held the Bush administration accountable for its unwillingness - or inability - to provide such evidence.
Here's a report on what Scott Ritter is saying now:
Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.
[snip]
On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.
The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.
Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.
On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next strategic target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military’s war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans’ negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act."
Don't forget, Ritter was right the first time.
Here's something else to chew on: The Selective Service Administration Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 2004 states the following goals for its "strategic objectives":
Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters,
442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within 75 days of an authorized
return to conscription.
How success will be measured:
Meet the established timelines for the Agency’s quinquennial
workload study.
Results of REX meet established targets identified in the REX Plan.
Strategic Performance Goals:
Ensure that 90% of assigned SDs and RFOs are capable of implementing Timed-Phased Response (TPR) functions and responsibilities.
Ensure that 90% of assigned SDs and RFOs are capable of providing instructions and administering the Registrant Integrated Processing System (RIPS).
FY 2004 Annual Performance Goals:
Prepare and conduct an Area Office Prototype Exercise which tests the activation process from SSS Lottery input to the issuance of the first Armed Forces Examination Orders.
Redefine Agency infrastructure based on quinquennial workload study.
*****
Strategic Objective 1.3: Be operationally ready to furnish untrained manpower within DoD
timelines.
How success will be measured:
Evaluate the results of the FY 2002 REX and future Readiness Exercises.
Validate and make any necessary changes to the automated systems supporting the mobilization process.
Strategic Performance Goals:
Achieve 95% of readiness objectives based on readiness exercise.
Achieve approval and validation of the RIPS Manual.
FY 1999 Annual Performance Goal:
Ensure 95% of predefined readiness objectives are attained and validated during readiness exercises.
FY 2004 Annual Performance Goals:
Prepare, conduct, and evaluate an Area Office Prototype Exercise to ensure the activation process is viable from deployment of the SSS Lottery to the issuance of the first Armed Forces Examination Orders.
Ensure 90% of the personnel tested are capable of implementing activation procedures.
Ensure that 95% of the predefined readiness objectives are attained and validated during the Area Office Prototype Exercise.
****
Think about it. If Bush is planning to put the scalp of Iran on his belt next, he's going to have to do it in one of three ways:
1) A wholesale pullout from Iraq, leaving the Sunnis and the Shia and the Kurds to duke it out among themselves (or else use mercenaries to prop up an Ahmad Chalabi regime)
2) An exclusively air war against Iran, leveling the country and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the bargain (yeah, THAT'll win over hearts and minds
3) A ground war, and by definition, a draft.
Name yer poison, folks.
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