Israel warned us against Iraq invasion, US official says

[Aptrgangr]

Israel warned us against Iraq invasion, US official says

Chief of staff of former secretary of state reveals that large number of senior Israeli officials warned Bush administration that invasion of Iraq would be destabilizing to region. 'The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy - Iran is the enemy,' he says

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON – A senior official at the US State Department has said that political, diplomatic and military officials in Israel warned the United States against invading Iraq even before the American forces entered the country, the Inter Press Service news agency reported over the weekend.
According to the official, Israel tried to convince the Bush administration that the main problem in the region was Iran, not Iraq.

The man, Lawrence Wilkerson, was a member of the US State Department's policy planning staff and later chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In an interview with the news agency, he said that "the Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy - Iran is the enemy."
According to Wilkerson, different sources in Israel explained to senior US officials that "if you are going to destabilize the balance of power, do it against the main enemy."
Wilkerson noted that the main point of their communications was not that the US should immediately attack Iran, but that "it should not be distracted by Iraq and Saddam Hussein" from a focus on the threat from Iran.

The message was conveyed by a large number of senior Israeli officials to their American counterparts, including political figures and intelligence sources.
According to Wilkerson, the Israeli advice was apparently triggered by reports reaching Israeli officials in December 2001 that the Bush administration was beginning serious planning for an attack on Iraq.
Journalist Bob Woodward revealed in Plan of Attack that on December 1, 2001, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had ordered the Central Command chief, General Tommy Franks, to come up with the first formal briefing on a new war plan for Iraq on December 4.

Soon after Israeli officials got wind of that planning, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked for a meeting with Bush primarily to discuss US intentions to invade Iraq.

In the weeks preceding Sharon's meeting with Bush on February 7, 2002, a procession of Israeli officials conveyed the message to the US administration that Iran represented a greater threat, according to a Washington Post report on the eve of the meeting.

This is the first confirmation of the issue on the part of such a senior American official, following many hints heard on the Israeli side. The remarks were made in contrast to attempts by Israel's opposers in the US to blame Jerusalem for the American invasion of Iraq.

ynetnews

[Errigal]

No one could ever accuse the Israelis of sentimentality. They use people and leave them to pick up the pieces. Bush's Iraq project is of no value to them now Saddam is dead. The Iran menace is what it's all about now.

[Marcus Marulus]

An entire school of thought arose that takes it for granted that it was the Israeli/Jewish lobby in the USA that dragged the - allegedly - reluctant America into the Iraq war. Such claims don't seem very convincing to me. The aggressive American policy has been around for decades, with the "lobby" and without it. The eternal bloodlust and self-righteousness of their elites has made war and conflict a way of life.

It is a mix of ideological conviction ("saving the world") and protecting purely materialistic interests.

And the appeal to a primitive sort of patriotism ("rallying around the flag") makes it easy to win the approval of their population, which has been brainwashed by indoctrination. They resemble Orwell's proles.

Eric Blair aka George Orwell:

But simultaneously, true to the Principles of doublethink, the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the application of a few simple rules...Heavy physical work...petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult...no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.

If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles.

[Aptrgangr]

Originally Posted by Errigal

No one could ever accuse the Israelis of sentimentality. They use people and leave them to pick up the pieces. Bush's Iraq project is of no value to them now Saddam is dead. The Iran menace is what it's all about now.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Plethon

An entire school of thought arose that takes it for granted that it was the Israeli/Jewish lobby in the USA that dragged the - allegedly - reluctant America into the Iraq war. Such claims don't seem very convincing to me. The aggressive American policy has been around for decades, with the "lobby" and without it. The eternal bloodlust and self-righteousness of their elites has made war and conflict a way of life.

It is a mix of ideological conviction ("saving the world") and protecting purely materialistic interests.

And the appeal to a primitive sort of patriotism ("rallying around the flag") makes it easy to win the approval of their population, which has been brainwashed by indoctrination. They resemble Orwell's proles.

If a faction of Americans believe they were innocent victims of the Israel Lobby then, of course they'd be wrong. On the other hand the US also has a very strong isolationist streak and it does have enough sane military and intelligence officers who would have been able to stop the push to invade Iraq after 9/11 if it had not been for the neocon/Israel Lobby.

The America Proles may always be up for a fight but it is not they who decide if the US goes to war. That happens in the corridors of power in Washington, where the Israel Lobby is most at home.

This is assuming the official version of 9/11 is accurate. There is quite a bit of evidence Israel knew more about that as well. Needing a "new Pearl Harbour" and all that.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Errigal

If a faction of Americans believe they were innocent victims of the Israel Lobby then, of course they'd be wrong.

Well, obviously, blaming the Joo for everything is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Errigal

The America Proles may always be up for a fight but it is not they who decide if the US goes to war.

Yet they are priceless as cannon-fodder.