The intentional lies that got us into the Iraq War

Rachel Maddow did some fine reporting Monday night on this topic. She based her broadcast on the book Hubris by Michael Isakoff and David Corn. The videos to the show are at this link. Maddow is typically outstanding but this time she outdoes herself; this is one for the books. The show is broken down into 6 segments of about 10 minutes, so if you don't have a one-hour block check this out in increments. It is well worth your time and you're learn a lot that you just won't read or hear from lamestream media sources. For example:


At 4:55 of part one, then President Bush asked his counter terrorism director Richard Clark to see if there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11. Clark told him we've looked into this before and to date there is no evidence of that. But Bush simply would not accept that answer. He wanted proof, even if it had to be manufactured. And that he and his cronies did. "The meeting notes from the afternoon of 9/11showed Donald Rumsfeld tasking a top aid to find 'the best info fast, good enough to hit Saddam Hussein.'" He wanted a connection to Hussein with Osama bin Laden and directed all the intelligence services to find it.

And so begins a long deceptive path to lying our way into war.  At 0:55 of part 2 a declassified memo from November 2001 shows Rumsfeld meeting with Central Command commander Tommy Franks to "decapitate" the Iraqi government. How to start a war there? One strategy was to create a dispute "over WMD inspections."

Please see the excellent broadcast for a full and detailed story that leaves no doubt about how and why this war was pursued, and based on lie after lie after lie.