Posted on 10/13/2003 9:01:58 AM PDT by Pokey78
Just as former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's story that Bushies blew his CIA wife's cover to get back at his criticism of the war in Iraq was getting old, he has stumbled on new ammo to hit the administration's credibility. Wilson tells us he plans to circulate the text of a briefing by analyst Sam Gardiner that suggests the White House and Pentagon made up or distorted over 50 war stories. You know some tall tales, like the Pvt. Jessica Lynch story. But there's more, says Gardiner, a war gamer who has taught at the National War College. Like how defense officials said the first Iraqi unit marines encountered, the 51st Mechanized Infantry Division, had surrendered four days before it actually did. And he says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers gave bad or deliberately incomplete info on several topics. Sure, propaganda has always been used in war to deceive and demoralize the enemy. But these guys went way overboard, Gardiner says. "Never before have so many stories been created to sell a war," he insists. "And they probably didn't need it."
It should be clear to all conservatives by now that the left intends to demonize us. They don't just disagree with us, they hate us. And worse, they want to get other people to hate us.
Places like Free Republic drive the left batty.
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War will strain humanitarian relief resources
AM - Thursday, 20 March , 2003 08:17:20
Reporter: Tanya Nolan
LINDA MOTTRAM: On the eve of war, there is deep concern that there is nowhere near the capacity available, either on the part of occupying forces or relief agencies, for the kind of humanitarian relief that's likely to follow.
The United Nations has pulled out of Baghdad and it has ceased the vital oil-for-food program. Currently the UN warns it has just a third of the budget it needs to fund its "medium case scenario" and based on experience, there's a view that the effort that's likely to be made by America and its allies will be little more than a token.
Tanya Nolan reports.
TANYA NOLAN: Retired US Air Force Colonel, Sam Gardiner, has been dogged in his attempts to remind America of what its obligations will be to the Iraqi people, as an occupying force under the terms of the Geneva Convention.
SAM GARDINER: There's a gap between what people know will be required and what is available because they didn't go to the Congress and say we are going to need three billion dollars, four billion dollars for humanitarian aid.
TANYA NOLAN: The decorated veteran of three conflicts and former NATO adviser often uses the word "painful" to describe his concern over what he says is America's lack of preparation for the impending humanitarian fallout in Iraq. And he fears the food supplies to be distributed by US forces, will be more about feeding the propaganda machine of war.
SAM GARDINER: They have announced that they have three million food rations and they will probably make a big deal that early in the war these will be dropped from airplanes, like in Afghanistan.
Now the problem with that is when you think about it, there are probably twenty million people in Iraq who are on food rations, so three million foods is enough for one meal for one day for a small portion of them.
TANYA NOLAN: Amnesty International has also been reminding America and its allies that under humanitarian law, occupying forces must provide food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical supplies to the local population, and it's the latter, Colonel Gardiner argues, that no-one is prepared for.
SAM GARDINER: Nobody has the doctors, the nurses, to deal with the potential of 100,000 civilian casualties in Iraq.
Iraq has 27,000 beds in their hospital system and they're filled right now. Iraq has no capacity for casualties and the United States and the coalition are not prepared to deal with those extra casualties and certainly not if there is any kind of a chemical or biological event.
LINDA MOTTRAM: Retired US Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner. Tanya Nolan with that report.
Exactly, as he continues along his transformation from Joe Wilson to Joe Conason, he hemmorages credibility every day. At some point even the media will have to desert him.
Here is our text for the day. It comes from an interview last evening on PBS's Newshour, when Gwen Ifill asked retired Colonel Samuel Gardiner whether the momentum of the campaign could be sustained. Gardiner said ..."No. I just want to add a political military dimension. Yesterday a very important thing happened. Two retired four-star generals: Wes Clark and Barry McCaffrey, who was a division commander in the first Gulf War, said we don't have enough force. Whether they are right or not, the leadership of the United States has a problem. And that is if we go to Baghdad with two divisions and there are losses, that's regime change kind of stuff. And I don't mean Baghdad regime change. But you don't send American men and women into battle without all it takes to do that. I mean, that's a very serious thing."
If the CIA did not get Wilson to sign a confidentiality contract on this sensitive mission, was it because Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and pushed for him to do this boondoggle? (I call it a boondoggle because Wilson clearly was NOT qualified for this mission.)
Note also that Mrs. Wilson's superior, Alan Foley, has now resigned. He probably authorized Wilson's absurd trip and, possibly, it was part of a plan to undercut Bush. Click here to see the relevant thread.
I think he's forming his own repertory company. Shall we call them "The Imminence Front"? And here they are now! Live. From Washington, D.C....
You may have been joking, but you're quite close. Wilson's running to be Sec of State in next Dem administration.
I thought the 'tall tale' about Jessica Lynch was told by the Washington Post. I've never heard any of the same stuff written in any Army reports about the incident.
This Joseph Wilson guy is getting more annoying by the day. He sure has a bee in his bonnet about this administration. And the writer of the story shows his colors immediately when he talks about 'the Bushies'. This is an editorial thinly disguised as a news story.
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