Iraq war 'began last year'

Monday July 21, 2003
The Guardian

The Iraq war began in mid-2002 with intensive air strikes under the guise of enforcing the southern no-fly zone over the country, a senior US officer admitted in remarks published yesterday.

Lieutenant General Michael Moseley, the chief allied war commander, said that the previously secret plan, Operation Southern Focus, was launched last summer - before President Bush took his case against Baghdad to the United Nations.

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The admission raises further questions about US intentions in the build-up to war, at a time when the administration is scrambling to explain its reliance on shaky intelligence in making the case for war. "

(whole text :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1002402,00.html

It is becoming clearer everyday that this war had long been decided , and then had to be "sold" to the opinion at whatever cost.

i knew it was probaly an undeclared war! but when you're a greedy presidnet of the united states what do you expect.

Originally posted by astrapol2

It is becoming clearer everyday that this war had long been decided , and then had to be "sold" to the opinion at whatever cost.

I don't understand why this is some big revelation. I think we all knew we were going to war at that point unless Iraq agreed to all of the conditions that the UN likes to impose but not enforce.

This is a big deal because if the war started in July 2002, all the subsequent declarations by the US and UK govt were just public opinion manipulation. They did not care for UN inspections to succeed or not, they did not care about Saddam complying with anything or leaving the power, they just wanted to invade Irak and had already started long before the official begining of the war.

I agree that they started prepping long before the war started, but I still believe that had Saddam actually decided to comply with the 17 (I think) UN resolutions that there would have been no invasion.

As a side note, it's interesting how the UN doesn't mind passing resolutions as long as no one plans on actually enforcing one of them.

Originally posted by LionelHutz
As a side note, it's interesting how the UN doesn't mind passing resolutions as long as no one plans on actually enforcing one of them.

VERY TRUE STATEMENT

As another side note, it is even more intersting how the US and UK govt have never explained when and where they are supposed to find the WMD that were the pretext for this war.