Wikileaks bombshell about Iraq wars I and II

joel3 by: Joel Wendland Wednesday 5 January 2011

tags: , ,

Here is a summary from Veterans for Common Sense:

WikiLeaks Reveals a Smoking Gun - U.S. Ambassador Gave "Green Light" to Iraq in July 1990, Starting Gulf War

The world finally knows more of the truth about how the Gulf War started.  A secret July 25, 1990, State Department Cable released by Wikileaks shows how U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein the U.S. had "no position" on the Iraq - Kuwait border dispute, where Kuwait was allegedly stealing oil from Iraq.  At the time, the U.S. supported Iraq's recently ended war with Iran (1980 - 1988) that had ruined Iraq's economy.  On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.  On January 17, 1991, prompted by a massive propaganda campaign, the U.S. began bombing Iraq - and never stopped. More than 20 years later, the war continues with deadly and devastating consequences for Kuwait, Iraq, and the U.S.

Based on the State Department cable, the facts are clear: in 1990, then-President George H. W. Bush's administration, failed to denounce Iraq's intended military action against in Kuwait in July 1990.  The silence encouraged Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in August 1990.  The Gulf War was left unfinished for thirteen years, with an embargo, sanctions, and "no-fly" zones.

By 2001, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq was contained.  In 2003, then-President George W. Bush lied about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction and launched a second invasion.  Now, 20 years later, the U.S. has seen our economy nearly crushed with trillions in war debt.  Nearly one million new, non-fatal casualties have sought medical care as VA patient, according to VA documents obtained by VCS using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Glaspie Cable must go down in history as the smoking gun of failed diplomacy leading to 20 years of massive death and destruction.  VCS encourages veterans to share the Glaspie Cable with fellow veterans, reporters, and legislators.  We must learn the lesson from this tragic war that greater transparency is needed in how our nation operates overseas in order to reduce the chance for war.

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  • It is truely disheartening to read this. The world in which we are living is so fake and we as the citizens of this world are so unaware of what the reality is. A single person caused so much destrucing in past years and Still people are quiet and excepting what is shown to them by the government. To what extent they manipulate us? To what extent we get to know the truth? And what about the people who lost everything for just being born in countries like these?
    Who is going to answer these question? This is the time to get answers and and the time to end all these useless wars is now.

    Posted by Mahima , 11/25/2015 3:08am (9 years ago)

  • This cable was declassified years ago, and has long been available on the Web.

    http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110705

    Why it's now being reported as "news" mystifies me.

    Wikileaks certainly has brought a lot of armchair historians out of the woodwork, hasn't it?

    Posted by Bert, 01/07/2011 4:37pm (14 years ago)

  • I'm not sure this is previously-unknown news. I was aware of it in the early 1990s, and I don't work for the State Department.
    Look at the date on this document:
    http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html
    and this:
    http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ARTICLE5/april.html?q=ARTICLE5/april.html
    and this:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NYT312A.html
    and this:
    http://www.brianwillson.com/u-s-aggression-against-iraq-historical-and-political-context/

    While I am interested to see a lot of the WikiLeaks cable releases, a lot of the material contained therein was already in the public domain - but people did (do) not listen to truths they didn't (do not) want to hear. This seems to be in that class - information that was already widely known but kinda brushed under the carpet. Which raises another question.

    Why?

    Posted by Ruari McCallion, 01/05/2011 4:37pm (14 years ago)

  • The big liar imperialists like Bush Sr. and Colin Powell would tell the other often told big lie that the U.S. had no choice-this is the real world and people need resources-in this case oil,and people get them by force and they got them for "national security".
    This is the "real world"-babble that unfortunatedly echoed in president Obama's Nobel speech in Oslo in 2009 to sell deadly CIA machinations in Afghanistan,the current irrational preposterous waste which keeps our economic recovery from the Iraq misadventures dead on arrival. This war kills us at home economically,and decimates the Afghan people and youth,making it nearly impossible for them to get water,food and shelter. This war mentallity of "real world" necessity lie, threatens daily to escalate to destroy the real world,the whole thing-precluding the negotiation with regional giants like India,China and Russia in its peaceful resolution. Back in '90 the big fish tyrannical CIA boss' Bush administration,set the trap for the small fish,dictator,Hussein(both virulently,brutally anti-labor,anti-union and anti-communist) setting the stage for some of the most profligate war profiteering in modern history,crippling the U.S. economy,hatching untold poverty and violence on our cities,counties and states in the U.S., to the tune of negative billions and billions for us,and billions and billions in profits for them.
    Before this,the CIA trained this brutal dictator criminal,Hussein,who was very chummy with a number of U.S. senators,chumming their way to kill and maim thousands of youth in war,mentally and physically,all, Iraq soldiers and citizens and U.S. soldiers.
    We need to know these facts,and with Wikileaks they come to be more clear: the war makers and war criminals like the Bushes,the Husseins,and the CIA are the biggest threats to national and international security.

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 01/05/2011 12:59pm (14 years ago)

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