Former CIA analyst: US �conned into war�
Robert Baer charges that the American-led invasion is a �dire
mistake�
BEIRUT: Middle East expert and former Central Intelligence Agency
officer Robert Baer has charged that the American-led war in Iraq is a
dire mistake based on false assumptions and faulty information, but that
President George W. Bush cannot stop now and leave Saddam Hussein in
power after the long emotional and political buildup to the war.
�The American people, Congress, government and president were conned into
this war, in the full sense of the word, by neo-conservatives and hawks
in Washington who sold a false bill of goods. The president was lied to
and given erroneous information that was filtered through Iraqi exiles
who had not lived in Iraq for 20 or 30 years and had no clear idea of
realities inside Iraq. The exiles had no intention of fighting
themselves, but wanted the US to fight for them,� he told The Daily Star
Thursday in an interview.
The 21-year CIA veteran quit the agency in good standing about five years
ago, and was given the Career Intelligence Medal for his service.
He called this �almost an accidental war,� against the backdrop of an
American population that did not bother with foreign affairs but suddenly
suffered the wrenching emotional experience of the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks.
�There was already in place among some circles in Washington an old plan
to attack Iraq. After Sept. 11, 2001 it was sold to the president, who
was told that this would be a quick, decisive, easy, almost bloodless
operation, at little expense and with no resistance by Iraqis, with
Saddam Hussein gone at a flash of the muzzle. But it has not worked out
that way. Determined Iraqis who stalled mechanized divisions in southern
Iraq are not just pockets of resistance. In its first week the war did
not go as planned.�
Baer, who has published a book on his years in the CIA and is now
publishing a second book about Saudi Arabia, said the worst scenario for
the US is to surround and lay siege to Baghdad and its 5 million
people.
He fears that this will increase the bitterness felt against the US by
Arabs and Muslims, who increasingly see Americans as hostile to them. He
is also concerned �that young Americans now are fighting and dying in
Iraq based on faulty analyses from questionable sources,� but he cannot
see Bush stopping the war now.
�President Bush spent nine months working the American population into a
frenzy of fear and anger about Saddam Hussein, and he cannot now tell
them that it was not so serious after all, that he has to stop the war
and leave Saddam in power.�
The best way to minimize long-term damage to the US� standing in this
region is for Washington �to make a brisk, clean transition to Iraqi or
Iraqi-UN rule after the war ends, offer substantial assistance for
reconstruction, leave the Iraqis alone , and turn America�s attention
quickly to achieving a fair resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.�
� R.K.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/29_03_03/art23.asp
