HARPER: DRINKING THE KOOL-AID

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the disastrous U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which permanently altered the balance within the Middle East/ Persian Gulf, saw the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and drew the United States into a military occupation and counterinsurgency program which drained the country of an estimated $2 trillion in resources and lost human capital. The impact on Iraq was even more tragic and left the country in a state of political turmoil that still prevails.

The invasion was justified by fake intelligence provided by dubious sources with their own ulterior motives, but which corresponded to the whims of the neoconservatives in the Bush Administration.

There is no better way to review learn from that folly than to republish here the article by Col. Lang, which was published in the Middle East Policy Journal on May 20, 2004 (Volume XI, Number 2, Summer 2004). It stands still today as one of the most comprehensive accounts of the failures of the Washington foreign policy and national security establishment, both within government and the think tank community.

http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol11/0406_lang.asp

TTG note: The MEPC article is now only available through a subscription. I couldn’t find it anywhere else online. It is also available in “The Portable Pat Lang.” My recommendation is to get the book. “Drinking the Koolaid” is but one of the gems in this diamond mine of commentary.

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14 Responses to HARPER: DRINKING THE KOOL-AID

  1. Whitewall says:

    Harper,
    That link shows 404 not found. I would like to read the piece because with 911 still in mind, I bought the whole narrative I’m sorry to say.

  2. walrus says:

    invalid link.

  3. steve01701 says:

    How is the Colonel doing?
    I thought he’d be back by now.

    • TTG says:

      steve01701,

      So did I. Recovery and rehab just takes a lot longer when you’re an old coot. I don’t think it will be long.

  4. Sam says:

    Indeed, it was a seminal paper!

    • d74 says:

      Too accurate, too well informed, against the grain.
      So ‘they’ overlook it.
      Is Ukraine in this way, an eternal restart?
      I think so. The lies drive us.
      The basic citizen, too, is forced to drink not the Kool Aid but an equally poisonous mixture.

      Another subject: dear Colonel, be strong.

  5. English Outsider says:

    If this is not superfluous, this is the direct link I stored some time ago:-

    https://web.archive.org/web/20090609172955/http:/www.mepc.org/journal_vol11/0406_lang.asp

    …………………………..

    I’m glad the Colonel is recovering. I shall know everything’s OK when I see the steak recipes appearing again. Please send him my and SWMBO’s best wishes.

  6. There is a very detailed account from the FBI person, George Piro, who interviewed Hussein here:

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/14/opinions/saddam-hussein-iraq-war-interrogations-george-piro-bergen/index.html

    The CIA first questioned Saddam.
    And then over a period of seven months,
    [FBI interregator] Piro talked to him for many hours a day,
    with no one else allowed in the interrogation room.
    He discovered from the Iraqi dictator that
    no WMD existed and that
    Saddam only had contempt for Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda.

  7. Also, for an account of the propaganda campaign in America that motivated the Iraq War,
    I recommend
    So Wrong for So Long by Greg Mitchell, 2008 and 2013.
    https://a.co/d/94vsXVK

  8. jim ticehurst.. says:

    And What was The Objective for That Regime Change…? And Hanging..

    The Influencers..? Are Events over there Still Going As Planned..A
    Revived Persian Empire…? Passing the Cup…Kissing the Ring of the
    Lords…A New World Order..?? From Old World Dis Order,,?

    Colonel Lang..was Then..and Is Now Still….On Point…Bless Him..
    JT

  9. moro says:

    Brilliant article.

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