Quotes of Kenneth M. Pollack from the book The Threatening Storm-The Case For Invading Iraq(2002)-A Council On Foreign Relations Book:
Note- all italics are my own for maximum emphasis.
From back flap of book- Kenneth M. Pollack...from 1999 to 2001...served as director for Gulf affairs at
the National Security Council, where he was
the principal working-level official responsible for implementation of U.S. policy toward Iraq. Prior to
his time in the Clinton administration, he spent seven years in the
CIA as a Persian Gulf military analyst.
page 282-Although most states would know we were behind Saddam's demise, if it were done
covertly they would be much happier because it would maintain
the convenient facade that governments do not interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states-
an important fiction in international diplomacy and the United Nations.
332- Thus, a ground invasion was
the worst course of action in Afghanistan.
365- An
aggressive U.S. covert action campaign might provoke Saddam to retaliate overtly, providing a
casus belli (one of many ways in which
covert action could complement an invasion).
393- The
advantages of the Reconstruction Approach are that it offers the best(in fact, really
the only) prospect to
solve the problems of Iraq over the long term.
397- In purely economic terms,
Iraq itself, with it's vast oil wealth, would pay for most of its reconstruction.
401- Nevertheless, there is no reason that Iraq must adopt a full-blown
Western system of democracy...
402- Pursuing the Reconstruction Approach
does not mean insisting on a Western-style democracy for Iraq.
While such a government would inevitably have many democratic aspects, it does not necessarily have to adopt
the U.S. Constitution.
403- ...as long as we have the
troup strength needed to do the job.
In addition, U.S. and allied forces would have to ensure Iraq's territorial integrity by
preventing foreign incursions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note-are the U.S. and the U.N. merely interchangeable terms?
404-
...the United States would have to make basic repairs and organize replacement personnel in conjunction with
the United Nations.
It would be far better for the
United Nations and for and for Iraq if we allowed the
United Nations and
NGOs to handle
the nuts and bolts of
nation building.
Our greatest contributions should be
the creation of the security and economic conditions to enable
nation building.
407- ...the
United States and the
United Nations must focus on constructing brand-new Iraqi political institutions and bringing new people into the government.
408- ...we would want Iraq to honor its obligations to the
United Nations...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
409- The Reconstruction Approach offers
a long-term solution , but only if we are willing to
pay considerable costs in the short term.
413- The fault was not in ourselves but in our stars.
418- It is the relative weakness of Iraq's current
weapons of mass destruction that makes an
invasion feasible.
419- In addition, we need to keep in mind that
what makes any of this discussion possible is the
shock to the
American populace as a result of the
terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, and
the public's willingness to make sacrifices and
take forceful action to eliminate other such
threats.
same page- ...
motivate the
American public to make the
sacrifices necessary to
remove Saddam from
power.
421- So this is
the choice that confronts us; not whether, but
when.
The
conservative course of action would be to
invade
as soon as possible to
guard against the
uncertainty in our assessments of Iraq's
nuclear program.
424- An
invasion of Iraq...is the
only sensible course of action left to
us.
In
our case, the
ugliest of things would be to
hide our heads in the sand while
Saddam Hussein acquires the
capability to
kill millions or people and
hold the economy of the world in the palm of his
cruel hand.
A most incredible video on the Iraq occupation(a must see)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUssG6_Ecc&feature=related
