Looking back on the road to folly: Eric Margolis' buried summation of the Iraq disaster

In October, 2002, I wrote an analysis of the impending Iraq War for “American Conservative” entitled “The Road to Folly.”

I observed, “A war that fails to achieve clear political objectives is merely an exercise in violence and futility.” Having covered 14 conflicts as a war correspondent and the Mideast, I’ve seen a lot of violence and futility.

The White House launched a thunderous, utterly shameless propaganda campaign about phony threats to America and the world from President Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

On cue, US forces invaded Iraq in March, 2003.

In America, the “bodyguard of lies” that Churchill said accompanies every war swelled into an army of liars. The Bush administration’s neocons played a leading role in engineering the Iraq conflict. Media acted as megaphones for the war party.

Thanks to the drumbeat of lies and insinuations, over 80% of Americans believed the canard that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.

A few observers who dared critique George W. Bush’s rush to war, this writer included, were denounced by the neocon media as “un-American,” “traitors,” or Saddam apologists – rather rich in my case since in 1991 the fun-loving Iraqi secret police had threatened to hang me as an Israeli spy! Read More