Once again, let's go back to the beginning. The beginnings of the war in Iraq where American soldiers are still dying today in the latter half of 2008 and will still be dying in 2010, even if we elect Barack Obama and he ends the war on his stated 16-month timetable.
Back to 2001, in the days after 9/11 when the anthrax scare begins. A small group of people start spreading the story that the anthrax was connected to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. This cabal, if you will, operated not unlike the Cheney-centered one tasked with fomenting public opinion against Iraq. Same cabal? You decide. Anyway, they got their message to the media, specifically ABC News, as Glenn Greenwald has capably described. But you know who was spreading this (false) rumor weeks before ABC News? The "Maverick," John McCain. Follow for details.
A month after 9/11, before 4 of 5 anthrax victims had died, McCain went on Letterman and said "some of this anthrax may - and I emphasize may - have come from Iraq":
In the interview Letterman keeps going back to the situation Afghanistan (where U.S. military action had recently begun) while McCain keeps moving the focus to "second phases" and other countries. He concludes that maybe we can scare these other countries back into just "selling camels."
Remember this is 2 weeks before the ABC News series with its unnamed four sources (wrongly) confirming an anthrax connection to Iraq. Was McCain one of the sources or just someone very close to those sources?
At any rate, less than two months later McCain signed his name (along with Trent Lott, Joe Lieberman and other congressional leaders) to a letter to President Bush urging action against Iraq:
For as long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Baghdad, he will seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them,'' said the letter, signed by Senators Trent Lott, Joseph I. Lieberman and John McCain, among others. ''We have no doubt that these deadly weapons are intended for use against the United States and its allies. Consequently, we believe we must directly confront Saddam, sooner rather than later.''
This was December, 2001. McCain wasn't just another Republican going along with the Bush-Cheney adventure, he was leading the charge and saying things now known to be false.
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