THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1998
February
- February: In his book It Doesn't Take a Hero, General Norman Schwarzkopf states, "From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after the war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit -- we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a burden I am sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take on." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
PNAC advocates military overthrow of Iraqi government
- February 2: Robert Kagan, an associate of the Project for the New American Century, writes in the Weekly Standard: "The only solution to the problem in Iraq today is to use air power and ground power, and not to stop until we have finished what President Bush began in 1991." A month later, John Bolton, who is also a PNAC associate and who will become a member of Bush's State Department, writes in the same magazine, "If military force were used, there was a real possibility of American casualties and prisoners, or endless pictures of civilian victims in Iraq. There was also a risk that the American public would finally see through the inadequacy and hypocrisy of Clinton's policies in the Persian Gulf.... The key to the [Clinton] administration's fondness for 'multilateralism' is that such an approach offers cover and allows the White House to duck tough decisions." The articles are part of a PNAC-coordinated effort to whip up support for an invasion of Iraq. The Clinton administration is not interested in any such operation, but the Bush administration will prove different. (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
- February 5: At a state dinner, Newt Gingrich tells Hillary Clinton, "These accusations against your husband are ludicrous. And I think it's terribly unfair the way some people are trying to make something out of it. Even if it were true, it's meaningless. It's not going anywhere." Gingrich's remarks, which strongly contradict his moralistic diatribes against Clinton in public, may be explained by his own marital infidelities, which will be exposed later in the year. (H.R. Clinton)
- February 9: Newsweek prints an article called "Conspiracy or Coincidence?" that lists 23 conservative politicians, contributors, media executives, lawyers, authors, organizations, and others that are funding the various investigations of the Clintons. (H.R. Clinton)
- February 12: Unocal president John Maresca, who will later become a Special Envoy to Afghanistan, testifies before Congress that the trans-Afghani pipeline will never be built until a friendly, unified government controls Afghanistan: "From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company." He speculates that such a pipeline could produce 20% of the world's non-OPEC controlled oil, all from the Caspian Sea basin. Congress discusses ways to deal with Afghanistan in order to build the long-desired Caspian Sea oil pipeline. (CCR, Project Censored, From the Wilderness, US House/Progressive Austin)
Map of proposed Unocal pipeline (courtesy AlterNet)
- February 17: Clinton makes a strong statement about Iraq's possible ownership of weapons of mass destruction to the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program." Though Clinton never seriously considered the idea of a military invasion of Iraq, and will continue to rely on UN inspections and economic sanctions to keep Hussein at bay, conservatives have seized on this and other statements as proof that Clinton believed, as George W. Bush continues to insist, that Iraq indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction. Clinton is basing his remarks on US intelligence findings that Hussein once possessed large amounts of chemical and biological toxins, and doubt that the UN inspections have found and destroyed them all. He has no reason to believe that those intelligence findings are largely wrong, as has later been proven. (It is also noteworthy that Republican senator Arlen Spector warns Clinton that Congress, and not the president, has the power to use military force against Iraq or anyone else: "Bomber and missile strikes constitute acts of war," he writes in a letter to the president. "Only Congress has the constitutional prerogative to authorize war. The Congress spoke loudly last week by not speaking at all." This constitutional prerogative will be ignored in 2002 and 2003.) (Wikipedia, CNN)
- February 25: Paul Wolfowitz urges Congress to authorize the Iraqi Liberation Act as a way of getting rid of Saddam without using US ground troops. "Help the Iraqi people remove him from power," he says. "However –- and I think this is very important -- the estimate that it would take a major invasion with U.S. ground forced seriously overestimates Saddam Hussein." (A full transcript of Wolfowitz's testimony can be found here.) (Rampton & Stauber/Buzzflash, IraqWatch)
- February 25: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan enlists the aid of Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov to add pressure on Baghdad while 30 ships and more than 300 US and British warplanes are poised in the Gulf, ready to strike. Annan and Saddam Hussein reach an agreement for Iraq's acceptance of all resolutions without reserve and for UNSCOM and IAEA to receive immediate, full access to all sites. Within days, inspection teams are dispatched to survey the so-called "presidential sites." (Guardian/Iraqwatch/Electric Venom)
- Early in the year, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson meets in secret with Taliban representatives in Kabul. At the time, US oil and energy companies are excited about the pipeline, not just because of its money-making potential, but because it offers an alternative to building a pipeline through Iran, which has offered its services in constructing a pipeline through its lands. (CCR)
