US General: 7 landen in 5 jaar

Pentagon: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

Gepensioneerd generaal Wesley Clark onthult in een interview met radiostation Democracy Now de geheime plannen van de VS die een paar dagen na 9/11 in het Pentagon opgesteld zijn.

Oorlog met Irak stond al vast op 20 september 2001, 9 dagen na 9/11.
About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in.
He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.”
I said, “Well, you’re too busy.”
He said, “No, no.”
He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq."
This was on or about the 20th of September.

Reden voor een oorlog met Irak: legerleiders hebben geen idee.
I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?”
He said, “I don’t know.”
He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.”
So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?”
He said, “No, no.”
He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.”
He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.”
And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

Enkele weken later is er een plan gemaakt voor 7 regime changes in 5 landen: eerst Irak, daarna Syrië, Libanon, Libië, Somalië, Soedan en als laatste Iran.
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan.
I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?”
And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.”
He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper.
And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.”
And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
I said, “Is it classified?”
He said, “Yes, sir.”
I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.”
And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?”
He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

Het interview is te beluisteren bij Democracy Now, en de pagina geeft tevens de hele tekst weer.