Felicity Arbutnot: America's Hype Over WMD: Five Invasion Plots!

Three Continents, Identical Lies! "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favor of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. I am strongly in favor of using gas against uncivilized tribes. Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965, from War Office minute, 12th May 1919. As the saber rattling against Syria gets even louder, the allegations ever wilder and double standards stirring, plotting and terrorist financing, it is instructive to look at the justifications presented by US Administrations for a few other murderous incursions in recent history: This month is the twenty third anniversary of the US invasion of Panama on 20th December 1989, as Panamanians prepared their Christmas celebrations. A quick check reminds the late Philip Agee recalling President George HW Bush, telling the American people that the threat from Panama, population 3,571,185 -2011 was such that our way of life is at stake. Agee referred to this in his aptly named talk "Producing the Proper Crisis." Apt then as now. Nothing changes. The aim of the invasion was to capture the country's leader, General Manuel Noriega and, of course, to establish a democratic government. Regime change. With the approaching transfer of control of the Panama Canal to Panama, originally scheduled for 1st January 1990, after a century of US colonial stewardship, America wanted to ensure it was in the hands of malleable allies. Noriega is a CIA asset, since 1967, who had also attended the notorious School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, came to power with US backing, but seemingly his  support for the US was cooling. To encapsulate a long story, the US kidnapped him and sentenced him to forty years in jail. Plans to invade were called: Operation Prayer Book, later renamed Operation Just Cause, with General Colin Powell commenting that it was a moniker of which he approved as: Even our severest would have to utter Just Cause while denouncing us. (Colin Powell, with Joseph E Persico: My American Journey, 1995.) All military marauding should simply be called: Operation Silly Name 1, then 2,3,4 etc, until the numbers finally run out.