The Bulldog Manifesto

I'm always amazed at how seemingly reasonable people quickly deny the possibility that we, the American people, could be lied into a war by our "leaders". I'm amazed because our very history is rife with examples where our government has wrongly deceived us into war. Certainly,if they did it once, twice, three times, they would do it again, wouldn't you agree? Then why is it that people have a hard time swallowing what should now seem so obvious?

Lets go back and look at some history, shall we?

"Remember the Maine! To Hell With Spain!"
We can start all way the back on February 15, 1898. On that day, the USS Maine, an American battleship, blew up and sank in the stillness of Havana Harbor, offshore from Cuba. Our government declared a month later that the ship blew up because of an explosive mine in the water. The tragedy was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April, 1898. At the time, it was used as pretext for war by those who were already inclined to go to war with Spain. The government used the rallying cry "Remember the Maine! Death to Spain"

As it turned out, the USS Maine was not blown up from an enemy mine. With the benefit of modern forensic science, the explosion is now widely believed to have been an accident caused by the spontaneous combustion of gunpowder magazines situated too close to heat sources. Modern analytical tools, especially computer simulations, have all but confirmed this. Furthermore, recently revealed government documents suggest that our government was aware that the USS Maine was not actually sunk by an enemy mine. In essence, the American citizens were lied to, and soldiers gave their lives for an expansionist war.

Avenge Pearl Harbor!
In recent years, many controversial texts have uncovered facts revealing that our government likely had knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack prior to December 7, 1941. On their accounts, not only had we broken Japan's codes, but a British double agent had also uncovered the plot to attack Pearl Harbor well before the attacks, and warned our government. But even if you don't buy into "Roosevelt knew" revelation, nobody can dispute that our government did everything possible to lure Japan into war.

FDR began his program of economic warfare by embargoing strategic goods. In September, he banned exports of iron and steel to Japan. In June 1941, he restricted oil shipments to Japan. Soon thereafter, FDR froze Japan's funds in the United States. This was followed by many public demands for Japanese capitulation. Roosevelt also refused to meet with Japan's Prime Minister.

Caught in an economic trap, Japan did not hide their intention of going to war with the US, and went so far as to speak of war if no settlement were reached by November of 1941.

In any event, Pearl Harbor happened, and it galvanized the American public's willingness to enter WWII behind the rallying cry "Avenge Pearl Harbor!" Regardless of whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, the point is, the citizens of the USA were likely lied to.

Operation Northwoods
Operation Northwoods was a government plan devised and approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and likely to be carried out with the help of the CIA, in order to manufacture consent for a war against Cuba in the early 1960's. The documents exhibit a considerable willingness on the part of our government to deceive, severely endanger, and/or kill its own civilians. In particular, the Joint Chiefs recommended the following actions:

1. Using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba.
2. Start false rumors about Cuba by using clandestine radios.
3. Stage mock attacks, sabotages and riots and blame it on Cuban forces
4. Sink an American ship at the Guantanamo Bay American military base - reminiscent of the USS Maine incident at Havana in 1898, which started the Spanish-American War - or destroy American aircraft and blame it on Cuban forces.
5. "Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type [sic] planes would be useful as complementary actions."
6. Destroy a fake commercial aircraft supposedly full of "college students off on a holiday"
7. Stage a "terror campaign", including the "real or simulated" sinking of Cuban refugees:
8. "We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington. The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute [sic] to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized."

The plan was devised in 1962. For nearly 40 years, Operation Northwoods remained merely a "conspiracy theory" until it was finally uncovered via the Freedom of Information Act. But it clearly shows that our government has no problem with lying to us, or even considering harming us for the purpose of provocating war.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was presented to the American public as two attacks by North Vietnamese gunboats without provocation against two American destroyers (the USS Maddox and the USS C. Turner Joy) in August of 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Pentagon Papers, later revealed the Johnson administration of the United States had virtually fabricated the attacks. The US-supported South Vietnamese regime had been attacking oil processing facilities in North Vietnam, with planning and support from the CIA, for the very purpose of providing a pretext to initiate the Vietnam War.

9/11-- "We Will Never Forget!" Anthrax-- 'We Will Immediately Forget!'
I've discussed it at length before, and I won't go into it further today. You can look into my past posts at The Bulldog Manifesto to see what I think about 9/11, and how we were lied to there for the purpose of taking this country into a series of wars designed to capture valuable oil fields and oil pipelines. Heck, the Project for a New American Century, the Neocon think tank spelled it our for us. They planned many of the events of today, years ago. Namely, they planned to confiscate the Afghan oil pipelines and the Iraqi oil reserves. If you haven't opened your eyes to this yet, all I can say is, "wake up".

You should also be familiar with my views on Anthrax, and how those attacks were of major significance in scaring the pants off the American public. You should be aware that the Anthrax spores came from an army base at Fort Detrick, as you should also know that once the FBI uncovered this fact, the Anthrax story has been buried-- never to be discussed. But that never stopped Colin Powell from waving a vial of faux anthrax before the United Nations in the run up to the Iraqi War.

The Downing Street Memos
So now we come to the Downing Street Memos. Here we have a smoking gun document that shows that the American and British governments decided to "fix the facts and intelligence around the policy" of going to war in Iraq. And yet, even with all of our history, many otherwise reasonable people cannot bring themselves to admitting that "yes, we were lied to!"

What more does it take? How many lies does it take until you look at your government in the proper light? What does it take for you to hold your government accountable?

Or could it be that you want to be lied to?