Are you shocked?

– Awed?

– Confused, now that Iraq has been invaded and no weapons of mass destruction have yet to appear?

– Last spring students at Sacramento State found themselves debating or at least considering the option of going to war with Iraq as they weighed the evidence as submitted by U.S. and British governments. Then on March 21, 2003, U.S. forces oblivious to dubious claims of Iraq’s possession of chemical weapons and with little regard on the approval or disapproval of the U.N. and other nations, attacked.

– The “shock and awe” campaign resulted in thousands of Iraqi casualties. Many students here and throughout the world found themselves stunned while viewing this military exercise through 24-hour media coverage. Many students also attended debates, peace demonstrations, and others waved flags of support. Many others experienced the shock and awe that was intended for the Iraqis as they watched televised movie-like images of the attack.

– But yet more shocking are the recent developments that indicate that the White House and the British Parliament employed deceit in order substantiate the attack on Iraq.

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Now to the dismay of the believers, the weapons of mass destruction story now appears to be a hoax, made up, a fake, una mentira, nada, not real, a fabrication, that many fell prey to and actually grew to believe and support.

-In the June 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, admitted that lies had been put forward in order to scare the public in believing in the eminent danger that Iraq posed to the world. He said this decision was made, “for reasons that have to do with U.S. government bureaucracy… We settled on the issue which everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction.”

-Furthermore, Pres. Bush during his Jan. 28 State of the Union address this year added his own deceitful line, “Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein has the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.” None of which were ever used by or found in Iraq’s possession.

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The war in Iraq was not televised; the invasion was. The media theatrics employed demonstrated U.S. might over a nation incapable of defending itself.

-During the Gulf War Iraq was crippled monetarily and militarily and has never recovered. As for the supposed eminent danger that Iraq has posed to the world, it has been abolished three times, Desert Storm (1991), Operation Desert Fox (1998) and this latest invasion.

-Even though each attack has not resulted in much of a war, the case against Iraq has been highly publicized and well set up. But now, that the set up seems to be faltering, shock and awe seems to be giving way to confusion. Lies seem to be popping up everywhere.

-On Aug. 28, Tony Blair, was ordered to appear before the British court in order to answer questions on allegations of the “over sexed” accusations he made against Iraq.

-According to the New York Times, on September 24, 2002, before the House of Commons, Blair announced, “Iraq possesses chemical and biological weapons…it’s missiles can be deployed in 45 minutes.” This statement has since then been proven to be a fabrication that Blair’s office packaged up to scare the public. Blair claims that the BBC was wrong in creating such a story against his government. Since then, Blair’s approval ratings have fallen and the Britons have become skeptical about their leader.

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Now that a case of willful deceit is building against U.S. and Britain, neither Bush nor Blair has produced concrete evidence for their case. As for those students who consider logic and intelligence to be a virtue, let that virtue be the guide.

-For those who still believe the government, weigh the evidence against it and you will find it shocking to be otherwise.

-For the moment the only real facts are that no weapons of mass destruction have yet to be produced or used and the only real purveyor of mass destruction onto other countries (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945) has been the U.S. Now as for the actual reason why the U.S. invaded Iraq, oil (black gold, Texas Tea).