Clinton Aide Wanted Iraq to Shoot Down US Plane

This demonstrates that long before 9/11, and even before the Bush regime, very highly placed people in our government were just itching to find an excuse to get into Iraq, and they weren't above sacrificing American lives to do it:

www.newser.com...

(Newser) – Gen. Hugh Shelton's new memoir contains this odd nugget, notes Justin Elliott at Salon: In 1997, one of Bill Clinton's Cabinet members suggested that Shelton order a US plane to fly low over Baghdad so Saddam would shoot it down and, ta da, give America instant justification for war. "I was so mad I was about to explode," recounts Shelton, thinking about the sacrificial pilot.


“Why, of course we can,” he responded. "Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.” The memoir doesn't name the Cabinet member, but Elliott notes that the way the passage is written leaves Madeleine Albright as a distinct possibility.

reply to post by flightsuit

And lo and behold, it also showed that senior members of the Government were also instantly opposed to sacrificing lives to get that war

Originally posted by roboe
reply to post by flightsuit

 

And lo and behold, it also showed that senior members of the Government were also instantly opposed to sacrificing lives to get that war

But still that thought was held by a Cabinet member, thus presumably had been worked on by the US equivalent of Junior dept ministers and civil servants and other assets of the US security apparatus.

Originally posted by Thepreye

Originally posted by roboe
reply to post by flightsuit

 

And lo and behold, it also showed that senior members of the Government were also instantly opposed to sacrificing lives to get that war

But still that thought was held by a Cabinet member, thus presumably had been worked on by the US equivalent of Junior dept ministers and civil servants and other assets of the US security apparatus.

Why would it have been through the machinery? I would assume that any member of the cabinet would be capable of independent thought, and in this case it was a pretty bad idea that popped up.

reply to post by roboe


Cool, my presumption and your assumption are of equal weight, I guess we'll have to wait for another book or leak before we know who's conjecture was correct, unless you know M Albright and can get direct confirmation one way or the other.