Modern day "Boy who cried wolf"

The boy who cried wolf in Iraq is at it again in Iran

By Scott Taylor
December 10, 2007


It would seem that during President George W. Bush's upbringing neither George Sr. nor momma Barbara sat him down to tell the tale about the little boy who cried wolf. At a news conference last Tuesday, Bush remained defiant in his anti-Iran stance despite the release of new U.S. intelligence that shows the Iranians suspended their nuclear program four years ago.

For the past two years, the U.S. administration has been demanding that the world take a tougher stance against Iran and as late as Oct. 17, Bush himself was invoking images of a nuclear-capable Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launching "World War III."

The latest National Intelligence Estimate states that Iran suspended its nuclear program in 2003, after the U.S. intervention in Iraq, as a result of increased international scrutiny. Instead of being humbled by the fact that he has been trying to frighten the world with false warnings of an imminent Armageddon, Bush redoubled his efforts to demonize Iran. "They hid their program once. They could hide it again," cried Bush. "(That's) not going to happen on my watch."

One can envision him pleading with the disillusioned villagers: "But it could have been a wolf. It might be a wolf. A wolf could still come."

Unfortunately for little Georgie, his defence of his Iran war-in-waiting policy came in conjunction with his having to defend his current Iraq war-in-progress policy. While memories may be short, surely no one has forgotten the reason the U.S. got involved in Iraq in the first place?

Back in 2003, the "wolf" of the day was Saddam Hussein and his alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. In co-operation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair (whose intelligence service 'sexed up' satellite photographs to indicate a reconstructed Iraqi nuclear power plant), and a clever quip from Condoleezza Rice, Bush convinced Americans not to wait for the next smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Relying on their own independent assessments of Iraq's military capabilities, the rest of the world remained unconvinced and stayed away in droves. Despite the propaganda built around the phrase "coalition of the willing," the intervention in Iraq was purely a U.S. and British operation. The few countries that did contribute token troops soon rethought their position after the early and easy tactical success over Saddam's army turned into a nasty insurgency. After months of occupation and with the allied forces unable to uncover the WMD arsenal they used to justify their pre-emptive "self-defence" invasion of Iraq, Blair admitted the jig was up. During a speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in July 2003, Blair acknowledged the premise of Saddam's WMDs could be false but suggested that he was confident it was something "history will forgive."

At that point, Saddam had been deposed but was still in hiding, and the insurgency was still in its infancy. In other words, the war had been won, but the peace had yet to be lost. Subsequent events will make it all but impossible for history to "forgive" Blair and Bush for the devastation caused by their foolish foray into Iraq. However, while Blair was quick to offer up his mea culpa, Bush was already pointing his finger at Iran and shouting, "Wolf!"

Now that the NIE has temporarily eliminated the Iranian nuclear distraction, Bush still has to justify the ongoing and mind-boggling expense of his last false alarm. The U.S. Congress is being asked to approve another $190 billion to continue military operations in Iraq. This will bring the total cost to date to $700 billion, with nearly 4,000 U.S. troops killed and another 35,000 wounded. No one has an accurate count of the Iraqi civilians killed since the intervention and the outbreak of sectarian violence, but the number is well over 200,000 by even the most conservative estimates. The level of U.S. troops currently deployed is higher than at any point since the war began, and the violence is at an all-time high.

Despite those statistics, Bush says Congress should simply approve the additional funds without putting any pressure on the military in terms of how they conduct the war.

What is the president's rationale for the carte blanche?

"The strategy is working," he says.