In 2002, the publication reacted to the talk of a US military action under President G.W. Bush on Iraq, by vigorously alerting readers to the manipulative conflating of Iraq with 9/11 and Iraq’s specious threat to the US and its allies. American Fellowship argued forcefully that an attack on Iraq was unwarranted, illegal, and a calculated act of aggression within an exploit of conquest shrouded in pretense.
Prior to the US invasion, the articles concluded that Iraq neither possessed nor had access to weapons of mass destruction. Even well into the US occupation, articles called for withdrawal of US military presence in Iraq, and continued to warn of the slow moving debacle the US presence would become, especially as it spread to neighboring sovereign states.
Those in and out of government, including the mainstream corporate media who sued for the United States to invade Iraq and prosecute war, for the most part continue unrepentant, even adamant their decisions remain praiseworthy. History may in fact so rule. As late in the adventure as early 2011, US high school textbooks offer a generally antiseptic interpretation of the motives for the invasion and conduct of the war, as does The Smithsonian in an uncritical, almost flattering, John Waynesque tableau of the American invasion and occupation.
One minor item that remains curious and indisputable is that nearly-amateur, alternative publications with access to tertiary intel, and working on $13.95/month budgets, were able to accurately portray the real American motives, correctly anticipate the deleterious outcomes, and witness an honest historical assessment judge their warnings and prognosis true. It vitiates the exculpatory defense by corporate media of their clueless innocence, and proves their surrender to expediency and safety in bandwagon patriotism.
The articles were often blunt and unvarnished in portraying our world leaders – this was a war of historical proportions we were attempting to stop that those in command were portraying as a controlled surgical strike.
At the time of this archive's posting, January, 2011, the US continues utilizing the same successful playbook laying advocacy groundwork toward “unavoidable” incursions on Iran (underway in 2010 by cyber-bombardment via Stuxnet warhead). As such, it’s instructive to remember the emotionally manipulative rationalizing process used by those who stood to profit and who continue reaping power from even more military supported economic expansion, serene to the horror inflicted on innocent millions.
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