Mohammad Sagha, Foreign Policy, Nov 12, 2010
In his new book, George W. Bush writes that he was under pressure not just from hawks in the United States to invade Iraq, but from Arab statesmen as well.
In a revealing passage, Bush writes that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt “told Tommy Franks that Iraq had biological weapons and was certain to use them on [American] troops,” a VOA article highlights. Bush goes on to say that Mubarak “refused to make the allegation in public for fear of inciting the Arab street.”
Additionally, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who served as the influential Saudi ambassador to the United States for over 20 years and who Bush calls “a friend of mine since dad’s presidency” also wanted a “decision” to be made — although this seems less direct an indictment than “Iraq has biological weapons and will use them against you.”
So while the Arab street was firmly opposed to American intervention in Iraq, Arab heads of states were quietly and secretly either encouraging or tacitly endorsing allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a fact that was directly being used as the principal justification for invading the country.
Sounds familiar?
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