First US Viceroy in Iraq confirms a Deep Blade thesis
Deep Blade has learned through a February 20 Inter Press Service news release that Jay Garner, the first US Viceroy appointed to head post-invasion Iraq, has verified long-term basing and strategic military fuel supply clearly figured into the calculus of the invasion. Pentagon favorite and intelligence fabricator Ahmed Chalabi had some choice remarks as well.
IRAQ: Chalabi, Garner Provide New Clues to War
Analysis - By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (IPS)
“For those still puzzling over the whys and wherefores of Washington’s invasion of Iraq 11 months ago, major new, but curiously unnoticed, clues were offered this week by two central players in the events leading up to the war….
“Asked how long U.S. troops might remain in Iraq, Garner replied, ‘I hope they’re there a long time’, and then compared U.S. goals in Iraq to U.S. military bases in the Philippines between 1898 and 1992.
“‘One of the most important things we can do right now is start getting basing rights with (the Iraqi authorities)’, he said. ‘And I think we’ll have basing rights in the north and basing rights in the south … we’d want to keep at least a brigade.
“‘Look back on the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century: they were a coaling station for the navy, and that allowed us to keep a great presence in the Pacific. That’s what Iraq is for the next few decades: our coaling station that gives us great presence in the Middle East’, Garner added.”
This confirms a central Deep Blade thesis given in a piece called Why War? from a year ago.