News

Ex-military insider tackles Iraq war

Man behind Pentagon Papers says war may involve nuclear weapons

By Matt Dulin
The Daily Cougar

The Department of Defense insider who risked his life by releasing the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971 told an audience at Agnes Arnold Hall on Tuesday that the coming war on Iraq will be "catastrophic."

The possibility of nuclear weapons being played into the war scenario is very real, Daniel Ellsberg said. Ellsberg came to UH to promote his new book, <I>Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, but the focus of his talk was Iraq.

"Bush Jr. has announced his readiness to use nuclear weapons under three conditions: to use on underground control stations, as a reply to a biological or chemical attack, or to respond to surprise developments," Ellsberg said. What those surprises are, Ellsberg added, no one really knows.

"There are men and women right now planning targets (in Iraq) for tactical nuclear strikes. They plan the incineration of millions of people, and then they go home and have dinner with their families," Ellsberg said, "but even many of these targeteers are against the use of nukes."

Ellsberg also cast doubt on the claim by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein represents a threat to the United States.

"Threat? Thatis ridiculous. What about al-Qaida? What about North Korea? What about the tensions between India and Pakistan? Saddam is no threat." Ellsberg said.

He may be provocative, Ellsberg said, but not a threat. 

"The number one thing that he could do to help this situation out is to comply. Just to come forward and meet all the conditions set by the U.N.," he said.

The major deterrent to war on Iraq, he said, "will be the hundreds of high level secretaries who have access to information that could deteriorate" Bushis war platform. "I would tell them to not wait until bombs are falling to tell the truth."

Ellsberg was hunted by the FBI at President Richard Nixonis request after releasing documents regarding Defense Department conspiracies during the Vietnam War, during which Ellsberg served as a general and fought in several covert missions. The documents were published by newspapers around the country.

Whistleblowers should become the norm, he said, and they should not be afraid of losing their jobs or credibility.

"Two months from now, everyone will be looking back, thinking ‘Did I do everything I could to avoid this (war)i? We need acts of altruism."

Ellsberg said that most probably, the war is inevitable and will be devastating.

"My wife and I were reading over the war plans, called Shock and Awe … my wife aptly stated that ‘This is no war; this is a massacre,i" Ellsberg said.

The plans included an initial strike of 600 to 800 cruise missiles against Iraqi targets over two days, which totals more cruise missiles fired in the entire Gulf War 10 years ago, he said.

"It will be like Germanyis blitzkrieg through France," Ellsberg said, describing how American tanks will be ordered to plow through Iraq without stopping for extra supplies or fuel.

"We will kill more Iraqi civilians than were killed in the World Trade Center," he said.

"Weive got to consider that the human cost of the war is not just American."
 

 Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu