Gavin Gangi

02/03/2010
Leigh VanHughes
English 102
The Meaning of 9/11 Outline
By Morris Berman
Claim: The American government has used false, non-credible information to justify going
to war with Iraq.
1. George W. Bush Jr. signed a secret document.
--Signed September 17, 2001
--The document had to do with going to war against Afghanistan, that also directed the
Pentagon to begin planning military operations for a war on Iraq (444).
--The only people that knew was the inner circle
--No paper trail was kept, no record of meetings (444).
--Bush also signed another secret intelligence order directing the CIA to assassinate
Hussein.
2. Also, Bush needed to convince the citizens to support the war.
--Several people who were former administration heads were heavily against it
--U.S. government kept repeating the same lie, which was that both Iraq and Al Qaeda
were some how linked.
--During a speech given by Bush in Cincinnati on Obctober 7th, he claimed that, Iraq was
an immediate threat and might strike U.S. territory with the help of terrorist group using
WMD on any given day (446).
--When Richard Clarke, along with the CIA and FBI...wrote a report showing that no
such contacts existed, Condoleezza Rice's office sent it back, saying: 'Wrong answer...Do it
again'(447).
3. U.S. military was told to attack with a quick swoop.
--Battle plan was called shock and awe, which meant America would attack so quickly
and brutally that the Iraqi population be demoralized.
--...the United States...assembled a force with more firepower than ever seen before in a
single battle (449).
--When a powerful nation picks a fight with a small, weak country, it is weak itself (451).

4. U.S. used the excuse that the reason for going to war had to do with spreading democracy.
--Played well to a gullible American public.
--Paul Bremer had American military forces padlock the doors of the Baghdad Shiite
weekly after they ran anti-American articles.
5. Used the excuse that Saddam was hiding WMD and the attack on the U.S. was imminent.
--This was a borrowed tactic from the Bush Sr. administration back in 1991, and it worked
just as well the second time.
--We know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons (447).
--Lieutenant General Hussein Kamel personally ordered the destruction of Iraq's WMD,
nuclear weapons included, after the Gulf War, which Cheney failed to mention.
Summary:
Throughout Berman's essay there are many frighteningly reliable, and unsettling
points that are made about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers September 11th,
2001. By providing the reader with so many alleged facts regarding the attack, Berman was
trying to uncover the fact that the U.S. was just looking for a reason to go to war. By
incorporating so many sources and facts Berman builds a believable, and persuasive
argument. For instance, Berman talks about how Bush Jr. signed a secret document, which
was pretty much the beginning of the web of lies woven by the U.S. government.