Lew:  The proposal, by a Clinton administration cabinet official, to fly a US plane over Baghdad in order to invite an attack that would be used to justify a war against Iraq, wasn’t the first such phoney effort to start a war in recent decades.  One can google “Operation Northwoods” and find references to a similar war-mongering scam.  Having the approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the 1962 plan involved having Americans shot on the streets of various cities; terrorist attacks undertaken in Washington, D.C., Miami, and other sites; the faked hijacking of passenger planes; and the framing of innocent persons for bombings.  Such actions would be blamed on the Cuban government, and would give the administration the needed excuse for going to war against the Castro regime.  Like the Clinton official’s suggestion, the 1962 plan was never carried out.  We can be thankful that, in the ensuing years, the government has never played the role of agent provocateur to create phoney attacks that would justify war!!

The Best of Butler Shaffer