MY latest edit:
Your latest: "I'm hoping to see no more ad hominem, links to other sites or history lesson stuff."
That makes it clear - "No facts, please." Counting out my personal meeting and personal evaluation of classified materials as "history lesson stuff?"
Why not just put it this way - "I'm not really asking for anything to do with proven fact or history...just help feed my raging tinfoil-hat paranoia."
Okay - aliens did it.
And we have one Tinfoil Hat Brigade "thumbs down!"
Aww, now you're just showing how poorly you do research and how you're making yourself an easy target.
Try reading the Wikipedia article about the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_tonkin_incident) and you will find the following:
"The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (or the USS Maddox Incident) is the name given to two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron.[1] A sea battle resulted, in which the Maddox expended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells, and in which four USN F-8 Crusader jet fighter bombers strafed the torpedo boats. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5 mm round hit the destroyer, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six were wounded; there were no U.S. casualties.[5]
It was originally claimed by the U.S. National Security Agency that the second Tonkin Gulf incident occurred on August 4, 1964, as another sea battle, but instead may have involved "Tonkin Ghosts"[6] (false radar images) and not actual NVN torpedo boat attacks."
Now, just so you don't have to hurt your head reading that I will summarize - there were TWO incidents. The first was an actual, documented (by both sides) armed at-sea hostile fire incident. The SECOND was determined to be misinterpretation of radar image "ghosts." There goes the first incorrect assumption of your "question."
Many years ago, before he committed suicide because of other people who made false statements about him, I met with the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Maddox and discussed both incidents with him. As a trained Airborne Electronic Warfare Officer with a TS/SCI Clearance I also personally reviewed the classified files and came to the same conclusions published in the Wikipedia article.
Second, regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq your "research" is no more astute. Not only the CIA and the NSA confirmed Iraq's possession of WMDs (chemical and biological weapons he had already used on the Kurds), but also the French Surete (their CIA), the British MI6 (their CIA), Russian intelligence services, AND Israeli intelligence ALL reported confirmation of the presence of WMDs.
Based with overwhelming solid intelligence from all of the major intelligence services, Bush made the proper call.
Those services all agreed that the WMDs had been moved across the border into Syria when the U.S started the invasion. Now, guess what, Syria has THOUSANDS of tons of WMDs they could not possibly have produced themselves, that no one admits selling them, and that are exact chemical matches for the weapons Saddam Hussein used against the Kurds. They are the same Iraqi WMDs transported into Syria in 2003.
I think that takes it far enough to show just how baseless your question is and how you need to concentrate on learning to do proper research first.
I look forward to seeing a question from you based on fact.
