I didn't want to go too long without commenting on this story, but watching it continue to develop, I couldn't wait any longer."'...there's WMD there, we gotta take them out, they've used it in the past, they're going to use it again'... Saddam says 'I've gotten rid of it all'... and everyone around the world... all the intelligence says, 'Bull'... guess what? They found it!"So, right from the start, the lies have begun. The WMDs that Santorum speaks of are NOT the weapons that the Administration was concerned about prior to the start of the war. In fact, the day BEFORE this interview, the Department of Defense came out and stated this. During weapons inspections that the ISG were conducting, it was widely reported that these isolated degraded caches were being found, and were found to be about as lethal as anything you might have under your kitchen sink.
"I can't believe that the Administration isn't shouting it from the rooftops...."Hmmm... ever stop to think why that may be, E.D.?
"We understand, Senator, that a lot of them were old things.. probably before '91, but they're still potent, and they're still weapons of mass destruction...."Yes, and there are land mines that remain buried to this day in over 80 countries around the world, but that hasn't led the United States to attack these countries... it hasn't even led the United States to ratify the antipersonnel mine ban treaty.
"I remind people that we have reports from when Saddam bombed the Kurds with chemical weapons, three of these sarin-filled munitions killed 5,000 people...."Yes, Rick. We have all stipulated the point that Saddam was a bad man, that he killed people in horrible ways, and that these chemical weapons that he had AT THAT TIME were dangerous. What is NOT mentioned here is that those weapons were used when they were still at their full potency.
"The big concern we had... is that Saddam had these weapons, he said he didn't. He lied obviously. Not Bush, but Saddam lied that he didn't have these munitions...."Sorry, Rick. Wrong answer. Bush DID lie. More than Saddam did, at least in this given instance. What is being found are isolated deposits of degraded weapons left over from a previous war that went unaccounted for. These are weapons that were buried by troops during the war prior to 1991, and that were not accounted for as "being destroyed" any more than another military power would account for unused land mines buried during a military conflict.
"While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered."This report in 2004, coincidentally, was what convinced Bush himself that Saddam did not have the weapons that initiated our war with Iraq. Read it in Bush's own words.
"This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991.... (these weapons) are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."Or perhaps you'd prefer to hear it from the words of David Kay, former UN Chief Weapons Inspector and Former Iraq Survey Group Chief, appointed by none other than George Bush himself. He clearly stated that Santourm presented information that was:
"...wrong as to the facts and exaggerated beyond all reason as to the interpretation of the "facts'. There is no surprise that very small numbers of chemical canisters from the Iran-Iraq war have been found. The ISG found them and in my testimony in 2004 I said that I expected that we would continue to find them for a long time. These are in very small numbers and are scattered. The nerve agents have long since degraded to the point that they no longer pose any substantial threat."No doubt that by this point, most rational people would end the discussion. After all, is it the contention of the Republican Right Wing that the White House wouldn't declassify information about WMDs the MOMENT that they were found after all of these years of criticism it has received for lying about the reasons we went to war in the first place?
Posted by FleshPresser at 2:58 PM /
jay lassiter posted at 3:50 PM
FleshPresser posted at 7:35 PM
