Mission Accomplished!!

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by purplefrog

Imo, the reasoning behind WMDs was solid. It's still true today that there has been no accounting of the chemical and biological weapons that we know Saddam had at one time. The problem is that President Bush (along with the U.N.) decided to press Iraq by getting the inspectors back into the country. If you take that course of action then you are obligated to take direction from that source. Instead, the administration ignored the reports from inspectors that no WMDs could be found and invaded anyway. This was the biggest mistake in the whole enchilada. Imo, you either invade because it is necessary (stated reasons go way beyond WMDs) OR you send in the inspectors and take direction from them. Sending them in and then ignoring their work was an error in judgement that they could have avoided. The data appeared to change, but the course of action remained the same.

two points on this...

1. I think the trumpeting of DUBYA EMM DEES was a bit of propaganda genius on the part of Bush and Abu-Cheney of the desert. It completely framed any discussion about Iraq in such a way as to invariably elicit a response of, "EEK! Weapons of Mass Destruction!!!! How very scary!"

A few jars of some WWI vintage mustard gas??? "EEEK!!! Weapons of Mass Destruction!!!"

Never mind that 99% of the so-called evidence were neither weapons nor were they capable of mass destruction -- certainly the dreaded chemical and biological arsenal of S. Hussein and Company were no more capable of causing mass destruction than a few (hundred) JDAM missiles, and the collateral damage caused by such things is no less indiscriminate than the killing effected by economic embargoes.

2. The funny thing is....and this has been understood all along but kind of shushed under the desk as if it's irrelevant....

...in the very same judgments which the CIA and the rest of the "intelligence community" said that, in their judgment, Hussein et al were likely still pursuing some sort of chemical and biological weapons program, they also said that the only way in hell Hussein would use them against the US was if we launched some full frontal assault with the intent of ousting him from power...

While "everybody knew" Hussein had CBW's, or at least some form of chemical precursors, everybody also knew that Hussein's primary two concerns were Iran and a Iraqi Shiite uprising, and he was only interested in getting the US off his back, not agitating the US.