Good piece.
Some things have got flushed down the memory hole:
During the invasion the embeds reported a chemical plant discovered; the plant manager was an Iraqi general, the plant was surrounded by guard towers, and it wasn’t on the inspector’s list, its existence wasn’t public.
The product was “nerve agent”.
A few days later, it was reported that no, it wasn’t nerve agent at all, it was agricultural pesticide.
Then they found barrels of nerve agent at military ammo dumps, and then again a couple of days later they report that, no, it was agricultural pesticide. This happened about three times, on one occasion the reporters themselves got sick.
Now, here is the catch. If you spread it on Iranians, it is nerve agent. If you dilute it and spread it on fields, its agricultural pesticide. The Iraqi troops used to call their nerve agent “bug killer” and yes, thats exactly what it was.
But it was illegal, and right in front of me they re-defined it out of existence. I can’t help but remember this whenever they repeat the mantra that no WMD were ever found. They were found; they were re-defined and they vanished.
Next issue:
Saddam’s support for Bin Ladin. There are many many connections between Saddam and Bin Ladin; but we have agreed to re-define them out of existence and so, presto, suddenly there are none.
But Al Qaeda was born when Bin Ladin and Islamic Jihad joined forces. He surrounded himself with Islamic Jihad, and his number two was the head of Islamic Jihad. And here’s the catch; Islamic Jihad was on Saddam’s payroll. Which means, in essence, Bin Ladin was recruited by Saddam’s men right from day one if you want to think about it. Or you can “not” think about it, and repeat along with the others that there is no connection between Saddam and Bin Ladin. Why not.
Sometimes I hate having a long memory.
“They (WMD’s) were found; they were re-defined and they vanished.”
I have to admit until I started reading this board I thought no WMD’s were found. Bush never even claims that they were found. What’s up with that? You’d think he’d want to defend his own policies.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016745.php
(just ONE of my many favorite media reports thrown down their black hole, on Saddam and OBL)
Don’t forget Ansar al Islaam, an al Qaeda offshoot that fled from Afghanistan to set up shop in the hills of northeast Iraq after the US Afghanistan incursion in 2001. US Special Forces fought a little-publicized pitched battle against this group in April 2003, taking down their installation and routing them. This belies the MSM view that there “was no al Qaeda in Iraq before the US incursion”. That is an outright lie that too many people in the USA believe out fo Bush Hatred.
Time for another “Mom, Apple Pie, and the Ghost of Quagmires Past”?
How about all the airplanes they found buried under cloth protection and under large sand dunes in the desert???