The Dangerous Lie That ‘Bush Lied’

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Feb. 8, 2015 | Laurence H. Silberman

[stylin19a]

Our WMD commission ultimately determined that the intelligence community was “dead wrong” about Saddam’s weapons.

doesn't recent revelations now make the WMD Commission "dead wrong" about the Intelligence community being dead wrong?

[faithhopecharity]

just my thoughts,
there are three groups of people that objected to the war...

1. lifelong commmitted pacifists (very few in number, but they exist and they are sincere)

2. enemy agents and their useful idiots (we are getting more and more of the first with Obama importing millions of Islamonazi/Moslems........and it sure seems we have a lot of the useful idiot types too...for $20 you can get people to demonstrate against almost anything these days)

3. people who just got tired of reading about the war year after years. One thing President Bush did NOT do well was to keep the American public informed as to why we were still in Iraq, what we were achieving, etc. Those of us that understood the importance of the war effort were left with precious little current information or explanation we could use in discussing, defending it

anyway, thank you very much indeed for your service.... we are sorry Obama has given Iraq away to his IslamoNazi comrades. It was a place worth trying to save....

[presidio9]

You can see why I was reluctant to post this article here. Threads like this one quickly devolved into Bush-bashing from the libertarians who have infected this formerly conservative website.

The significant takeaway from this article is the comment about (Saddam) Hussien's supposed plans to re-invade. If this is true, we were eventually going to war again in Iraq, WMDs or not.

[tlozo]

NYT article “In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=1

[MrB]

The only “Bush bashing” on my part has nothing to do with going to war,

it has to do with NOT “going to war” and fighting back against the left.

[Sirius Lee]

The claim was that Saddam had WMD. Then we went in, and found WMD. But Bush kept it real quiet. So the press kept saying that Bush lied about it, and there were no WMD. And Bush kept his mouth shut all during his presidency, and afterwards. I have a hard time really understanding why that was done.

I don't understand it either. The dopes and Snopes still insist there were no WMDs, except for the gas of course, but that doesn't count according to them, and the yellow cake doesn't count either, because it was somehow "old" or it was intended for "other use".

[MileHi]

ALWAYS.. he speaks of america as a DEMOCRACY...

For me that has become a dog whistle for "I don't understand the Constitution".

[Qwackertoo]

I read the Rove suggested that was the best thing to do, keep it quiet, don’t argue the facts, don’t sink to their level.

Thanks a lot Rove. ARgh.

I never understood why he never ever fought back against the media and the left.

[TigersEye]

• Wikileaks documents show WMDs found in Iraq
• Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
• WMDs Found in Iraq Human Events
• Saddam talked of WMD attack in U.S.
• Saddam's WMD have been found
• Saddam's WMD Moved to Syria, An Israeli Says
• Saddam general: WMDs in Syria
• Deadly chemicals are found dumped in river
• Evidence of WMDs in Iraq - Annonymous Freeper in Iraq
• Cyanide Salt Block Found in Iraq
• MSNBC - Cyanide & Mustard Agents Found in Euphrates River
• EUPHRATES 'POISONED'
• Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
• Iraq's biological weapons program.
• Iraq's chemical weapons program.
• The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons NYTs October 14, 2014
• C.I.A. Is Said to Have Bought and Destroyed Iraqi Chemical Weapons NYTs February 15, 2015

[TigersEye]

My reply to a whiner a few years ago...

Let's set the context first. We were in a state of war with Iraq, under a cease fire.

• 1. Iraqi provocation of American planes patrolling the no-fly zone. "More than 42,000 sorties were flown during that time. Iraqi surface-to-air missiles and other anti-aircraft systems targeted ONW aircrews on nearly every flight." (That sounds like 42,000 reasons to me but I'll only count it as one. I doubt you care whether any American or British planes get shot down.)
• 2. Saddam defied 17 UN resolutions that were a result of his losing the war. (again, that should count as 17 reasons but you get a break because you're a liberal who would cry if you had to face reality.)
• 3. Saddam tried to assassinate a former U.S. President.
• 4. Saddam was killing the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq that we had promised protection.
• 5. Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
• 6. Iraq's biological weapons program.
• 7. Iraq's chemical weapons program.
• 8. Saddam's extensive cooperation with terrorists.

I left out the 500,000+ people Saddam had killed because, after all, neither you nor I care about those filthy little brown people. Right? /s

[yoe]

(By Laurence Silberman, Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2015)....normal people don't whine...............

[noinfringers2]

I have strong beliefs that Saddam did intend to be chief high honcho of the Arabic world. As such he was on a path to get rid of Saudi power and influence. The Bushes who were kissing the backside of Saudi royalty could not let such a game changer happen. So the two wars were needed not only as to oil supplies but for preservation of Saudi family power and control. If anyone takes this history as ‘Bush bashing’ so be it.

[presidio9]

Thank you for reinforcing my point.

[9thLife]

Bush went to great lengths to submit the matter to Congress. And to build a multi-national coalition. But the left still squealed.

Meanwhile, obama dances on the constitution while yapping about a pen and a phone, and NOBODY.SAYS.A.WORD. Except to call you a racist if you object.

May God put a speedy stop to it already.

[Sawdring]

Why would you try to defend a man who will not defend himself or any conservative or conservative cause?

[norton]

That and the decades old myth that the Saudis were our friends, responsible for keeping the price of oil “down” and meriting favored status in our dealings.

[presidio9]

Again:

I have no interest in Defending George W. Bush or the war in Iraq here.

I am looking for verification that Saddam Hussein discussed plans to re-invade Kuwait during his FBI interrogation.

For what it's worth, during that same interrogation he stated that he intentionally misled on WMDs because he was more worried about Iran than he was about the US.

[CyberAnt]

It was done because Bush didn’t want the groups we were fighting to know the WMD was still there.

Timmerman spilled the beans early on that the stuff was there, but they still kept it quiet .. partly because the stuff was very old; degraded; unstable, and they didn’t want to mess with it.

I think it was removed .. but I don’t know those details.

[tet68]

from antiwar slogan to journalistic fact.

Neither of which, has any relation to the truth...

[Gideon7]

Saddam was an idiot. He was obstructing the WMD inspectors while trying to hide the fact that he had basically nothing but old gas shells. He deserved what he got for playing poker with the US.

I wish Bush would publish a memoir explaining his thinking and objectives about the second Iraq war. The real objective of the war was not the WMDs, it was regime change. The war itself was only a means to an end: The creation of the first stable democracy in the Middle East outside of Israel. It was a noble experiment, and it was done in a terrible cost in American lives.

But the experiment in democracy ultimately failed, and that failure fell squarely upon the people of Iraq. Sadly, it appears that democracy is simply not sustainable in a culture whose primary organizing structure is the tribe.

All the WMD hoo-hah is missing the point of the war. It was primarily an exercise in democracy building, and it should be remembered as such.

Was it worth it? That is for historians to decide. But the WMD thing was only secondary to Bush’s real goals. Like I said, I wish he’d publish something about it, for history if nothing else.