Posted on 02/14/2016 12:44:24 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Bush could have tightened the sanctions without comitting America to war and without further destabilizing the Middle East.
Sanctions have varying degrees to them and they can be quite effective.
Banking sanctions mean not a unit of currency can be moved, so there’s no place to leave a deposit, no place to transfer funds to and from. It results in using land routes for currency or gold and gold is easy to freeze because it requires security.
And then Bush could have given Sadam an ultimatum that if he did not comply with the UN resolutions, that his palaces were going to be leveled, that he would be subject to guided missile assaults.
So much was available to Bush to use but he wanted to execute Sadam. In my opinion, he wanted to execute Sadam in revenge for the assassination attempt on his father in upstate NY after he had left office.
America elected Obama, not once, but twice, so I could care less what most “Amerians” think.
Yeah, thanks, in large part, to one particular decision made by George Bush. Trump was 100% correct in his assessment.
You haven’t answered my question. What was the motivation for Bush to spend a year discussing and two votes approving the war in Iraq?
Right on. That worked really well with Romney and McCain. And Bob Dole. And Gerald Ford. And, in fact, with George the First. Our last BIG WIN was with a Hard Right GOP Candidate.
You are welcome, both of you.
For Jebster I think that’s more than an appearance.
Money and Oil. Duh.
Thanks. It’s not just yourself, but most others here that understand the that running a candidate that DOES NOT APPEAL to anyone outside of the hard right has NO PRAYER of winning.
...and, thankfully, these people understand that Trump is our ONLY HOPE.
In 2003 GW Bush sent 1400 WMD hunters to Iraq. The report of the Iraq Survey Group findings is called the Duelfer Report
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-DUELFERREPORT/content-detail.html
The only thing resembling WMDs that they could find were degraded chemical artillery shells left over from Gulf War I.
Dubya himself concedes that no WMDs were found
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M-ClS5uwNo
LOL
Just think, if Trump had not damaged himself in the debate he might be over 50% in the South Carolina polls.
As it is he’s only at 42% and Cruz is at 20% as of Feb 14th latest poll. *SNORT*
Wasn’t this poll taken before the debate?
Bookmark
Nothing the conservatives on this site don't already know, but it's nice of Trump to remind us all about his liberalism, once again, from his very own mouth.
Thank you for the comment. I truly worry for this country, my kids and grandkids. I’ve been reading the comments on stories about the debate last night and those that are for Trump(not all) are acting as poorly as he did.
With Scalia’s death w need to stay focused on what is hanging in the balance. Not sure that Trump is a wise choice, but I do agree the GOPe is not the answer.
On 30 September 2004, the ISG released the Duelfer Report, its final report on Iraq’s purported WMD programs. Among its conclusions were:
Saddam Hussein controlled all of the regime’s strategic decision making.
Hussein’s primary goal from 1991 to 2003 was to have UN sanctions lifted, while maintaining the security of the regime.
The introduction of the Oil-for-food program (OFF) in late 1996 was a key turning point for the regime.
By 2000-2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of the effects of sanctions and undermine their international support.
Iran was Iraq’s pre-eminent motivator.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) judged that events in the 1980s and early 1990s shaped Saddam’s belief in the value of WMD.
Saddam ended his nuclear program in 1991. ISG found no evidence of concerted efforts to restart the program, and Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after 1991.
Iraq destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile in 1991, and only a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions were discovered by the ISG.
Saddam’s regime abandoned its biological weapons program and its ambition to obtain advanced biological weapons in 1995. While it could have re-established an elementary BW program within weeks, ISG discovered no indications it was pursuing such a course.
Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability, which was essentially destroyed in 1991, after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized. Saddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability—in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks—but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities.
Saddam deceived his own army and the best intelligence agencies in the world into believing he still had WMDs because he believed none of his enemies would dare attack him if he had WMDs.
Saddam believed the U.S. and the coalition that threatened to go to war against him if the U.N. resolutions were not met was bluffing.
In March 2005 Duelfer added addenda to the original report, covering five topics:
Prewar Movement of WMD Material Out of Iraq, stating “ISG judged that it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place” but also acknowledging that there was evidence “about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved,” and that this evidence was “sufficiently credible to merit further investigation.” IAG noted that, due to security concerns, it “was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war.”
Residual Pre-1991 CBW Stocks in Iraq, concluding “any remaining chemical munitions in Iraq do not pose a militarily significant threat ... ISG has not found evidence to indicate that Iraq did not destroy its BW weapons or bulk agents”.
Residual Proliferation Risks: People, concluding “former WMD program participants are most likely to seek employment in the benign civil sector, either in Iraq or elsewhere ... However, because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern”.
Residual Proliferation Risk: Equipment and Materials, concluding “Iraq’s remaining chemical and biological physical infrastructure does not pose a proliferation concern”.
Iraqi Detainees, concluding “the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible. ... there is no further purpose in holding many of these detainees”.
In media interviews before the addenda were published, officials went further on the important question of the possible smuggling of WMD to Syria, saying they had not seen any information indicating that WMD or significant amounts of components and equipment were transferred from Iraq to neighboring Syria or elsewhere. Other details surfaced after the Duelfer Report, which helped fill in the blanks left by the ISG investigation. Duelfer also concluded that Saddam planned to resume production of weapons of mass destruction once the United Nations lifted economic sanctions.
LOL
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