Why No WMDs? Saddam Was Playing a Shell Game-Saddam was clever, too clever in fact for his own good.

Wall St Journal ^ | 2-3-04 | GEORGE MELLOAN

[SJackson]

A key question raised in the big political brouhaha over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: Why didn't Saddam just come clean? Had he opened up fully to U.N. inspections and proved he had no WMDs, he would still be in power rather than behind bars facing the gallows.

[Huck]

Spin.

[sarasota]

Amusing. As each new chapter is "revealed" (this time, David Kay), a conspiracy update is engineered.

[Publius6961]

A man walks into a bank with a vest full of red sticks who claims to be wired with dynamite unless all the money is handed over. A police sniper shoots and kills him before an explosion occurs. How many times has this, or something similar happened?

The rational answer, after it is discovered that the dynamite was "dummies", is too bad for him.
No rational person will give it a second thought. Anyone who seeks a more complex rationale for the results is a drooling moron.

Sadam told the world, or hinted strongly for years that he had weapons of mass destruction. Remember the "Mother of All Battles"? Whether the WMDs are found today or ever is irrelevant.

[17th Miss Regt]

There you go again, applying logic! When will you ever learn?

[optimistically_conservative]

I'm wondering.

Has anyone asked Kay: "If you are convinced there are no WMD to be found in Iraq, why should we send your replacement or keep spending money on the ISG?"

Seems to me we're talking about some pretty expensive loose ends to tie up if we already know the answer.

[tbpiper]

A man walks into a bank with a vest full of red sticks....

'Zackly to the point. My working analogy involved a known felon pulling a fake gun on a cop. Same end resuslts. Same justifiable homicide.

[kitkat]

BUMP

[plain talk]

Excellent point. Saddam should have been taken out in 1991 and this was just catch-up. Someone robs a bank, is given probation and then breaks probation terms 17 times, what happens to him?

[prairiebreeze]

What in fact did happen is that Saddam turned oil-for-peace into a money-making and influence-buying scheme. Claudia Rosett revealed in the Journal in late 2002 that it had became a giant scam in which the U.N. had developed a vested interest because of the huge commission it was earning on the multibillion-dollar sales of Iraqi oil. Saddam feathered his own nest by demanding kickbacks (politely called "surcharges") on the oil. No wonder Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the coalition forces in Iraq, renamed the program "oil-for-palaces."

Precisely what Candidate Kerry proposes as his new foreign policy for America platform. But then we are reading today that Senatory Kerry is no stranger to foreign campaign influences either.

PING

Prairie

[PogySailor]

Good analogy.

[azhenfud]

"A man walks into a bank with a vest full of red sticks who claims to be wired with dynamite unless all the money is handed over. A police sniper shoots and kills him before an explosion occurs. How many times has this, or something similar happened?"

If twelve snipers already had trained their sights on your back, a lone police sniper would make no difference. The guy with the bomb wired around his neck is a reminded example. Saddam would never admit he had no way to control Iraq if there was a slight chance he'd ever return to power. Not in Fanatic Islam's world would he even dare do that since he and his regime was sorely detested by Al Queida and fanatic Islamics.

[happygrl]

Saddam's own generals were fooled into believing that the units on either side of them had WMDs.

!!!!!!

[azhenfud]

This is how one of my friends said he views the lack of finding WMD's in Iraq:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1070558/posts?page=10#10

[ArGee]

Sadam told the world, or hinted strongly for years that he had weapons of mass destruction.

He showed them to a whole bunch of Kurds and Sunni Muslims too, as I recall.

From the business end.

Shalom.

[Mo1]

Here is that article written by Claudia Rosett

Kofi Annandersen
Enron-style accounting at the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

[over3Owithabrain]

Sorry, but if your friend finds killing fields necessary, I prefer the Western "overreaction".

[Defiant]

I'd bet my house that Saddam had lots of WMD. He sent it to Syria, or Iran, and the Russkies helped him get rid of it, too. People are so naive sometimes.