Posted on 03/19/2008 10:18:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) - Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector, slammed the Iraq war as a "tragedy" and blamed it on leaders ignoring the facts, in a comment piece published Thursday.
Writing in The Guardian on the five-year anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Blix, who clashed with Washington in the run-up to the Iraq war, described the war as "a tragedy -- for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity."
In the sub-headline to the comment piece, Blix, who headed the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, wrote that responsibility for the war "must lie with those who ignored the facts five years ago".
At the time of the Iraq war, Blix accused the US and Britain of exaggerating the threat from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged "weapons of mass destruction" -- traces of which have never been found.
In his comment piece, he said the war was a "setback in the world's efforts to develop legal restraints on the use of armed force between states" and added that in 2003, "Iraq was not a real or imminent threat to anybody."
Blix wrote that had coalition troops not deposed Saddam, "he would, in all likelihood, have become another Kadhafi or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world."
He said that one positive sign to emerge from the conflict was that "it may be that the spectacular failure of ensuring disarmament by force, and of introducing democracy by occupation, will work in favour of a greater use of diplomacy and 'soft power'."
Folks , you’ll see a lot of reverse spin applied by some here, not sure what there motivation or agenda is,, but it is clear, no matter the quantity or mechanism used or timeframe involved, some bad things were brewed and used and likely would be again .. but some will only believe something when they breath and taste it themselves.
I say, be my guest.. and feel fortunate it didn’t pop up on our shores.
I thought we were rid of this guy...geez!
who’s wasting whose time.. lol
You believe everything divulged in times of war? tsk tsk.
my comments about Blix stand.
his efforts were the true waste of time.
fyi
Just out of curiosity, why did we invade Iraq anyway, IYHO?
I hate to ask you to post much more, you don’t appear to be a frequent poster per se.. more so an infrequent critic and poster, not that is a bad thing , mind you.
Well, where did you come from? Yes, I am quite familiar with you both, and the seemingly desperate attempts of jveritas to justify the WMD claim....even now, after the president himself has repeatedly admitted “there weren’t any” My point is this, then I must go to bed: I do not see a difference between the results from Blix, Dulfer or Kay, yet only Blix gets the Keystone Cop treatment. I am not a fan of Blix, nor do I care one bit for the UN, I just have a deep need for fairness.
Dual use, Iraqi general officers calling our own commanders during the drive to Baghdad pleading not to be blamed when the gas got released (which they believed with all their hearts was going to happen), the thousands of binary chem delivery artillery shells found, etc etc...
Yeah, it’s all just the usual stupid American tricks. Everybody knows us Americans are just too dumba@@ to have a clue. The French have always said so.
You’ll never find a shortage of folk who live on their knees sucking from the enemy propaganda spigot. Especially in this day and age where it is so trendy and fashionable a thing to do.
ahhh, fairness.
Yes, Saddam would agree.
Oh wait, he’s dead.
Oh and for what, pray tell?
for using things that didn’t exist.
No, wait, just never found, after the fact.
We want to be fair after all, don’t we?
Righton!.....nite!
G’Nite, kind Sir!
"You're bweaking my bawrs, Hans Brix!"
Blix should have been swinging from a rope as one of Saddam’s enablers 15 minutes after they cut down the ‘Lion of Baghdad’ from his appointment with the gallows.
Please. That image is now in my head for the day!
But traces have been found. Not only that as reported on ABC News in April of 2004, a sarin gas canister was fired at U.S. troops by terrorists. Several of the troops had to be treated for possible contamination. Fortunately the terrorist did not know how to fire it correctly since the shell was a fuel-air mixture type. Where could the shell have come from? Sweden?
Saddam was already an accomplished oppressor and was actively involved in paying off terrorist attacks on Israel.
and Saddam fired on US Pilots for 8 years while Mr. Clinton did nothing to protect them.
(A WSJ article)
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