And once again, one of the Pauls shows that they are incapable of critical thinking, or being relevant and honest.
Unfortunately Libertarians and those so influenced cannot seem to think clearly about current crisis being really really angry over the course of American foreign policy since 1917. This is not a joke. I have talked at length to several of them and they constantly get worked into a lather over Wilson and US entry into WW1 or Franklin Roosevelt and his duplicity and mendacity involving the US and Japan before 1941 . These are areas that do merit critical thought but they are not germane to immediate events. As one friend who is a retired Army officer said to me “Iraq and what happens there may be unimportant to the US but it is consequential because others are watching to see how we handle the potential collapse of what is seen as a US proxy state.”
Libertarians can't seem to grasp this relational context in foreign affairs being more interested in angry rumination about events that are now of historical interest.
Finally, the Saddam regime did have substantial chemical agent stockpiles and a vigorous nuclear and biological research program. Tariq Aziz convinced the boss around 1997 that Iraq was stuck with a deteriorating stock of chemicals that could not be employed due to the UN control regime and the nuclear and biological programs were dead ends because no significant material purchases could be made because of the control regime. The answer to Iraq's problem was to destroy the aging and deteriorating material base of the special weapons program and plow funds into upgrading and expanding the basic technical training base in Iraqi universities in such areas as physics and chemistry while sending promising students abroad for advanced training in places like Germany and Austria and Russia. The weapons program staffs would be made a shadow establishment and publications and intel data on their areas of expertise would be acquired abroad and sent to Iraq by diplomatic pouch. Iraq would continue and deepen relations with those who could provide future help such as Pakistan and North Korea. When the material was destroyed the UN would be invited in to inspect to their heart's content since nothing would be left to find. Iraq would train its technicians and wait for the UN inspectors to go away and then take up the tasks again of creating a real nuclear, chemical, and bio-weaponized Iraq to pursue its destiny as the dominator of the Middle East.
Saddam agreed and the material was destroyed almost entirely. Saddam, however, for reasons of Arab face saving would never admit to ever having anything along the lines of a special weapons program and stupidly obstructed the UN inspection program to show he was ‘In Control’ for domestic consumption. In this way the logic of what Aziz set about was frustrated.
This narrative was figured out by the US special weapons search program after 2003. Why it was never publicly stated remains one of the mysteries of the George Bush/Cheyney regime.